Gilbert & Sullivan At Wilton’s Music Hall: An “HMS Pinafore” Performance To Remember
Wilton’s Music Hall is “the most important surviving early music hall to be seen anywhere” (says the Theatres Trust) and
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Ohio Light Opera: Offering Rarities From Kálmán’s “Teufelsreiter” to Novello’s “Perchance to Dream”
Fans of musical theater and operetta will not find a richer, more concentrated banquet of their favorite entertainment than that
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Francesca Zambello’s Version of “Showboat” At Glimmerglass Festival
Showboats gave the theatre-starved people along the Mississippi from the 1880s into the 1920s what they most wanted: melodrama and
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Offenbach Double-Treat in London: “La belle Hélène” and “Orpheus in the Underworld”
With the BBC Proms totally ignoring Offenbach’s bicentenary, it has been left to London’s music colleges, small scale opera companies
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“Das Feuerwerk” by Paul Burkhard & Erik Charell At Musikalische Komödie Leipzig
When I was about eight years old I have vivid memories of my mother doing the housework, continually singing “Oh,
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Emmerich Kálmán’s “Die Bajadere” At The Summer Festival Of Neustrelitz
Imagine sitting under the stars in a beautiful German Schlossgarten, totally relaxed, watching a hugely enjoyable operetta by Emmerich Kálmán
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Offenbach At 200: “Madame Favart” At The Opéra-Comique In Paris
Would Brother Jacob have been amused? In any case, the Parisian Opéra-Comique (with a hyphen, meaning the actual opera house,
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A New “Madame Pompadour” At Musikalische Komödie, Leipzig
The 1922 Madame Pompadour is not only one of Leo Fall’s last stage works (he died in 1925), it is
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The Devil In All Of Us: Suppé’s “Teufel auf Erden” (1878) In Chemnitz
With all the attention being given to Offenbach, it is easy to forget that 2019 is also the bicentenary of
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Offenbach’s “König Karotte” In Hannover: Farewell To The Production By Matthias Davids
German regional theatres excel in searching out rarely performed stage works and often breathing new life into them. Le Roi
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“Shooting Star” World-Premiere In Los Angeles: A “Revealing New Musical” by Florian Klein, Thomas Zaufke & Erik Ransom
With an Offenbach conference coming up in June in Cologne that includes a section dedicated to “Discourses and Identities” and
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“La Princesse de Trebizonde”: Revisiting The Offenbach Production In Hildesheim
The World Heritage city of Hildesheim, 20 miles south-east of Hannover, possesses a charming, intimate, 600-seater theatre staging opera, musicals
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Howard Goodall’s “The Hired Man” At Queen’s Theatre: “A Serious Musical About Ordinary People”
In November 2018 I reviewed a concert performance of Howard Goodall’s Girlfriends, recommending his previous musical The Hired Man which
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Benatzky’s “Meine Schwester und ich” At Volksoper Wien
Benatzky’s 1930 hit Meine Schwester und ich in a new Wien Volksoper production is totally delightful and enchantingly charming. More
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“Sweethearts” (1913) Performed By The Victor Herbert Renaissance Project Live!
This admirable young company finished its fifth season with Victor Herbert’s hit, Sweethearts, which opened at the New Amsterdam Theatre
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A New “Man of La Mancha” at ENO and Volksoper
Not seen in London since its original production at the Piccadilly Theatre in 1968, when it starred Keith Michell as
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Kurt Weill’s “Lady in the Dark” Revived At City Center in New York
Gertrude Lawrence’s 1941 megahit, Lady in the Dark, groundbreaking in its day for its then novel use of psychoanalysis in
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“Kismet” And Racist Stereotypes: The 1953 Wright/Forrest Show In Neustrelitz
Is the ‘Musical Arabian Night’ in two acts by George Forrest and Robert Wright an operetta, with recycled music from
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Ass-Dur At Bar jeder Vernunft. Or: “Les deux aveugles” Reloaded
In his new book Der Klang von Paris – “The Sound(s) of Paris” – Volker Hagedorn embarkes on “a trip
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Joseph Beer’s “Polnische Hochzeit” at Oper Graz: Simply Superb!
Austrian-Jewish composer Joseph Beer’s operetta Polnische Hochzeit (‘Polish Wedding’) received its premiere in Zurich in 1937: it was quickly translated
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Pasquale Aleardi & The Power Of Anti-Depressant Music
“Shake your banana!” At the table in front of me, six women screamed this internally even when Pasquale Aleardi was
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Lehár’s “Juxheirat” Or: “The Mock Marriage” In Santa Barbara
First, I learned that Michael and Nan Miller had bequeathed their extraordinary Operetta Archive to the University of California at
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New York Gilbert & Sullivan Players: “Ages Ago” & “Mr. Jericho”
New York Gilbert & Sullivan Players’s inspired pairing of two Victorian one-act comic operas – Ages Ago and Mr. Jericho
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Victor Herbert Renaissance Project Live: “Falling in Love For 160 Years”
VHRP Live’s love-themed concert may have been the company’s best yet, not forgetting such earlier gems as Son of Dublin
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“Die Prinzessin von Trapezunt” in Hildesheim: Ist das Operette 4.0?
So viel vorweg: Dass in Hildesheim Offenbachs einstiger Sensationserfolg Die Prinzessin von Trapezunt (1869) nach Jahrzehnten des Vergessens wieder auf
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The Ingeborg Hallstein Exorcism: “Frau Luna” Revived At Tipi Am Kanzleramt
It’s a brief moment, but it is pure magic. And it elevates an already magical evening to an outstanding event
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Hervé‘s “Mam’zelle Nitouche” In Lausanne With Palazzetto Bru Zane
He was six years younger than Jacques Offenbach and survived him by eleven years. And just like Offenbach, he can
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Ábrahám’s “Märchen im Grand-Hotel” In Mainz
After having had great success in Berlin with three operettas on a very grand scale – Viktoria und ihr Husar
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The Bernstein/Kosky “Candide” At Komische Oper Berlin: “A Really Spectacular Disaster”?
Writing an operetta in the 1950s for Broadway was certainly – a bit eccentric! The grand operetta hits had all
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Howard Goodall’s “Girlfriends”: A Show About The Women’s Auxiliary Air Force 1941
After the success of The Hired Man (being revived at Hornchurch in the Spring of 2019), Howard Goodall turned his
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Victor Herbert’s Last Operetta “Orange Blossoms” Returns To New York
Four years after Light Opera of New York exhumed Victor Herbert’s last operetta Orange Blossoms (more accurately, a “comedy with
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“Sigh By Night”: Katharine Mehrling’s “vive la vie” Program At Bar jeder Vernunft
In the case of an artist of the caliber of Katharine Mehrling it’s obviously worth sticking around until the very
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Sophia Euskirchen & Jörn-Felix Alt Revive The Weimar Era: “Cabaret” Back In Berlin
It’s a weird and wonderful experience to sit in the Tipi-am-Kanzleramt tent, waiting for a performance of Kander & Ebb’s
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‘Authentic’ Operetta Productions At Ohio Light Opera? Plus A Festival Symposium
Enterprising Ohio Light Opera, ever devoted to ‘authentic’ productions from the world of musical comedy and operetta, seems to go
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National Gilbert & Sullivan Opera Company: Sullivan’s “Haddon Hall”
This year the International G & S Festival, as well as the National G & S Company are celebrating their
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National Gilbert & Sullivan Opera Company: “Ruddigore” At Buxton Opera House
This summer the historic Frank Matcham designed Buxton Opera House, built in 1903 and seating 902, was host to the
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