“Ein Walzertraum” as This Year’s Summer Spectacle in Neustrelitz
The out-door operetta festival in the castle gardens of Neustrelitz – an hour north of Berlin – is offering Oscar
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Springtime for Fritzi: A New Play About Massary with Daniela Ziegler
While the world is still waiting for a full-scale bio pic about the life of Fritzi Massary (1882-1969), the Theater
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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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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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Ethel Merhaut Sings “Bittersweet” Operetta For Sony Masterworks
It’s astonishing that Sony Masterworks is releasing an album of operetta songs – in jazz arrangements! Presented by the young
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A Bi-Polar “Merry Widow”: The Life Of Lily Elsie (1886-1962) Revisited
Elsie Hodder was born in a rather squalid theatrical lodging house in Leeds on 8 April, 1886. Her mother was
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Maurice Chevalier (1888-1972): Parisian Music-Hall Star & Hollywood’s Singing Very-Frenchman
After an early career spent performing in cafés and suburban music halls, Maurice Chevalier (born in Ménilmontant on 12 September,
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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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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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Oscar Straus’ Piano Concerto & Other Rare Orchestra Pieces
My first ‘live’ encounter with Oscar Straus was attending a wonderfully inspired production of his first operetta Die lustigen Nibelungen
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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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The Royal Voice of Betty Fischer On Truesound Transfers
In 1924 Betty Fischer created one of the greatest operetta roles of the 20th century: Gräfin Mariza in Emmerich Kálmán’s
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“One Long Gender-Bender”: Berlin’s Queer Operetta Revolution In The Years 2010-2020
The Drama Review (TDR) is planning a special issue on the developments in the German theater scene from 2010 to
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Operetta Between The Two World Wars: International Musicological Symposium In Ljubljana
The staging of musical-dramatic works in the late nineteenth century was dominated by operetta, which effectively dictated the programmes of
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Daniel Pantano: Living With Oscar Straus’ “Die Lustigen Nibelungen” For 14 Years
My journey with Oscar Straus all began when a colleague at a music conservatory where we worked handed me the
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Revisiting G. B. Shaw And Oscar Straus: Bravo Munich!
I’ve got a book and a CD to review, plus family arriving in a few days, and a bottle of
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“Der tapfere Soldat”: What Recordings Are There Of The 1908 Oscar Straus Show?
Munich’s recently renovated and re-opened Gärtnerplatz Theater just offered a brand-new staging of The Chocolate Soldier, in the original German
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Adonises Of Silver Operetta? Or: A Re-Encounter With Adolf Wohlbrück
There is a Facebook group out there called Adonises of the Silver Screen. It offers amazing photos of and anecdotes
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Die Operette mit “Herzton” als musikdramatisches Modell der Moderne. Edmund Eyslers “Künstlerblut” (1906)
Back in June 2012, Marion Linhardt from the University of Bayreuth presented a paper on the Eysler operetta Künstlerblut in
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Oscar Straus: Avant-propos
Il n’est guère de compositeur du vingtième siècle qui ait été jadis aussi fêté de part et d’autre de l’Atlantique
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Totally Cool? The New Operetta Season In Baden Bei Wien
The luxurious little spa town Baden bei Wien – 45 minutes from the center of Vienna by tram – considers
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Re-Visiting The Villas Of Bad Ischl: Marie-Theres Arnbom’s New Book
Anyone who is even remotely interested in the history of German language operetta knows that Bad Ischl – a kind
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“Die Perlen der Cleopatra”: Updating Oscar Straus For Berlin
It has arrived: the 2016 pull-out-all-the-stops operetta spectacle at the Komische Oper Berlin. The title of choice is Oscar Straus’
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“Every Country Gets The Operetta It Deserves”: Trends, Ideological Wars And New Books
In variation of the famous saying “Every country has the government it deserves” – by 18th century political philosopher Joseph-Marie
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“Männe, hak’ mir mal die Taille auf!”: Erotic Cabaret Songs
The art of the suggestive song is not restricted to any particular historic era; it is, however, limited to a
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Oscar Straus’ “Perlen der Cleopatra” & Kálmán’s “Marinka” Next Season
Now it’s official: the Komische Oper Berlin has announced that next season the world will have a close encounter of
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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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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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Revisiting 1932 with Oscar Straus’ “Eine Frau, die weiß was sie will”
I can’t help it. I’m an addict. I’m hopelessly addicted to Komische Oper in Berlin. For me, as an American
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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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