Glitzy Genitalia & A New Cast: Kosky’s “Orpheus in der Unterwelt“ Arrives In Berlin
After a very (very!) long wait, Barrie Kosky’s vision of Offenbach’s Orphée aux enfers has finally arrived at Berlin’s Komische
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“Le Photographe” By Meilhac & Halévy: The Template for “La Vie Parisienne”?
In the latest newsletter of the Jacques Offenbach Society (No. 98), there is a reprint of the full Meilhac &
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Christiane Rösinger’s “Planet Egalia”: A Sci-Fi Operetta About Feminism and Queerness?
The world of science fiction is somewhat underexplored when it comes to operetta. Even though Offenbach famously wrote Le voyage
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Offenbach’s “Ein Ehemann vor der Tür”: A New Student Production In Leipzig
The students of Leipzig’s Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy Hochschule had planned to put on Offenbach’sUn Mari à la Porte / Ein
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Are We Finally Getting The Full Original Version Of “La Vie Parisienne”?
What if Die Fledermaus by Johann Strauss, the most famous German language operetta, had been performed incomplete for the last
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Curtain Raisers: “Les Deux Aveugles” and “Cox and Box” At Wilton’s Music Hall
Opera della Luna, under the artistic direction of Jeff Clarke, has built a well-deserved reputation for staging inventive productions of
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Richard Genée’s “Die Antisemiten” (1868): Solo Scene Translated Into English
With a title like Die Antisemiten (The Antisemites) attached to a “Grand Opera” you have the immediate attention of most
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Laurent Pelly’s “Barbe-bleue” From Opéra de Lyon Arrives On DVD
Laurent Pelly’s celebrated production of Offenbach’s Barbe-bleue from the Opéra de Lyon has finally arrived on DVD. It offers Yann
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Bare-Butted Dancers In A Screw-It-Together IKEA Box: “Pariser Leben” in Neustrelitz
The new intendant of the “Festspiele im Schlossgarten” in Neustrelitz – one and a half hours north of Berlin –
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LA VIE PARISIENNE Opéra-bouffe in 4 (originally 5) acts by Jacques Offenbach
In the midst of Meilhac, Halévy and Offenbach’s dazzling series of successes with the earliest of their famous opéras-bouffes –
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Post-Lockdown: An Unusual Feast Of Operetta For The United Kingdom
The various ‘lockdowns’ that we, in the UK, have lived under for the last 18 months have meant that several productions
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Barrie Kosky’s All-Singing, All-Dancing Yiddish Revue – Plus Other Farewell-Highlights
Of course he wasn’t going to present his last season as intendant of Komische Oper Berlin via Zoom or only
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„Eine Stimme für Deutschland“: Grüne Fotze vs. genderfluide AfD-Kandidatin
Politiksatiren können ganz wunderbar als Musical oder Operette funktionieren, wie nicht nur Jacques Offenbach im 19. Jahrhundert immer wieder gezeigt
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Hervé In Paris – And Palazzetto Bru Zane’s Grand Operetta Plans For The Future
When the invitation from Palazzetto Bru Zane arrived, to fly to Paris and attend a performance of Hervé’s V’lan dans
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“V’lan dans l’oeil”: Folie musicale in 3 acts by Hervé
Hervé’s second attempt, after Les Chevaliers de la table ronde (1866), to produce a full-length burlesque opérette to challenge the
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“Inselzauber”: Landesbühne Sachsen Streams Offenbach’s Genderqueer “Island Of Tulipatan”
Due to Corona, Landesbühnen Sachsen in Germany put on two small scale one-acters last year: Offenbach’s The Island of Tulipatan
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“The Operetta Empire”: A New Book By Micaela Baranello
Rejoice greatly! There’s another big English language book on operetta, following last year’s Cambridge Companion to Operetta. This new publication
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The Jerusalem Opera Wants To Present Madcap Offenbach In The Middle East
When it comes to the Middle-East, there’s not an awful lot of operetta performance history that comes to mind.
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La Belle Hélène lernt Italienisch: Studie zur Rezeption französischer Operetten in Italien 1860-90
Die Operette ist in noch stärkerem Maße als die Oper ein internationales Phänomen. Die Bühnenwerke von Jacques Offenbach werden ebenso
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Offenbach’s Singing Cannibals On The Radio As “Das gräuliche Festmahl” For Easter
The Berlin based “collective for contemporary operette*” which calls itself Tutti d*Amore presented their take on Offenbach’s 1857 one-acter Vent-du-soir
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Koskys “Orphée aux enferns”: Swarovski-Genitalien auf der Suche nach der Hölle
Zum Offenbach-Jubiläum 2019 spielten die Salzburger Festspiele erstmals eine Offenbach-Operette und übertrugen die Regie Barrie Kosky. Leider gaben sie ihm
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COX AND BOX, or The Long Lost Brothers: Musical Triumviretta In 1 Act With Music By Arthur Sullivan
This Musical triumviretta in 1 act was adapted from J Maddison Morton’s farce Box and Cox by F C Burnand,
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A Christmas Marathon Of Operetta Streams: From “Frau Luna” To “Cinderella” And Offenbach
It seems that the operetta scene is finally awaking to the possibilities of the internet as a chance to overcome
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Georges Prêtre Conducts Two Outstanding Offenbachs In His Final La Scala Concert
Conductor Georges Prêtre is generally considered one of the best interpreters of French music, and the list of famous recordings
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Offenbach, Composer Of Zarzuelas? An Interview With Enrique Mejías García
From 14 October onwards the Fundación Juan March is presenting a special program dedicated to Jacques Offenbach. The series of
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Broadway Producer Henry W. Savage (1859-1927): “Merry Widow” and “Sari” Were His Greatest Hits
Harvard-educated Henry Wilson Savage was born in New Durham (New Hampshire) on 21 March 1859 and well established as a
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Ethel Jackson (1877-1957): Broadway’s First “Merry Widow”
A descendant of the painter Henry Inman, Miss Jackson was born in New York on 3 February 1877. She studied
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Post-Corona Operetta In Berlin. Or: Here’s Barrie Kosky’s Chancelled “Orpheus In The Underworld”
Has the long waiting finally come to an end, is post-Corona operetta back? After the somewhat problematic “Jewish and Gay”
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The First American Musical: “The Doctor of Alcantara” (1862)
Today I got asked, for the umpteenth time, ‘what was the first American musical?’ Well, all those three qualifications narrow
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The Show Will Go On, Or: A New “Großherzogin von Gerolstein” At Komische Oper
“344 Menschen, that‘s besser wie nix!” That’s what intendant Barrie Kosky said when he presented his brand new schedule for
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Remembering Mady Mesplé – France’s “Madame Opérette”
I heard yesterday that Mady Mesplé had died. I have to admit that, to me, she belonged to a past
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Opéra-Comique Overtures By Lecocq, Offenbach & Co.
The record label Naxos has just released a fascinating CD containing French 19th century overtures. One of these is the
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“Trafalgar sur un volcan”: An(other) Operetta About Terrorists?
The German record label cpo has recently released a CD of two short operettas. One of them is a real
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„…der Offenbachstil unserer Zeit…“: Offenbach und die „avancierte“ Regie im frühen 20. Jahrhundert
Karl Kraus und Felix Salten haben 1909 bzw. 1906 Diagnosen zur Situation des musikalischen Unterhaltungstheaters und seiner Rezeption in Wien
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Lillian Russell (1860-1922) Revisited: The Amazing Life Of A “Scandalous” Operetta Diva
With all this free time at home right now I’ve started working my way through various DVD boxes I’ve had
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Offenbach’s Final Farewell: “Die Schöne Lurette” (1880) In Two DDR Versions
As the times of self-isolation continue, so does the catching up on old and new operetta releases that I’ve been
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