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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Offenbach Heaven At The Théâtre de l’Odéon In Marseille: An Endless Stream Of Titles
It’s that time of year again when theaters release their programs for next season. One of the most striking programs
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Palazzetto Bru-Zane Celebrates Offenbach’s 200th Birthday With New Recordings
Next year the world will celebrate the 200th birthday of Jacques Offenbach. After having dedicated themselves to Hervé and his
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Offenbach And Opera Rara. Or: Waiting For A Recording Of The Original French “Robinson Crusoé”
It’s interesting how you can have a full cast recording sitting on your CD shelf for decades, and it never
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“Ritter Blaubart” At Komische Oper: Stefan Herheim’s Varieté Vanitas
Yes, it was a good idea to bring back Offenbach’s murderous Barbe-Bleue to Berlin at Komische Oper where, you will
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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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“Crazy World”: Anna Bonitatibus’ Collection Of Trousers-Roles From Offenbach To Mancini
Recently, gender and diversity Prof. Simon Dickel gave an interview on Deutschlandfunk talking about his new book Queer Cinema which
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Great Ladies of Wrestling. Or: Early 1840s Offenbach Songs
The sensational success of Jacques Offenbach in Second Empire Paris and internationally, in the 19th century, has many reasons. One
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E. A. Dupont’s “Das alte Gesetz”. Or: What #MeToo Has To Do With Operetta And Offenbach
When we talk about popular musical theater our modern focus is mostly on the ‘artistic’ values of individual shows, e.g.
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Anneliese Rothenberger & Max Hansen In “Orpheus in der Unterwelt” 1958
It’s an unusual coupling, to say the very least: Anneliese Rothenberger and Max Hansen in one recording? The hairspray-star of
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My First Queer Operetta: “Die Insel Tulipatan” At Staatsoper Berlin 1982
Since Offenbach’s Island of Tulipatan has popped up again on the general radar, with a brand new English language recording
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Offenbach’s “The Island of Tulipatan” In A World-Premiere English Language Recording
We need to talk about Offenbach, seriously and right now. Is it a sign of our gender-queer times that of
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“Orpheus in der Unterwelt” At The New Staatsoperette Dresden
The Staatsoperette Dresden has recently moved into a new, much-needed, purpose built theatre in the centre of the city. The
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A New Monography On Offenbach’s “Orpheus in the Underworld”
For many operetta fans, Offenbach’s Orpheus in the Underword is the masterpiece with which it all began, back in 1858.
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Offenbach’s Gender-Bending “L’ile de Tulipatan” From New York
The Light Opera of New York (LOONY) shifted gears this spring from its annual early American operetta – usually by
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Offenbach’s “Ritter Blaubart” Returns: The New Operetta Season At Komische Oper
Berlin’s Komische Oper and its artistic director Barrie Kosky are always good for a surprise, most certainly when it comes
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“Voici le sabre de mon père”: Offenbach’s “Grand Duchess” In Kassel
The industrial city of Kassel in middle-Germany boasts a modern, superbly designed 900 seat theatre with a large stage and
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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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Offenbach’s “Ritter Blaubart” In Cottbus: Reviving Felsenstein
Offenbach’s glorious sex-and-social-conventions farce Barbe-bleue was a huge hit in Paris and Vienna back in the 1860s, when Hortense Schneider
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Jacques Offenbach 2019: Celebtrating His 200th Birthday
In June 2019 the world will celebrate the 200th birthday of Jacques Offenbach, “The 19th century’s most popular musical-theatre composer.”
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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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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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“Bouffe”: A New Theater Piece About Offenbach And Hortense Schneider At The Brighton Fringe Festival
We could not agree more with this statement of Red Blonde Productions and West Sussex Opera: “What Cabaret was to
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“Stars Of David”: The Influence Of Jewish Artists On Popular Music
It’s not every day that you get to see images of Jacques Offenbach, Johann Strauss Jr. and Richard Tauber right
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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
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Operetta In Cottbus: “Blaubart” and “Wirtshaus im Spessart”
One does not need much prompting to travel to Cottbus: the small town south-east of Berlin has one of the
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Meyerbeer’s “Les Huguenots” Return To Berlin: With Juan Diego Flórez
Anyone seriously interested in Offenbach will also be interested in Meyerbeer, and the various other composers successful in the first
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Nikolaus Harnoncourt Dead: What’s His Operetta Legacy?
For many people in the classical music world, the name of Nikolaus Harnoncourt is almost sacred. The conductor who died
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“Fantasio” At The Komische Oper Berlin: The 1869 Tenor Version
Yes, it’s always a treat to hear Offenbach live, especially those works that are not part of the over-familiar group
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Palazzetto Bru Zane: “Let’s Talk About Hervé!”
Palazzetto Bru Zane has devoted its energy to the rediscovery of forgotten (French) operas, so far. But now, an opéra
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“Salon Pitzelberger” At The Komische Oper Berlin
What a way to start the Offenbach festivities: the Berlin Operetta Festival at the Komische Oper started with a late-night
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An Offenbach Festival in Berlin: Four Shows in Seven Days
So this time round it is going to be: Offenbach. The Komische Oper is dedicating its 2016 operetta festival in
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A New Generation of (Yummy?) Operetta Singers
The students of the Hochschule für Musik und Theater “Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy,“ in Leipzig, will present their version and vision
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Oscar Straus – Ein deutscher Offenbach?
Yes, there’s a new book on Oscar Straus, that often over-looked composer of Ein Walzertraum but also of Die lustigen
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Male-To-Female Cross Dressing: “Rotes Sofa” Talk In Leipzig
Men dressed up as women: that’s nothing new in the world of operetta. In many Offenbach shows, this kind of
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