Operette#

Operetta: In Austria, the genre operetta developed mainly out of the Singspiel - eighteenth-century comic opera with dialogue instead of recitative - and traditional, popular Viennese plays interspersed with musical numbers, but it was also influenced by grand Opera. The popularity of French theatre in the second half of the eighteenth century also accounted for important precursors, such as the opera comique and vaudeville. Viennese operetta is marked by the frequent use of dance rhythms (waltz, polka, march, etc.). The term "operetta" was coined by the publishers of the works, most contemporary composers referring to the genre as "comic opera".

The deciding impetus for the emergence of Viennese operetta came from France. The works of Jacques Offenbach, performed in the 1850s in Vienna at the Carltheater, made this new type of musical theatre popular. The actual birth of Viennese operetta is considered to have been the performance of F. v. Suppe´s "Das Pensionat" (24 November 1860) at the same theatre. Patterned after Offenbach´s opera bouffe, Viennese operetta soon developed its own characteristic local colour. After F. v. Suppe, whose works dominated the 1860s, the "golden age of operetta" dawned with "Indigo and the Forty Thieves, or A Thousand and One Nights" (often referred to simply as "Indigo") by Strauss, Johann the Younger in 1871. In addition to Johann Strauss the Younger and Karl Milloecker, further representatives of the "golden age of operetta" were C. Zeller, R. Heuberger Sr., A. Czibulka, A. Mueller Sr. and Jr., C. M. Ziehrer, and the librettist R. Genee. The Carltheater remained the most important theatre for operetta, while the Theater an der Wien, the Ringtheater (Wiener Operettentheater), and the Johann-Strauss-Theater were also important venues where famous luminaries of the operetta world such as A. Girardi, K. Blasel, J. Matras, W. Knaack, K. Treumann and C. A. Friese, the singers A. Grobecker, J. Gallmeyer, A. Kraft, and v. a. M. Geistinger gave celebrated performances. The turn of the century marks the onset of the second era of operetta, known as the "silver age of operetta", beginning with H. Reinhardt's "Das suesse Maedel" (1901). Typical works of this period include F. Lehár´s "The Merry Widow" ("Die lustige Witwe"), "A Waltz Dream" ("Ein Walzertraum") by O. Straus or L. Fall´s "Dollarprinzessin"; other representatives are O. Nedbal, R. Benatzky, E. Eysler and E. Kálmán. Characteristic of this period are, on the one hand, a tendency to use folklore (e.g. gypsy music, Chinese and Russian musical elements), and, on the other hand, the incorporation of popular music of the time (jazz, popular dances, etc.). The storylines increasingly move away from genre portrayal (landed gentry, the upper classes, rural milieu) towards more "up-to date" musical theatre and revue; particularly in the works of N. Dostal and R. Stolz; Another representative of this late form is E. Kálmán. In the twentieth century, the modern Musical developed out of operetta and other musical trends.

Literature#