RSC: Reconstructing Erik Charell’s Shakespeare Adaptation “Swingin’ the Dream”
When the Shakespeare adaptation Swingin‘ the Dream opened on Broadway in 1939 it followed Erik Charell’s earlier XXL-sized Broadway hit
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What Is The Best “Fledermaus” On Disc?
Ah yes, another Fledermaus recording. As if there aren’t enough already, right? Well, actually, this one from the NDR Radiophilharmonie
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Like Emma Kirkby Singing Wagner: “The Art Of Operetta” As A “Gramophone” December Special
“The Art of Operetta“ is the headline on the cover of the December issue of Gramophone magazine from the UK.
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Leo Fall’s “Die Rose von Stambul”: What About The Hijab Controversy?
This new recording starts overwhelmingly: with gongs, whole tone scales, rhythmic oriental rattling, bouncing horn passages à la Richard Strauss.
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A New “Exilmuseum” In Berlin – Will It Include The Entertainment World?
It’s going to happen: Berlin will get an “Exilmuseum,” a museum dedicated to the stories of those who went into
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“The Merry Widow” À La “Mad Men” With Tony Award Winning Conductor Franz Allers & Lisa Della Casa
The aspect that initially drew my attention to this brand new re-release of The Merry Widow in “hi-fidelity stereo” was
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“Die lustige Witwe”: First CD Release Of The Original 1907 Berlin Cast
It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that this first ever CD release of Die lustige Witwe with the 1906/7
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Listening To The Berlin Recordings Of Josef Josephi. Or: The “Elitekorps der Operette”
I’ve been on a bit of a Truesound Transfers trip these past few days. You know, that small Berlin based
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Colonialism & Operetta. Or: What To Do With Leo Fall’s “Die Rose von Stambul”
At the end of March 2020, the Nationaltheater Weimar will host an international conference entitled “Musiktheater und Kolonialismus,” i.e. musical
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“…was verloren ging”: A New Book About Operetta Before & After 1933
Im Jahr 2005 profilierte sich die Staatsoperette Dresden mit einer überregional vielbeachteten Konferenz, die den Titel Operette unterm Hakenkreuz trug.
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“Die lustige Witwe” With Marlis Petersen And Iurii Samoilov – Live From Oper Frankfurt
The original composer chosen für Die lustige Witwe by authors Leo Stein and Victor Léon was: Richard Heuberger. After he
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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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How Big Is The Stretch From “Fosse/Verdon” And “Judy” To A TV-Series About Erik Charell And Fritzi Massary?
As I sit watching the current TV series Fosse/Verdon, starring Sam Rockwell and Michelle Williams as two show business legends,
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Fritzi Massary Sings “Csardasfürstin” & “Faschingsfee” In 1916/18
There’s a wonderful interview with Elisabeth Schwarzkopf in which she talks about her student days in Berlin. She mentions that
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Thank You For The Music! Duophon Records Founder Alfred Wagner Has Died
It’s with great sadness that we heard about the death of Alfred Wagner this morning. He was the man behind
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Kálmán’s “Faschingsfee” Live From Gärtnerplatz Theater Munich
Kálmán’s Faschingsfee started her phenomenal career abroad, to be exact: in Budapest and New York City. First the show premiered
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Updating “Die Csardasfürstin” For Vienna: Peter Lund’s New Volksoper Production
It can be exciting to re-imagine and re-interpret beloved shows: we are witnessing this, again and again, in modern musical
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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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Message In A Bottle? YouTube As Global Popular Home-Archive For Operetta
In a 2018 essay entitled Das Webvideo als Flaschenpost, or “the web video as message in a bottle,” Chris Tedjasukmana
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Sugar-Free Chocolate: Kálmán’s “Die Faschingsfee” In Möchengladbach-Krefeld
Emmerich Kálmán’s Die Faschingsfee had a very chequered history in its first few years. It was first seen in Budapest
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Too Depressing To Write About? Leo Fall’s “Die Kaiserin” At Theater Baden
It’s only a short review of Leo Fall’s Die Kaiserin, I’m afraid. It was too depressing to write more. I
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Kalman’s “Faschingsfee”: Carnival Spectacle At Munich’s Gärtnerplatz
The nomadic company of Staatstheater am Gärtnerplatz has staged a rare, highly successful and most enjoyable revival of Kalman’s 1917
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Victor Hollaender: The Musical Voice of Wilhelmine Berlin
Alan Lareau, Professor of German at the University of Oshkosh and a scholar specialized in the cabaret culture of the
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“Operette: hipp oder miefig?” The New Issue Of The Österreichische Musikzeitschrift
It doesn’t happen too often that a musicological magazine dedicates an entire issue to “operetta”: with eight short essays dealing
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Putting Operetta Back On The A-List: The Top 5 Productions 2015
Berlin’s ultra-hip and queer urban magazine Siegessäule has published a hot list of the top 5 films and stage productions
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Elisabeth Schwarzkopf At 100: “Komm’ mit mir ins Chambre separée”
Today, soprano Elisabeth Schwarzkopf would have celebrated her 100th birthday. That’s a perfect occasion to remember her enormous recorded legacy,
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Fritzi Massary Revisited: An Interview With Her New Biographer
Take a deep breath and prepare yourself: there will be – finally – a new and English language biography of
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Did Leo Fall Suffer From Serious Drug Addiction?
It’s always a good time to pay attention to Leo Fall (1873-1925) because his operettas – Der fidele Bauer, Die
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At the Cross-Roads? A New “Bettelsstudent” from Mörbisch on DVD
As of 2013, the Austrian operetta festival in Mörbisch—near the Hungarian border—has a new director. Dagmar Schellenberger replaced Harald Serafin
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„Spiel’ das mal schwul“: Interview mit Adam Benzwi
Heterosexuelle Gesangsstudenten entdecken bei Prof. Adam Benzwi von der Berliner Universität der Künste seit 20 Jahren den Schlüssel zur Operette,
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“Made in Berlin”: Otto Schneidereit Revisited
There’s a lot of talk, again, these days about „Operetta Made In Berlin”—how it differs from other German language types
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Retro-Muschi: La Nick und der “Schwanz, der noch ficken will und kann”
In der Berliner Theaterszene hängt natürlich immer alles mit allem zusammen. Irgendwie. Was ja auch den besonderen Reiz unserer Hauptstadt
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“The Rose of Stambul” from the Chicago Folks Operetta
Of course, there have been many recordings of operetta in English before. There’s the famous Decca series featuring Kitty Carlisle,
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Das Osmanische Reich als Vorbild wider Willen in Leo Falls “Rose von Stambul”
Als sich am Abend des 2. Dezember 1916, mit wenigen Tagen zeitbedingter Verspätung, der Vorhang im eleganten Theater an der
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The Original Sounds of Operetta: Truesound Transfers
Die von der Firma Truesoundtranfers herausgegebene Serie mit Aufnahmen der Lustigen Witwe, des Graf von Luxemburg und der Zigeunerliebe in
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