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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Offenbach’s “La Princesse de Trébizonde” Returns To The Stage
Jacques Offenbach’s La Princesse de Trébizonde premiered in 1869 in the fashionable spa town of Baden Baden – in their
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Rediscovering Mischa Spoliansky – In Berlin And Weimar
There is Spoliansky in the air, it seems. And it is certainly high time that this unique composer is rediscovered.
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Tanz-Signale 2015: Conference About Gender Topics, Sex Addiction And Victor Léon
There was a whiff of fresh air in the room at the Tanz-Signale 2015. The Wiener Institut für Strauss-Forschung had
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Eyes Wide Open: A New Generation of Operetta Superstars?
“I had a dream” – and, yes, it was “a beautiful dream”; right in the middle of a performance of
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“Suddenly Last Summer”: A Re-Encounter With Marika Oszwald & Zsuzsa Kalocsai
No, it is not a Tennessee Williams play turned into an operetta. Instead, A Summer Long Ago (A régi nyár)
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Discovering The Joys Of The Orient
I have never seen Kismet, the 1953 musical, although like everyone else of a certain age, I know some of
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A New “Kismet” In Loveland, Colorado
Peggy and I caught the last performance of Loveland Opera Theater’s Kismet on March 1. This certainly had to have
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Orgasmic Operettas: The New Season At The Komische Oper Berlin
There is something slightly orgasmic about the news from the Komische Oper Berlin. The house announced the titles for their
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“La Rondine”: Does The Operetta Revolution In Berlin Continue With Puccini?
Are we entering the second phase of the operetta revolution in Berlin? After the Komische Oper re-discovered the genre and
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“Der Kongress Tanzt”: A New Exhibition At The Belvedere In Vienna
You all know that the Congress of Vienna in 1815 is the historical backdrop to quite a few famous operettas
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Simone Riksman: “There Is More To Soubrette Roles Than Nudity And Sex-Appeal!”
Young and smart soprano Simone Riksman made quite a stir in the new production of Kálmán’s Gräfin Mariza in St.
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Cyrano de Bergerac: Victor Herbert Renaissance Project Live!
Director Alyce Mott resurrected her streamlined version of Victor Herbert’s 1899 operetta based on Edmund Rostand’s classic with the same
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Reconstructing Suppé’s “Die Afrikareise” In The UK
It is a grand title, for sure: The Imperial Vienna Orchestra! Yes, wow. It is as “Kakanian” as you can
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Carl Zeller’s “Der Vagabund” Revived For First Time In 100 Years
While the rediscovery of 1920s jazz operettas is in full swing elsewhere, the Austrians are giving us a re-encounter with
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A Great Loss: Charles Kálmán Dies Aged 85
It is with great sadness that we, at the Operetta Research Center, have to report the death of Charles Kálmán.
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“Porn – The Musical.” Or Will It Be An Operetta After All?
The German actor Florian Klein became famous in Hollywood as porn star “Hans Berlin.” After years in the Adult Industry
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Operetta for Generation LGBTQIA: “White Horse Inn” in Bremen
When a production of White Horse Inn starts with a new overture and “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” – segueing into
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The Musikalische Komödie In Leipzig Has A New Principal Stage Director: Cusch Jung
The Musikalische Komödie in Leipzig – one of Germany’s three theaters exclusively devoted to operetta and musical comedy – has
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Can Critics Get Away With Anything? Reading Michael Cerha and “Der Standard”
The Austrian newspaper Der Standard was founded in 1988 and is known, if you believe Wikipedia, as a “left-liberal” and
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INTO THE WOODS Musical in 2 acts by James Lapine & Stephen Sondheim
A piece in the vein of the fairytale burlesques of Victorian times, Into the Woods brought together some familiar nursery
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“The Only Music Worth Listening To Is Operetta”? Re-Visiting Elizabeth Taylor
There is always time for a few little curiosities. Take, for example, the movie Cynthia (1947) starring Elizabeth Taylor –
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“Madame Pompadour” From London’s West End
Thank God for the internet. Especially, if you’re interested in historical operetta recordings. The website Norbeck, Peters & Ford offers
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