“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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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“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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Celebrating Charles Kálmán’s 85th Birthday
In Vienna, a grand musical birthday celebration will be held in December. The “birthday boy” is Charles Kalman, oldest son
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Five Year Plan: Glorious Rarities At The Festival In Ischl
Yes, it might be true that the Austrian operetta festival in Bad Ischl is fighting for “pure survival,” as director
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Out & Proud: “Csárdasfürstin” With Netrebko, Florez And Thielemann
Are you ready for this? The Semperoper Dresden and its musical director Christian Thielemann will dedicate the 2014 New Year‘s
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“Stéphanie” – Developing A New Historic Operetta
Composing a brand-new operetta today is a daring endeavor. On the one hand, larger audiences are drawn to dramatic musicals
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Vanessa Williams and Julian Ovenden Star In New York’s New “Show Boat”
In November, the New York Philharmonic will present a semi-staged concert version of Show Boat: one of the classic shows
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Broadway Meets Operetta: Susan Stroman Directs “Merry Widow”
You can certainly call this operetta debut ‘special’: stage director Susan Stroman (The Producers, The Scottsboro Boys) will direct a
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The Victor Herbert Renaissance Project LIVE!
The title alone is worth a headline: “Victor Herbert Renaissance Project LIVE!” It is the world’s only production company uniquely
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Behind the Lines: Wolfgang Dosch Sings Songs From WW1
Wolfgang Dosch is not just a great operetta teacher at the conservatory in Vienna, he is also an assured singer
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The “White Horse Inn” of Saxony
Yes, there is going to be another one: The Musikalische Komödie will present the Ralph Benatzky/Erik Charell “Singspiel” Im weißen
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Behind the Candelabra: A New “Zarewitsch” in Dresden
This week-end, the Staatsoperette Dresden will present a new staging of Lehár’s notoriously homoerotic Der Zarewitsch where the tenor turns
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An Academic Symposium on “White Horse Inn” in 2015
Hold your breath: There’s going to be an „interdisciplinary symposium“ on White Horse Inn, examining „new cultural-historical perspectives 1930-2015.“ When?
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BBC2: A Two-Hour Tribute to Ivor Novello
„Friday Night is Music Night“: that’s the slogan of the BBC2 concert radio series. Last Friday’s concert was devoted to
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A Star Is Born: Johannes Dunz
Because of illness, the Komische Oper Berlin had to re-cast its production of Nico Dostal’s Clivia. The original star, Tobias
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Hamburg’s “Belle Hélène” To Be Realeased On DVD?
Here it is, a first look at the new La belle Hélène in Hamburg. The large-scale production by Renaud Doucet
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“Unbemannt im Weltall”: Ass-Dur Back in Berlin
In case you missed it during the last week, the topic of “boylesque” is not off the menu here. On
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