“The Pretty Polish Girl Who Sat Astride Her Virtue”: Early Opéra-Bouffe Star Joseph Kelm (1805-1882)
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: Royal Milkmaid, Queen Of Burlesque, And Concubine
Amy Sheridan was something of a phenomenon. When she died, in 1878, at a Brighton boarding house, aged 39, of
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The English Language Adventures of “Im weißen Rössl”
The overwhelming and instant success of Erik Charell’s operetta spectacle Im weißen Rössl at Berlin’s Großes Schauspielhaus (the so-called “Theater
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Kinky Boots? Kurt Gänzl Talks About 19th Century Operetta
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, or The Best Thing About Her Singing Was Her Looks: Blanche Roosevelt
Theatrical mythology has been curiously and undeservedly kind to some folk. Miss Tucker from Ohio went from failure to failure
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Offenbach’s “Robinson Crusoe”: Bring On The Cannibals
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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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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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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“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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The Kern-Wodehouse-Bolton Musical “Have a Heart” (1917)
Although they worked together as a trio on only five shows over seven years, the influence of “Bolton, Wodehouse, and
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Oozing Sex: Julia Baron, Opéra-Bouffe Star And Top Paris Courtesan
When I lived in St Paul de Vence, my partner Ian and I took a weekly bus jaunt down to
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Oscar Straus: Avant-propos
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)
Victor Herbert (b Dublin, 1 February 1859; d New York, 24 May 1924). The grandson of Samuel Lover, the novelist,
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BABES IN TOYLAND: Musical extravaganza by Victor Herbert
Commissioned by producers Julian Mitchell and Fred Hamlin to follow up their 1902 success with the fairytale spectacular The Wizard
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Rediscovering Offenbach: Felicitas Wetzel’s “Deine Operette – Ein Portrait in mehreren Stimmen”
An interview with Felicitas Wetzel, a German sound artist who created a concert performance with Offenbach music and quotes called
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Victor Hollaender and Milwaukee’s Pabst Theater: A Transatlantic Affair (Part 1)
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 and Milwaukee’s Pabst Theater: A Transatlantic Affair (Part 2)
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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THE PIRATES OF PENZANCE, or The Slave of Duty: Comic opera in 2 acts by Gilbert & Sullivan
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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Double Treat: “The Black Crook” From New York and London
Often, in earlier times, quoted as “the first landmark in the history of the American musical theatre”, the 1866 extravaganza
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Talking With Joshua William Gelb About “The Black Crook” In 2016
In 2016, The Black Crook celebrates its 150th anniversary, marking 150 years of the American Musical. To commemorate the sesquicentennial,
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Stanley Potter (1819-1894): A Seventy Year Old Chorus Boy!
When Stanley Potter died in 1894, his – paid – death notice said he was ‘of the Carl Rosa’. So
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Sex, Gender, Gay Marriage And Modernity In Offenbach’s “Isle of Tulipatan” and “Croquefer”
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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Mystery Solved: The Truth About Gilbert & Sullivan’s Star Lilian LaRue
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 (1864-1936): “Deutsch-Amerikanisches Theater” In New York
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 Musical Tale of the East In 3 Acts, Music By Frederic Norton
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: Musical play in 5 scenes by Paul Knepler and Fritz Löhner-Beda. Music by Franz Lehár
Giuditta was the last of the series of darkly coloured romantic operettas (this one purposely titled ‘musikalische Komödie’) composed by
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A Major Star Of 19th Century French Musical Theatre: Jean-François Philibert Berthelier
Jean-François Philibert Berthelier (b Panissières, Loire, 14 December 1828; d Paris, 29 September 1888) was a comic actor and singer
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An Historically Rich “Duchess of Chicago” in Budapest
I recommend booking travel tickets now for Budapest – to arrive before June 9, 2016. That’s the date of the
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“Emerging From The Closet Of Representation“: Homosexuality And Same-Sex Marriage On The Musical Theater Stage
The genre operetta was invented around 1850 in Paris, as a new and independent musical theater form in the modern
read more![Albert SZIRMAI [aka SIRMAY]: b Budapest, 2 July 1880; d New York, 15 January 1967](http://operetta-research-center.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Sirmay-436x291.jpg "Albert SZIRMAI [aka SIRMAY]: b Budapest, 2 July 1880; d New York, 15 January 1967")
Albert SZIRMAI [aka SIRMAY]: b Budapest, 2 July 1880; d New York, 15 January 1967
Szirmai was a top-flight Hungarian composer whose career faded when he left home. He studied at the Budapest Zeneakadémia and
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SZIBILL, Operetta in 3 acts by Miksa Bródy and Ferenc Martos. Music by Viktor Jacobi
Szibill, first produced at the Király Színház, Budapest, on 27 February 1914, was the peak achievement of the short career
read more![Viktor JACOBI [JAKABFI]: b Budapest, 22 October 1883; d New York, 10 December 1921](http://operetta-research-center.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Jacobi_Viktor-436x291.jpg "Viktor JACOBI [JAKABFI]: b Budapest, 22 October 1883; d New York, 10 December 1921")
Viktor JACOBI [JAKABFI]: b Budapest, 22 October 1883; d New York, 10 December 1921
Viktor Jakabfi is one of the group of successful Hungarian composers who dominated the European musical stage in the early
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“Shuffle Along”: Re-Imagining the African-American-Classic From 1921
Why is the upcoming revival of Shuffle Along, or, The Making of the Musical Sensation of 1921 and All That
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The Game Changers Of Broadway: Hammerstein, Schirmer, Cohan & Co..
Who were the truly instrumental people who caused America to develop the largest and most influential entertainment industry in the
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Kalman’s “Endre és Johanna” On Live-Stream From Canada
Emmerich Kalman started his career as a serious“ composer of grand tone poems in the Richard Strauss, or more likely
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