Imagine a world that persistently rewards the rich and powerful while immiserating the masses. Imagine an international paternalist cartel that
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The Operetta Research Centre was, this week, undergoing technical maintenance, in the course of which supremo Kevin Clarke came up
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Ivor Novello’s World War 2 hit The Dancing Years has finally been made available in a ‘first complete recording’ by
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Mind the apostrophes! The recent revival of Paul Lincke’s Frau Luna at Tipi am Kanzleramt is a firm reference point
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Originally produced at Baden-Baden during the 1869 summer season, with the young Mdlle Périer in its principal travesty rôle, La
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Sometimes you read an operetta essay that deeply disturbs you – not because it is badly written or full of
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To say precisely who were the first English dancers to perform the cancan in the English-language theatre is pretty impossible.
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Eine der bekanntesten und weit verbreiteten Gavotten ist die „Stephanie-Gavotte“, op. 312 von Alfons Czibulka. Diese wurde 1880 der Prinzessin
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In his 2 volume biography Emily Soldene: In Search of a Singer Kurt Gänzl chronicles the initial success of opéra
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In 1980, the classical music world marked the 100th anniversary of Jacques Offenbach’s death. And for this greatest of ‘life
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My last post and its original five pictures, borrowed from the gold mines of Blois, included four taken from the
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Amy Sheridan was something of a phenomenon. When she died, in 1878, at a Brighton boarding house, aged 39, of
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Kurt Gänzl is no stranger to readers of these pages. As the author of The Encyclopedia of the Musical Theatre
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Theatrical mythology has been curiously and undeservedly kind to some folk. Miss Tucker from Ohio went from failure to failure
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Daniel Defoe’s shipwrecked hero (1719) and his man Friday seem to have made their first appearance on the musical stage
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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 fortunate series of simultaneous anniversaries—the 300th of the founding of New Orleans, the 75th of the New Orleans Opera,
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Back in June 2012, Marion Linhardt from the University of Bayreuth presented a paper on the Eysler operetta Künstlerblut in
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Musical comedy in 2 acts by Owen Hall. Lyrics by Harry Greenbank and Adrian Ross. Music by Sidney Jones. Additional
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Although they worked together as a trio on only five shows over seven years, the influence of “Bolton, Wodehouse, and
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When I lived in St Paul de Vence, my partner Ian and I took a weekly bus jaunt down to
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Il n’est guère de compositeur du vingtième siècle qui ait été jadis aussi fêté de part et d’autre de l’Atlantique
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Victor Herbert (b Dublin, 1 February 1859; d New York, 24 May 1924). The grandson of Samuel Lover, the novelist,
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Commissioned by producers Julian Mitchell and Fred Hamlin to follow up their 1902 success with the fairytale spectacular The Wizard
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An interview with Felicitas Wetzel, a German sound artist who created a concert performance with Offenbach music and quotes called
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America’s popular music tradition is often referred to as the “Great American Songbook,” a national heritage. A focus on its
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Victor Hollaender described his first American sojourn and the German-American scene of Milwaukee in his memoirs, which were published in
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Gilbert and Sullivan’s successor to the phenomenal HMS Pinafore proved to be another enormous international opéra-bouffe hit. Where the former
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Often, in earlier times, quoted as “the first landmark in the history of the American musical theatre”, the 1866 extravaganza
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In 2016, The Black Crook celebrates its 150th anniversary, marking 150 years of the American Musical. To commemorate the sesquicentennial,
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When Stanley Potter died in 1894, his – paid – death notice said he was ‘of the Carl Rosa’. So
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Jeff Clarke has been the Artistic Director of UK’s Opera della Luna since 1994. With that company, he has made
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Lilian La Rue? Oh heavens, that name sounds like something out of a New Orleans drag show. Lily Street, maybe?
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Adolf Philipp (b Lübeck, 29 January 1864; d New York, 30 July 1936) was the eclectic leading light of the
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Chu Chin Chow was a version of the Arabian Nights’ Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves tale, put together by
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Giuditta was the last of the series of darkly coloured romantic operettas (this one purposely titled ‘musikalische Komödie’) composed by
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