The Glory Of Offenbach: 2 1/2 Historical “Die Banditen” Recordings From Germany
When the world is under quarantine and everything is shut down because of a new virus – you have lots
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Celebrating Franz Lehár’s 150th Birthday With New Books At Böhlau
It’s Franz Lehár’s 150th birthday coming up in April, and various authors and publishing houses are getting ready to celebrate
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Wolfgang Jansen’s New Biography Of Willi Kollo (1904-1988): How Much Nazi History Will He Adress?
It took Berlin based musical theater researcher Wolfgang Jansen a while, and it took the various legal departments even more
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Who Was The Great Opéra-Bouffe Tenor “Potel” – Also Known As “Le Bel Armand”?
The folk who created the musical works of Meilhac, Halévy, Crémieux, Hervé and their colleagues, and of the parallel composers,
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Victor Herbert’s Tune-Free Opera “Madeleine” (1914) Revived
Alyce Mott’s enterprising company Victor Herbert Renaissance Project Live! dedicated to all things Victor Herbert risked alienating the operetta regulars
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“Ich wollt’ ich wär’ ein Huhn “: Tackling Toxic Nazi Era Material At Komische Oper Berlin
It’s a daring and adventurous undertaking: while everyone else is busy with “The (New) Twenties” these days, Komische Oper Berlin
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Offenbach’s “Häuptling Abendwind” Or: Queer Operetta For The Price Of A Hawaiian Pizza
Offenbach’s 1857 Vent du soir, ou l’horrible festin is one of his more famous titles in the German speaking theater
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“Gisela, Frisco, Bunbury”: Rediscovering “Heiteres Musiktheater” From The DDR
It’s mind boggling that the entire operetta repertoire created and performed in the former DDR between 1949 and 1990 has
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Dario Salvi: Recording Johann Strauss’ “Blindekuh” (1878) For Naxos In Sofia
“Blindekuh”, literally “blind cow”, is the German term for the “blind man’s buff” game – and it is the title
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Anton Henseler’s “Jacques Offenbach” (1930) In A First-Ever English Translation
The Offenbach bicentenary might be over – but there are still fascinating things coming out to celebrate the composer. One
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Offenbach’s Hispanic Vogue: “Maître Péronilla” & “La Périchole” On Palazzetto Bru Zane
Offenbach and “The Hispanic Vogue”? As it turns out, there are two interesting new recordings out on Palazzetto Bru Zane
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World Premiere Recording Of Johann Strauss’ “Blindekuh” On Naxos
As part of their Johann Strauss “rediscovery series” the label Naxos is releasing the 1878 operetta Blindekuh which premiered at
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Jeanette MacDonald & Nelson Eddy: The Glory of Hollywood Operetta in Jeanine Basinger’s “The Movie Musical”
One of the more joyous things about recent new studies on musicals is the fact that they include operettas, without
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Colonialism & Operetta. Or: What To Do With Leo Fall’s “Die Rose von Stambul”
At the end of March 2020, the Nationaltheater Weimar will host an international conference entitled “Musiktheater und Kolonialismus,” i.e. musical
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Revisiting Kurt Gänzl’s “Guide to Musical Theatre On Record”
“Wonderfully opinionated, outrageously frank, and always sensible” Yes, that was me. I suppose it still is … but in 1991
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THE NEW MOON: A Romantic musical play by Oscar Hammerstein & Sigmund Romberg
The team responsible for that overwhelming hit of 1926, The Desert Song, mined a similar vein for their next collaboration,
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“Babes In Toyland” In Zwickau-Plauen. Or: Performing Victor Herbert In Germany
The small theater in Zwickau-Plauen (Germany) presented Victor Herbert’s much-loved Babes in Toyland as their Christmas spectacle and gave the
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Carita von Horst (1864-1935): The Baroness Who Composed “Gentleman Jack” And Bamboozled Hitler
How many female operetta composers can you name? Here is one who was also a baroness, no less. Her operetta
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De-Nazifying The “Radetzky March” At The 2020 Vienna New Year’s Concert
The New Year’s concert from Vienna, with the Vienna Philharmonic, is a beloved tradition for many. It rarely has anything
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Fritz & Alfred Rotter: A Life Between Theatrical Glamour And Death In Exile
The Rotter brothers, Fritz and Alfred, were the most prominent private theater directors during the Weimar Republic before losing everything
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Composer Jerry Herman Dies At Age 88 In Miami
Some will claim that Hello Dolly, Mame or La Cage aux Folles are among the greatest modern operettas in the
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Paul Abraham’s “Dschainah – Das Mädchen aus dem Tanzhaus” Revived After 84 Years
If expectations are exceptionally high for a Paul Abraham operetta at Komische Oper Berlin that’s because, in the past, the
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“The Cambridge Companion to Operetta”: Taking A New Look At The Genre In English
It was about bloody time, you might say, that someone published a new English language reference book on the history
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“Follies” Set In Socialist East Germany: Sondheim At Staatsoperette Dresden
Stephen Sondheim’s Follies is the Mt. Everest of US-American musical theatre, his most searching and self-reflexive study of the genre
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The 40th Bundeswettbewerb Gesang Berlin – With The Stars Of Tomorrow
Bundeswettbewerb Gesang Berlin celebrated its 40th anniversary this year with a musical/chanson themed contest. The gala concert of the finalists
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Maury Yeston Meets Julian Slade. Or: “Amélie” At London’s The Other Palace
Amélie is a charming, whimsical, musical, based on a 2001 French Film, which was originally (2015) staged in California, and
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New Books Celebrating the 200th Anniversary of Offenbach’s Birth
No one can really claim that there is not an abundance of exciting Offenbach literature that has been published since
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Gershwin’s Political Satire “Let ‘Em Eat Cake” At MasterVoices
Artistic Director Ted Sperling conducted a splendid concert reading of George and Ira Gershwin’s Pulitzer Prize-winning 1933 musical Of Thee
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Victor Herbert’s “The Debutante” (1914) Resurrected In New York
When Victor Herbert’s musical comedy The Debutante premiered in New York in 1914, it had the misfortune to occur the
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Jean Gilbert (1879-1942) As Part Of The New “Cindy & Bert” Show At Tipi Am Kanzleramt
Composer Jean Gilbert (1879-1942) might have been one of the most successful German operetta stars in the pre-WW1 years, he
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“Casta Diva”: The World’s First Gay Opera Guide With Two Operettas And Some Hidden Porn
So here it is, the world’s “first gay opera guide,” or so the publisher claims. It’s a small Berlin based
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Bringing Back Abraham: “Märchen Im Grand Hotel” At Staatstheater Hannover
It’s hard to believe, but this is actually only the second fully staged production of Paul Abraham’s Märchen im Grand
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Francisco Barbieri’s “Barberillo de Lavapies”: The Classic BBC Recording In English
This is totally delightful! Francisco Barbieri (1823-94) was the leading exponent of the zarzuela revival of the mid-19th century. He
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Leo Fall’s “Die Dollarprinzessin” With Ulf Schirmer From Munich
As part of their ongoing Leo Fall series, the label cpo has released a full cast album of Die Dollarprinzessin,
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The Songs Of Reynaldo Hahn On Palazzetto Bru Zane
For many, he’s just another famous representative of the Belle Époque, but there are few people that really know much
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Heymann, Offenbach & Ábrahám: New Albums And Concerts With The Capitol Symphony Orchestra
Here’s something truly special: an album of Werner Richard Heymann’s symphonic music that has not been available acoustically earlier and
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