“Bitte Britisch”: Staatsoperette Dresden Takes Us On A Musical Journey
I was surprised, and delighted, to hear that the Staatsoperette Dresden are to give an all-“Britisch” concert, taking in a
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Fancy A Slice Of Gänzl? “Gilbert & Sullivan: The Players And The Plays”
I’m the oldest standing member of the Operetta Research Center. I was one of the fairies who presided at its
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What A Voyage! Historic “La Fille de Madame Angot” Recordings In English, French & Italian
The sky is blue, the sun is shining, the waves are tinkling on the shore a hundred metres from me
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Constance Drever: Creating “La Veuve joyeuse” With A Strong English Accent
The history of Die lustige Witwe has fascinated us, here at the Operetta Research Center, immensely over the past months.
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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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Hervé’s “L’œil crevé” (1867) On YouTube: Live From L’Opéra de Bordeaux
Hervé’s 1867 opéra bouffe L’œil crevé (literally “The pierced eye” or “It hit me right in the eye”) was first
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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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Reynaldo Hahn (1874-1947): Only One Enduring Score?.
Born in Caracas, Venezuela, on 9 August, 1874, Reynaldo Hahn was the elegant, soigné composer whose work for the French
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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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“Cox & Box – The Film”: A Christmas Special From The New York Gilbert & Sullivan Players
I’m an old conservative. I was ‘a little con-ser-va-tive’ (as opposed to a ‘little li-ber-al’) from the moment I was
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PASSIONNÉMENT! Comédie Musicale in 3 Acts with Music by André Messager
On 13 December, 2020, the Bavarian radio station BR-Klassik will broadcasts a live performance of André Messager‘s ‘comédie musicale’ Passionnément!
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“Popular Music Theatre Under Socialism”: Operettas & Musicals In The Eastern European States 1945-1990
Yesterday, a surprising book arrived on my desk: Popular Music Theatre Under Socialism. I guessed straight away that we weren’t
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Why oh why oh why oh! Burleycue in Ohio: “The Bandbox Revue” Of 1922
This picture looked to me like a rather nice American girlie entertainment from the Twenties. Wonder what it is, thought
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A Naughty Gaiety Girl …
When you ‘live’ in a certain ‘world’ – in my case, that of the 19th century musical theatre – you
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Ivan Caryll & The Heyday Of The Gaiety Musical Comedy
Ivan Caryll was the principal composer and conductor for the heyday of the Gaiety musical comedy who encouraged the development
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A Legendary American Burlesque: “Evangeline” (1874), Beautiful Country Girls & A Dancing Heifer
A burlesque of Longfellow’s poem of the same name, the extravaganza Evangeline followed the trials and tribulations of its heroine
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Jeanette MacDonald (1901-1965): Hollywood’s Most Successful Soprano Star Of Celluloid Operetta
After beginning her singing career as a teenager in the chorus of a New York revue, Miss MacDonald (born in
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Lily Elsie (1886-1962): Becoming “The Most Photographed Woman In The World”
A child of mysterious origins (she was rumoured, when fame came, to have been the illegitimate daughter of an aristocrat
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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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And Here’s Broadway’s First Danilo in “The Merry Widow”: Donald Brian (1877-1948)
Donald Brian was the bright-eyed and boyish star of more than 20 years of Broadway operettas and musicals, among them the
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The First English Language Danilo in “The Merry Widow”: US-Comedian Joseph Coyne (1867-1941)
Joseph Coyne was a light comedy actor-who-sings who moved from silly-ass rôles in his native America to stardom as Britain’s
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The Planned Assassination Of Napoléon Bonaparte: “Viva Napoli” by Francis Lopez
Probably the best of the later, post Raymond Vincy, musical shows written by the already fading Francis Lopez, Viva Napoli
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Francis Lopez’ “Andalousie”: Tenor Bull Fighting In The South Of France
One of the most successful of the series of post-war musicals authored by Raymond Vincy (and, in this case, Albert
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Turning Point In French Musical Theatre: “La Belle de Cadix” By Francis Lopez
As much as one show can, La Belle de Cadix marked the same kind of a turning in the musical
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“Le Chanteur de Mexico”: An “Opérette à Grand Spectacle” By Francis Lopez
Le Chanteur de Mexico followed behind La Belle de Cadix and Andalousie in the continuing series of Raymond Vincy/Francis Lopez
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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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Revisiting Ivan Caryll’s “The Shop Girl” As A Palaeophonics Cast Album
The record label Palaeophonics is specialized in historic cast albums attractively packed as old The Play reprints of the respective
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Lehár’s “Cloclo” (1924) On CD & DVD From The Ischl Festival And Ohio Light Opera
Franz Lehár’s 1924 operetta Cloclo is not one of his more famous titles, and it hasn’t stayed in the repertoire
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Remembering Will Marion Cook, Composer Of “In Dahomey” And The Cakewalk
Will Marion Cook was born inWashington, DC, on 27 January, 1869. The son of a well-off and well-educated family, Cook
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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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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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Reading “The Cambridge Companion To Operetta” In Times Of Self-Isolation
The paperback edition of this fascinating, useful and, on the whole, well researched book sells for about 20 Euros on
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The Glory Of Offenbach: 2 1/2 Historical “Die Banditen” Recordings From Germany
When the world is under quarantine and everything is shut down because of a new virus – you have lots
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Who Was The Great Opéra-Bouffe Tenor “Potel” – Also Known As “Le Bel Armand”?
The folk who created the musical works of Meilhac, Halévy, Crémieux, Hervé and their colleagues, and of the parallel composers,
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Offenbach’s “Häuptling Abendwind” Or: Queer Operetta For The Price Of A Hawaiian Pizza
Offenbach’s 1857 Vent du soir, ou l’horrible festin is one of his more famous titles in the German speaking theater
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