Winter warmers needed! What will the Opera Group do in winter term? What to view when it's too cold for sitting still for long, too dark for enjoying heavy plots and historical complexity of grand operas, however wonderful the music?
And so, seeking laughs, dancing, fun and silly songs, we will revert, as did the composers, librettists, producers, impresarios and audiences of Europe and the US, to operetta. (Especially the impresarios - these were the amazing financial successes of musical theatre from the mid-19th century to the 1930s.) Here's Wiki's account of the wild and remarkably short history of operetta.
Offenbach, in France, offered the first repertory operetta, La Belle Helene, in 1865) and then Orpheus in the Underworld, 1874. We'll start there.
In the same year (how extraordinary!) over in Austria, Strauss (Johann II) produced the hugely successful (and still very popular) Die Fledermaus, (1874).
Then the most British of operettas, those of Gilbert and Sullivan, dominated two decades (1879 to 1896) and take us up to the turn of the century. (We haven't yet screened the Gondoliers, (1889), so that's our G&S treat for the term).
A new century takes us back in Austria for more waltzes and cancans, with Lehar's Merry Widow (1905). Another lasting success story. (And one linked eternally to Joan Sutherland - here pictured informally with Ron Stevens in the 1988 production.)
In English, this new century's operetta belongs to London's West End and Broadway in New York, where we'll dive into the great super-romantic operettas that brought the European and US successes together. Do you know the songs from Naughty Marietta (1910) by Victor Herbert (think "Ah sweet mystery of life")? And from Maytime (1917) by Sigmund Romberg, ("Will You Remember?")? Everyone sang them, and you will too!
Romberg? Ah yes, he went on to do The Student Prince (1924), as will we, complete with the voice of Mario Lanza and that "Serenade" ("Overhead the moon is beaming").
And then - what happened? Operetta transformed into musical somewhere between the World Wars. What's the difference and why the shift?
Many see the divider as Jerome Kern's Show Boat - a brilliant success taking a 1926 best seller novel into a 1927 operetta/musical (and Paul Robeson into international fame.) "A radical departure in musical storytelling, marrying spectacle with seriousness", ... compared with the trivial and unrealistic operettas, light musical comedies and "Follies"-type musical revues that defined Broadway in the 1890s and early 20th century.' Wikipedia.
So operetta ends where? Never, if the lasting popularity of many of these pieces is evidence - but it's interesting to ask which ones survived and why - and whether the form will revive.
We'll end our review with Bernstein's Candide, which in 1956 was the last (or is that the most recent?) work described as operetta, in the US.
Then we'll complete the term with a concert of those great Broadway operetta sugar-laden hits - so you can go out singing the 'Indian Love Call' from Friml's Rose-Marie, 1924.
More, much more, to come as we warm up for our winter term.
Meanwhile, stay warm and well, everyone.
Lyn, 26/6/24
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