“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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Revisiting 1932 with Oscar Straus’ “Eine Frau, die weiß was sie will”
I can’t help it. I’m an addict. I’m hopelessly addicted to Komische Oper in Berlin. For me, as an American
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Yiddish Operetta Songs: A Re-Discovery On Auschwitz Memorial Day?
The 27th of January 2015 was a memorial day, not only in Germany, but there especially. 70 years ago the
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“Die schöne Helena” As A WW2 Drama Of Homosexuality
Considering that Offenbach’s La belle Hélène recently received two extremely “gay” interpretations at the opera houses of Hamburg and Berlin
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“Das Verdächtige Saxophon”: Albrecht Dümling’s Classic Re-Published
Finally: Albrecht Dümling’s great big book on music and operetta in Nazi times, Das verdächtige Saxophon, has been re-published. After
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Down To My Last Two Days: Linie 1 & Lillie Claus
Down to my last two days in Berlin. The Komische Oper was hosting a three-day symposium on operetta, the last
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Is There An Ideal “La Belle Hélène” Recording – With Sex Appeal?
In early 2015, the Komische Oper presented their very first Operetta Symposium, dealing with the “kinky” side of the genre
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“The Auto Race” And Other Tuned-Up Operettas From Early Broadway Days
If you wish to experience operetta off the beaten track, then look no further than this brand new CD with
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What Really Influenced Noël Coward’s “Bitter Sweet”: “Die Fledermaus”?
Amazingly Noël Coward’s first musical book show was Bitter Sweet. Up to that point he had built his reputation as
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Flying Down To Berlin: For the First Operetta Festival At The Komische Oper
You know it’s finally happening when the first international guests fly in and need to be picked up at Tegel
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Have You Heard Of Henri Christine’s “Phi-Phi” (1918)?
Do you know Phi-Phi? Unless you are French or Hungarian and over 90 years of age, you won’t ever have
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A Musical Comedy Orgasm: Seeing “Clivia” In Berlin From A Broadway Perspective
Tuesday and Wednesday in Berlin were exasperating for me. A combination of misunderstandings, bad directions, getting lost, buying a theatre
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An American in Berlin: Seeing Operetta At The Komische Oper
Richard C. Norton, New York City based author of A Chronology of American Musical Theater, regular contributor to the Operetta
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Mixing Pop And Opera: Triumph Or Trouble?
In the music world, sometimes the concept of mixing vocal genres in the same performance works well, and sometimes it
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From Dingsda To The Mississipi: Bumping Into Alen Hodzovic Again
Perhaps you know that feeling: you see a super-duper operetta performer one day, and the next he’s vanished. Or so
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The “Dancing Conductor” Joseph R. Olefirowicz In Munich
If you’re watching this space, you might have registered some recent frustration with current operetta conductors who were not quite
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A Kálmán Bonanza For Christmas: “Mariza”, “Arizona Lady” & “Csárdásfürstin”
It’s a real Kálmán bonanza this holiday season. Wherever you turn, there is Kálmán, and more Kálmán. In St. Gallen
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4 For 45: Operetta Movie Classics On Sale At Warner
It is not quite an “indecent proposal,” as in the 1993 Robert Redford movie. But still, it’s a stunning offer:
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Serkan Kaya Redefines Operetta As Kalman’s Cowboy Hero in “Arizona Lady”
Truth be told: the performance of Turkish musical comedy star Serkan Kaya as a swaggering cowboy hero in Kalman’s Arizona
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Happy New Year: Josef Strauss Meets Offenbach For A Quadrille Ride
If you know your operetta history, you will be aware of the fact that Johann Strauss Jr. was the most
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Coffee With Jochen Kowalski – And Laughing With Novikova
Admittedly, Heilbronn is not the first city that comes to (my) mind when talking about operetta “Made in Berlin.” Still,
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The Man Behind “Die Fledermaus”: New Biography of Richard Genée
As the author of Die Fledermaus (1874) and a whole series of other famous Strauss operettas, Richard Genée is not
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“Bodies & Gender”: Operetta Symposium In Berlin
Finally, you might say. Or, as the Germans would put it: „Endlich!“ Yes, the Komische Oper Berlin will present the
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Reynaldo Hahn’s Magical “Ciboulette” From The Opéra Comique In Paris
Did anyone ever wonder what happened to Rodolfo after Mimi’s death? Truth be told, I did not. At least not
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