“Zehn Mädchen und kein Mann”: Early Franz von Suppé In Hannover
The girls are at it, again. Yes, the students of the Hannover Hochschule für Musik, Theater und Medien are tackling
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Charell & Bendow: Honored As Great Personalitites In Berlin’s History
Yes, it fills us with joy – and a little bit of pride too – that the brochure entitled Persönlichkeiten
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Josh Groban Sets An Example With “Stages”
Here it is: a album of Josh Groban singing musical comedy. The American pop tenor has squeezed 15 famous (and
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Something Rotten! New Shakespeare-Spectacle On Broadway
This very clever new musical is a rib-tickling winner across the board, a hilarious riff on Shakespeare and his times.
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Puzzlingly Updated: Herbert’s “The Only Girl” Revived In New York
Light Opera of New York (LOONY) seems to go from strength to strength with each new season, and their latest
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Forget Dames At Sea: Here Come Twelve Gay Sailors
My first reaction was: ‘Not another fairy tale musical!’ But after Monday night’s concert at The Ballery in Berlin, where
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“Moscow, Cheryomushki”: Remembering Russian Operetta
It’s a grand day in Moscow today, filled with military parades. Perhaps it’s the appropriate time to remember one of
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“Doctor Zhivago”: Laughably Derivative?
Not only does this overblown musical of Boris Pasternak’s classic novel not measure up to the sweep and majesty of
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“Trip To Africa”: Reconstructing A Forgotten Classic
Within the next couple of years A Trip To Africa (Die Afrikareise), widely considered to be Franz von Suppe’s best
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“In der Bar zum Krokodil”: Schlager-Music Exhibition
The exhibition is not exactly new, but it seems to be so successful that it is being passed around: In
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“Shall We Dance?” Kelli O’Hara As Anna Leonowens
This opulent revival of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s enduring 1951 classic certainly has much to commend it. For starters, theatergoers have
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The Hungarian Connection: Reclaiming The Repertoire
Vienna and Budapest: those are two important fixtures in the operetta universe. And two highly profitable marketing terms. There are
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“L’Île de Tulipatan”: Playing With Notions Of Gender And The Idea Of Same-Sex-Marriage
Even after the success of his full-length opéras-bouffes and the disappearance of the constrictions which had limited him in earlier
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Kander & Ebb: “The Visit” Starring Chita Rivera
Broadway at last! The John Kander and Fred Ebb musical, originally conceived as a vehicle for Angela Lansbury, who withdrew
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Glamour For Goebbels. Or: The First Sperm Donor Operetta In History
If you check the International Movie Data Base, you’ll find that the Nazi film operetta Liebespremiere (1943) is an adaptation
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A Day Of Liberation? The 8th of May 1945 In Operetta History
The 8th of May, 1945 was a sunny Tuesday in the Third Reich. It was the day General Hans-Georg von
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The Master Imposter Returns: “Cagliostro in Wien” In Dresden
Cagliostro in Wien … Doesn’t ring a bell? It’s the 1875 operetta Johann Strauss Jr. wrote together with Richard Genée
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“An American In Paris”: Gershwin At The Palace Theatre
No need to mince words here, this is one of the very best movie-musical-to-stage adaptations, a model, in fact, of
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“Finding Neverland” Attempts To Wrestle Musical Fun From J M Barrie’s Writer’s Block
Producer Harvey Weinstein is determined that his new musical about J M Barrie, the playwright who wrote Peter Pan, will
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Dumbed Down For Modern Sensibilities? “Gigi” Returns To Broadway
With High School Musical star Vanessa Hudgens the unlikely-on-paper lead, and advance word that Colette’s story about a young girl
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“Sluts” Are Great Singers Too: The Return Of Operetta-Diva Julia Migenes
If you live in Germany and are interested in classical music, you probably know the broschure concerti. They have a
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“Wiener Blut”: Eine explosive Gender-Komödie ums Triebleben aller Beteiligten
At the 2015 edition of Tanz-Signale in Vienna, devoted to Johann Strauss and his librettist Victor Léon, Kevin Clarke talked
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Operation Fledermaus
Yes, it is somewhat unusual: a crime novel that is not directly set in the operetta world, but references that
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Remembering Concentration Camp Buchenwald
Today, 70 years ago, the concentration camp Buchenwald was liberated on April 12. From an operetta perspective this particular camp
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Grimm!, or Who’s Afraid of the Big, Dancing Wolf?
Last year, while in Berlin, I went to see the musical produced by the UDK musical-theatre school and its graduating
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“Im Weißen Rössl” Re-Examined: A Conference In St. Wolfgang
Yes, there is more: more White Horse Inn. (Hooray!) The Paris-Lodron Univeristy Salzburg, together with the Leopold-Franzens University Innsbruck, is
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Mission Impossible? Teaching Teenagers To Love Operetta
The motto of the project was “Oper sucht Klasse!“, but it was actually all about getting teenagers to sing operetta:
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“The Gypsy Princess”: Memorial Stamp 1915/2015
The Hungarian postal service, Magyar Posta, is marking the centenary of the première of Csardasfürstin (1915) by issuing a commemorative
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Cowboy Season In New York: “Paint Your Wagon” Back On Broadway
Alan Jay Lerner & Frederick Loewe’s Paint Your Wagon (1951) is seldom produced these days, and Encores’ one-week staged concert
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Willem Mengelberg Conducts Operetta
True, most people will not think of Willem Mengelberg as an operetta conductor. Instead, he became internationally famous for his
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“The Beastly Bombing”: The Very Model Of A Modern Operetta
The Beastly Bombing, or A Terrible Tale of Terrorists Tamed by the Tangles of True Love is an operetta in
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Zany Operetta: “On The 20th Century” Returns To Broadway
A revival of the 1978 musical – based on plays by Ben Hecht, Charles MacArthur and Bruce Millholland – was
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New Season At Ohio Light Opera: What Will Be Re-Discovered In 2015?
The Ohio Light Opera has announced its 2015 season. After all the razzle-dazzle last year and the many rediscovered goodies
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Frida Weber-Flessburg: A Voice Survives Auschwitz
No, Frida Weber-Flessburg (1890-1943) is not one of those fabled operetta divas whose career the Nazis destroyed, but whose memory
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Spielen und Anspielen: Gedanken zu den Operetten-Libretti von Johann Strauss
This is the lecture Prof. Hans-Dieter Roser gave in the Festsaal of the Vienna town hall, as part of the
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“Me And My Little Brother”: A Gender-Bending Operetta By Mihály Eisemann From 1934
Admittedly, you would not necessarily expect a “queer” operetta in Viktor Orban’s Hungary. But that’s exactly what you get in
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