Latest Articles
Daniel Pantano: Living With Oscar Straus’ “Die Lustigen Nibelungen” For 14 Years
My journey with Oscar Straus all began when a colleague at a music conservatory where we worked handed me the
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How Big Is The Stretch From “Fosse/Verdon” And “Judy” To A TV-Series About Erik Charell And Fritzi Massary?
As I sit watching the current TV series Fosse/Verdon, starring Sam Rockwell and Michelle Williams as two show business legends,
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Howard Goodall’s “The Hired Man” At Queen’s Theatre: “A Serious Musical About Ordinary People”
In November 2018 I reviewed a concert performance of Howard Goodall’s Girlfriends, recommending his previous musical The Hired Man which
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Benatzky’s “Meine Schwester und ich” At Volksoper Wien
Benatzky’s 1930 hit Meine Schwester und ich in a new Wien Volksoper production is totally delightful and enchantingly charming. More
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“Sweethearts” (1913) Performed By The Victor Herbert Renaissance Project Live!
This admirable young company finished its fifth season with Victor Herbert’s hit, Sweethearts, which opened at the New Amsterdam Theatre
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“Oh… Rosalinda!”: The Movie Version of “Die Fledermaus” With Adolf Wohlbrück On DVD
Finally – and that’s really the only appropriate word for it: finally the updated 1950s movie version of Die Fledermaus,
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A New “Man of La Mancha” at ENO and Volksoper
Not seen in London since its original production at the Piccadilly Theatre in 1968, when it starred Keith Michell as
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Kurt Weill’s “Lady in the Dark” Revived At City Center in New York
Gertrude Lawrence’s 1941 megahit, Lady in the Dark, groundbreaking in its day for its then novel use of psychoanalysis in
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Fritzi Massary Sings “Csardasfürstin” & “Faschingsfee” In 1916/18
There’s a wonderful interview with Elisabeth Schwarzkopf in which she talks about her student days in Berlin. She mentions that
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Franz von Suppé – das verdrängte Genie: Zum 200. Geburtstag des Komponisten
Franz von Suppé – das sind ein paar wenige Ouverturen, die man heute noch spielt, seltener in Konzerten, wo leider
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Thank You For The Music! Duophon Records Founder Alfred Wagner Has Died
It’s with great sadness that we heard about the death of Alfred Wagner this morning. He was the man behind
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“Kismet” And Racist Stereotypes: The 1953 Wright/Forrest Show In Neustrelitz
Is the ‘Musical Arabian Night’ in two acts by George Forrest and Robert Wright an operetta, with recycled music from
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The 2019 Season At The Lehár Festival In Bad Ischl: “Im weißen Rössl” & More
The Ischl Lehár Festival has announced what you may expect in 2019 – with the new artistic director Thomas Enzinger.
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Kálmán’s “Faschingsfee” Live From Gärtnerplatz Theater Munich
Kálmán’s Faschingsfee started her phenomenal career abroad, to be exact: in Budapest and New York City. First the show premiered
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Ass-Dur At Bar jeder Vernunft. Or: “Les deux aveugles” Reloaded
In his new book Der Klang von Paris – “The Sound(s) of Paris” – Volker Hagedorn embarkes on “a trip
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Jaromir Weinberger’s “Frühlingsstürme” And Paul Ábrahám’s “Dschainah” At Komische Oper Berlin 2019/20
“We’re not an operetta palace!“ Says Komische Oper intendant Barrie Kosky at the press conference where he announced the new
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“Grüezi” In Burgäschi & Zurich. Or: The Swiss Answer To “Im weißen Rössl”
Just when you think there cannot, possibly, be any more Im weißen Rössl stuff coming your way – there is!
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Jacques Offenbach’s “Folies symphoniques”: Howard Griffiths & Brandenburgisches Staatsorchester Frankfurt
You’ll forgive me for saying this, but provincial Brandenburg and the city of Frankfurt an der Oder (next to the
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“Une danseuse à l’Opéra”: Kurt Gänzl Examines The Phenomenon of Man And Mistress In The Second Empire
‘Une danseuse à l’Opéra’ – it was a phrase which, under the brilliance of the French Second Empire, had a
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Nils Grosch & Carolin Stahrenberg: “Im weißen Rössl. Kulturgeschichtliche Perspektiven”
Over the past twenty years, German-speaking operetta has been enjoying a revival, especially Berlin operettas of the Weimar Republic by
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Christian Walther: “Robert Gilbert. Eine zeitgeschichtliche Biografie”
The lyricists behind our classic pop songs are generally unknown or forgotten. Robert Gilbert (pseuydonym of Robert Winterfeld, 1899–1978) wrote
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“Jimmy Berg – Von der Ringstraße zur 72nd Street”: Chansons From Vienna And New York Exile
Authentic cabaret texts are hard to come by. This material was written for the day, not for posterity, and was
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“Orpheus in der Unterwelt” 1860: Johann Nestroy im Carl-Theater Wien
Sie haben wirklich alle Macht und allen Einfluß verloren, die hohen olympischen Herrschaften, die da saßen „auf goldenen Stühlen“, und
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“Nothing More Than This?”: Bernstein’s “Candide” as Existential Vaudeville in Barrie Kosky’s Berlin Production
Imagine a world that persistently rewards the rich and powerful while immiserating the masses. Imagine an international paternalist cartel that
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Rediscovered: The Viennese Nestroy/Binder Version of “Orpheus in der Unterwelt” (1860)
The double jubilee of Jacques Offenbach’s and Franz von Suppé’s 200th birthdays in 2019 has prompted the Wienbibliothek in Rathaus
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Emmerich Kálmán’s “Ein Herbstmanöver” From Gießen With Michael Hofstetter
“The Gay Hussars”? I admit, the title of the 1909 Broadway version of Emmerich Kalman’s first operetta hit Tatájárás caught
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Joseph Beer’s “Polnische Hochzeit” at Oper Graz: Simply Superb!
Austrian-Jewish composer Joseph Beer’s operetta Polnische Hochzeit (‘Polish Wedding’) received its premiere in Zurich in 1937: it was quickly translated
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Pasquale Aleardi & The Power Of Anti-Depressant Music
“Shake your banana!” At the table in front of me, six women screamed this internally even when Pasquale Aleardi was
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Lehár’s “Juxheirat” Or: “The Mock Marriage” In Santa Barbara
First, I learned that Michael and Nan Miller had bequeathed their extraordinary Operetta Archive to the University of California at
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New York Gilbert & Sullivan Players: “Ages Ago” & “Mr. Jericho”
New York Gilbert & Sullivan Players’s inspired pairing of two Victorian one-act comic operas – Ages Ago and Mr. Jericho
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Victor Herbert Renaissance Project Live: “Falling in Love For 160 Years”
VHRP Live’s love-themed concert may have been the company’s best yet, not forgetting such earlier gems as Son of Dublin
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“Die Prinzessin von Trapezunt” in Hildesheim: Ist das Operette 4.0?
So viel vorweg: Dass in Hildesheim Offenbachs einstiger Sensationserfolg Die Prinzessin von Trapezunt (1869) nach Jahrzehnten des Vergessens wieder auf
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“Zur Geburt der Wiener Operette: Musikalische und historische Wurzeln. Heute – Reminiszenz oder Aktualität?”
For 2019, the Wiener Institut für Strauss-Forschung (WISF) is offering a three-day operetta ‘special‘ that‘s entitled Zur Geburt der Wiener
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Berlin’s Entertainment Industry In The 1920s As Seen By Willy Römer & On Sheet Music Covers
Tea might be the only simple pleasure left to us, as Oscar Wilde once remarked. But you need to be
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Google Search: “What is Operetta?” And “Is The Phantom of the Opera an Operetta?”
The Operetta Research Centre was, this week, undergoing technical maintenance, in the course of which supremo Kevin Clarke came up
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‘Babylon Berlin’: A Philharmonic Discourse with Florian Illies, Manfred Görtemaker And Tilman Krause
Ah yes, the Weimar Republic. Again? While the Museum für Fotografie in Berlin is currently showing a marvelous exhibition on
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