A Semi-Staged “Camelot” At The Watermill Theatre
In the United Kingdom restrictions on ‘live’ performance, owing to Covid-19, were lifted with regard to outdoor theatre at the
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Revisiting “Daniela Ziegler Sings Ralph Benatzky”
At the beginning of August 2020 Helga Benatzky died at the blessed age of 96: she had been in charge
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How Is Our “Woke-Ass Culture” Dealing With The Supposed Racism Of “Zigeunerbaron”?
There’s an increasingly firece discussion about supposed “racism” in operetta. Recently, a production of Franz Lehár’s Land des Lächelns at
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Cancel Culture Reaches “Land des Lächelns” At Manhattan School Of Music
Here’s the curious case of Dona D. Vaughn and the state of operetta in 2020. As artistic director of opera
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A New “Eine Nacht in Venedig” From Oper Graz On CPO
What grabbed my immediate attention with this new Eine Nacht in Venedig on cpo are the names on the cover:
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A New “Exilmuseum” In Berlin – Will It Include The Entertainment World?
It’s going to happen: Berlin will get an “Exilmuseum,” a museum dedicated to the stories of those who went into
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“The Merry Widow” À La “Mad Men” With Tony Award Winning Conductor Franz Allers & Lisa Della Casa
The aspect that initially drew my attention to this brand new re-release of The Merry Widow in “hi-fidelity stereo” was
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Post-Corona Operetta In Berlin. Or: Here’s Barrie Kosky’s Chancelled “Orpheus In The Underworld”
Has the long waiting finally come to an end, is post-Corona operetta back? After the somewhat problematic “Jewish and Gay”
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“Ghost Lights: Ivor Novello and His Leading Ladies“ – A Conversation With David Slattery-Christy About His New Play
Most operetta fans will know David Slattery-Christy as the biographer of Ivor Novello (1893-1951) and as a tireless champion of
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Offenbach’s “Mesdames de la Halle” At The Glyndebourne Festival
Since opera was first performed at the Glyndebourne country house in West Sussex in 1934, only one operetta has ever
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Oscar Straus’ Piano Concerto & Other Rare Orchestra Pieces
My first ‘live’ encounter with Oscar Straus was attending a wonderfully inspired production of his first operetta Die lustigen Nibelungen
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“Eubie Blake: Rags, Rhythm and Race” By Richard Carlin & Ken Bloom
Eubie Blake: Rags, Rhythm and Race arrives as a most welcome and long overdue biography of pianist and composer Eubie
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Daddy Issues At Ohio Light Opera: How Could “Constructive” Critcism Work With Lehár’s “Cloclo”?
The other day I had a long transatlantic phone conversation with an US-American operetta researcher I greatly admire for his
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Lehár’s “Cloclo” On DVD: A 2018 Live Performance From Ohio Light Opera
A performance of Lehár’s Clo-Clo from the Ohio Light Opera – filmed live at the theater in Wooster – has
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The World-Premiere Recording Of Walter Jurmann’s “Windy City” (1946)
Because of the required commitment of time, money, and dedication, it is a safe bet, with the exception of the
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The New Online “Musicallexikon”: An Interview with Michael Fischer & Wolfgang Jansen
The University of Freiburg is home of the “Center for Popular Culture and Music.” They recently started the first online
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Anchors Away: Franz von Suppé’s “Il Ritorno del Marinaio” On CPO
Anyone taking a close look at the oeuvre list of Franz von Suppé (1819-1895) in search for an opera entitled
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Watch Out For The Red Fingernails: Two New “Zigeunerbaron” Productions In Magdeburg And Berlin
How do you solve a problem like Zigeunerbaron? Some might ask: is there a problem with this 1885 show? Well,
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Focus On DDR Operetta: “Bretter, die die Welt bedeuten” At Musikalische Komödie Leipzig
Various opera houses in German speaking countries have presented new or adapted programs for their fall season, with productions they
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The First American Musical: “The Doctor of Alcantara” (1862)
Today I got asked, for the umpteenth time, ‘what was the first American musical?’ Well, all those three qualifications narrow
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New Online Encyclopedia On Popular Musical Theater In Germany From 1945 Until Today
More than 300 musicals have already been documented, many more will follow: the University of Freiburg’s Center for Popular Culture
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“Ball at the Savoy”: An “Alluring Hotch-Potch” At Drury Lane (1933)
It might be imagined by those who underrate the virility of convention that the good old-fashioned musical comedy would not
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Ábrahám’s “Ball at the Savoy” At Drury Lane In A 1933 Oscar Hammerstein Production
Paul Abraham’s Ball im Savoy opened at Berlin’s Großes Schauspielhaus in December 1932 with a superstar cast – and was
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From Pula to the World: Franz Lehár’s Early Career in Croatia
It’s Franz Lehár’s 150th birthday – and after the first round of publications to celebrate the event (click here for
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Paleophonics: A Journey To The Dawn Of Recorded Sound In Musical Comedy
If you are interested in what original audiences of early 20th century English operetta and musical comedy heard, there is
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Boys Will Be Boys, Or: “Die blaue Mazur” At Bühne Baden
Operetta “live” in Austria? Bühne Baden is one of the few places where you can actually experience the genre on
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The Show Will Go On, Or: A New “Großherzogin von Gerolstein” At Komische Oper
“344 Menschen, that‘s besser wie nix!” That’s what intendant Barrie Kosky said when he presented his brand new schedule for
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Revisiting Ivan Caryll’s “The Shop Girl” As A Palaeophonics Cast Album
The record label Palaeophonics is specialized in historic cast albums attractively packed as old The Play reprints of the respective
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“Cheer Up! British Musical Films 1929-1945” By Adrian Wright
In a preface to Cheer Up! British Musical Films 1929-1945, author Adrian Wright tells us that British Film Studios made
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Remembering Hans May And His “Die tanzende Stadt” Or “The Dancing City” (1934)
In 2018 the score of Hans May’s operetta Die tanzende Stadt (The Dancing City, 1934) came up for sale in
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Lehár’s “Cloclo” (1924) On CD & DVD From The Ischl Festival And Ohio Light Opera
Franz Lehár’s 1924 operetta Cloclo is not one of his more famous titles, and it hasn’t stayed in the repertoire
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The Royal Voice of Betty Fischer On Truesound Transfers
In 1924 Betty Fischer created one of the greatest operetta roles of the 20th century: Gräfin Mariza in Emmerich Kálmán’s
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Remembering Will Marion Cook, Composer Of “In Dahomey” And The Cakewalk
Will Marion Cook was born in Washington, DC, on 27 January, 1869. The son of a well-off and well-educated family,
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“In Dahomey”: One Of The First American Black Musical Hits
In Dahomey was an early American “Negro musical comedy” (in a prologue and 2 acts), one of the first to be
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“Die lustige Witwe”: First CD Release Of The Original 1907 Berlin Cast
It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that this first ever CD release of Die lustige Witwe with the 1906/7
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Hot Mikados and Swingin’ Pinafores: Stewart F. Lane’s “Black Broadway”
It’s not a new topic, but a brand new book nonetheless: Black Broadway by Stewart F. Lane. According to the
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