Berlin Letter: Major Revival Of Forgotten Weimar-Era Operetta Is Proving A Hit
For a city so rich in culture, and drowning in history, it is surprising to experience first-hand Berlin’s long cultural
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Sloppy Production With A Great Tenor: “Eine Nacht in Venedig” At Volksoper Wien
Musically, Vienna Volksoper’s 2013 production of Strauss’ Eine Nacht in Venedig has much to commend it: firstly the spirited conducting
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Rosa von Praunheim’s “Jeder Idiot hat eine Oma, nur ich nicht”: The Revival of Cabaret Operetta?
The format of the cabaret operetta has fallen out of favor, somewhat. 100 years ago, theaters all over the world
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A Trip To The Moon With Geschwister Pfister: Talking About “Frau Luna” and Queer-Feminism In Operetta
The Geschwister Pfister – a German-Swiss-Croatian comedy trio – have written operetta history, many times over. Yes, they were the
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Johann Strauss’ moderne “Journalisten-Operetten”: “Fürstin Ninetta” & “Waldmeister”
Nach der Uraufführung von Fürstin Ninetta am 10. Jänner 1893 schrieb die Tageszeitung Die Presse: „Die Musik der Operette ist
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A 15 Year Old “Fledermaus” At Semperoper Dresden: Is Johann Strauss Beneath Them?
Dresden’s Fledermaus production is 15 years old and the performance I attended was its 90th outing. It is a very
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When “Der Opernball” Meets “Downton Abbey” In Plauen-Zwickau
The small, very attractive, eastern German city of Zwickau boasts an historic theatre that is, at present, being refurbished. As
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The Gay Hussars, Or: Kálmán’s “Ein Herbstmanöver” At Theater Giessen
The unpretentious German city of Giessen has a population of 78,000 and boasts two fine buildings: the railway station and
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George W. Chadwick’s Burlesque Opera “Tabasco” Shakes Up New Orleans
A fortunate series of simultaneous anniversaries—the 300th of the founding of New Orleans, the 75th of the New Orleans Opera,
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Die Operette mit “Herzton” als musikdramatisches Modell der Moderne. Edmund Eyslers “Künstlerblut” (1906)
Back in June 2012, Marion Linhardt from the University of Bayreuth presented a paper on the Eysler operetta Künstlerblut in
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Alberto Spadolini: The Nude Spy & Dancer From “Die lustige Witwe” 1940
We recently ran an article on “Operetta in the Third Reich,” reporting on the new book of the same title
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The Problem With Thielemann’s Dresden New Year’s Concert
Yes, it’s that time of year again when New Year’s concerts are unavoidable. It’s also the time when those in
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“Maske in Blau” In Baden: With Uli Scherbel As A Tap-Dancing Hero
The small spa town of Baden-bei-Wien, 26 kilometers south-west of Vienna and with a population of 26,000, boasts a 500
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“A Greek Slave”: Musical Comedy In 2 Acts With Music By Sidney Jones
Musical comedy in 2 acts by Owen Hall. Lyrics by Harry Greenbank and Adrian Ross. Music by Sidney Jones. Additional
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“Pretty little China girl, velly, velly nice”: How Do You Revive Kerker’s “Belle of New York” Today?
As a conductor and operetta researcher, I have been working, for the last month or so, on restoring the orchestral
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From Persia to Performing German Schlager From the 1920s: Atrin Madani
It’s always a special treat to see new – and interesting – people coming to musical material that some consider
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Csárdás Interruptus: Three Kálmán CDs With Historical Recordings From The USA
Back in 1997, Michael Miller, the chair of the Ohio Light Opera Board of Directors, and president of the Operetta
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Anneliese Rothenberger & Max Hansen In “Orpheus in der Unterwelt” 1958
It’s an unusual coupling, to say the very least: Anneliese Rothenberger and Max Hansen in one recording? The hairspray-star of
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Paul Abráhám’s “Märchen im Grand Hotel” (1934) At The Komische Oper Berlin
Of course there’ve been chamber operettas long before 1933, just think of the glorious small scale pieces written by Mischa
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A Star Is Born: Jonas Dassler In Spoliansky’s “Alles Schwindel” At Gorki Theater
In a way, it’s what every operetta fan secretly dreams of: you go to a performance with new unknown singers,
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Barbara Denscher: Der Operettenlibrettist Victor Léon
Victor Léon (1858-1940) hat im Lauf seiner mehr als fünfzigjährigen Theater-Karriere über hundert Bühnenstücke geschrieben, knapp die Hälfte davon wird
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Richard Heuberger’s “Opernball” From Graz: Stylish And Re-Written By Peter Lund
The Austrian composer Richard Heuberger was born in Graz in 1850, trained as a railway engineer, then moved to Vienna
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The First Charles Kálmán Chanson Prize At Bundeswettbewerb Gesang 2017
At the beginning of December, the winners of this year’s Bundeswettbewerb Gesang presented themselves at the Friedrichstadt Palast in Berlin,
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A Trip to …. America: Genée and Suppé At Concert Operetta Theater In Philadelphia
It’s not very often that off-the-beaten-track Viennese operetta is performed in the USA nowadays, with the possible exception of Ohio
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“Die große Sünderin”: Gorgeous Künneke Melodies, Sumptuously Orchestrated
Kevin Clarke has recently penned a fascinating article concerning the background to the composition of Die große Sünderin, first produced
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Victor Herbert’s “The Red Mill”: Holland Mania Sweeps New York Once Again
The third major Manhattan outing in recent years of Victor Herbert’s once hugely popular Broadway operetta The Red Mill proved
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W. R. Heymann’s “Der Kongress tanzt” from Volksoper Wien
Erik Charell, the director of the original film version of Der Kongress tanzt, labored long and hard to bring his
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My First Queer Operetta: “Die Insel Tulipatan” At Staatsoper Berlin 1982
Since Offenbach’s Island of Tulipatan has popped up again on the general radar, with a brand new English language recording
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Offenbach’s “The Island of Tulipatan” In A World-Premiere English Language Recording
We need to talk about Offenbach, seriously and right now. Is it a sign of our gender-queer times that of
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Kismet Meets Operetta: Nico Dostal’s “Prinzessin Nofretete” From Leipzig
If you like your operettas exotic, grand, over-the-top and as a total blast, you will probably love the overture to
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Victor Herbert’s “The Red Mill” Returns To New York City
The Victor Herbert Renaissance Project LIVE! is launching its fourth season with The Red Mill, Broadway’s longest running success by
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Joseph Rumshinsky’s “The Broken Violin”: Call For Help
In 1916 two of the leading exponents of the Yiddish Theater of New York got together to work on one
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“Die Blume von Hawaii” In Basel: Was It Really That Terrible?
The Theater Basel has presented us with a brand new production of Paul Abraham’s 1931 Die Blume von Hawaii. Recently,
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Gaiety, Glitz & Glamour: Reawakening the “Silver Age” of 20th Century Operetta
Last weekend, the Royal Musical Association devoted one of its study days to what has controversially been described as the
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Künneke’s “Die große Sünderin” In Leipzig: Bringing Back Aryan Operetta Today
You might recall that back in the 1990s a renewed interest in so called ‘degenerate’ operettas spread around the world.
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Richard Genée’s “Der Seekadett”: New Edition By Dario Salvi
New operas are hard to come by these days—at least that is what I have always been told. Finding an
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