Particularly at the end of the 19th century, the constantly rising Slovenian national consciousness saw a great opportunity in theatre and opera, which became the centre of a national movement with which the young bourgeoisie identified. Gorenjski slavček (The Nightingale of Upper Carniola), an operetta by Anton Foerster, one of the leading Czech composers in Slovenia, was staged for the first time in Ljubljana in 1872 by the Dramatic Society and, after being adapted for the operatic stage in 1896, soon became the most popular and most frequently performed Slovenian stage-music composition. This warm reception led the Slovenian bourgeoisie of that time to believe that Gorenjski slavček could become the first Slovenian national opera. Considering the overall image of Foerster's Gorenjski slavček in music history and the social and political issues of the time when it was written, the composition seems more like a warm and rather undemanding expression of intimacy than a national opera in the true sense of the word. For adequate aesthetic consideration, it is therefore necessary to understand the opera primarily as a document of its time and the circumstances of its origin, in all its simplicity and naivety. Although from today's perspective the opera does not attain an above-average standard and so could not be successful on foreign opera stages, it is still interesting because of the specific role it played as a national agitator in the period discussed.