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To many readers, operetta is a mostly forgotten music genre. Or is it? There are devotees in the United States and many more in Europe for the old fashioned musical shows most people think of as operettas. They enjoy the many beautiful melodies, ardent and passionate singing, and humorous songs in foreign languages they may not understand, with plots involving fairy tale royalty and mistaken identities. Operettas, like all musical forms, changed over the years to suit audience tastes. Although the music is still enjoyable, the sometimes dated and implausible plots may not be attractive to modern audiences. Attempts to update the scenarios have met with mixed results.
Many readers would be surprised that what we now call sung-thru or integrated musicals-Phantom of the Opera, Miss Saigon, A Little Night Music, Candide, My Fair Lady, and The Most Happy Fella-are really operettas, but the connection with the term "opera" is not appealing to producers or audiences. Even the recent Broadway show Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1912, which I saw earlier this year, is an operetta, though the press agents would never use that term.
This overview will dispel some of the rumors about the health of operetta and explain how operettas have changed with public tastes. We will discuss the various types of operetta, the composers, and some of the better known shows and recordings. If some of your favorite composers or operettas are missed, it's only because of the breadth of the subject matter. There will be explanations of the various types and "periods" of operetta including French, Viennese, Berlin, English, and American, which used elements from earlier shows to create new and progressive styles that are what we now term "musical theater" In Part 2 of this overview, we'll discuss "Silver Age" Viennese (post 1900), Berlin, English (including Gilbert and Sullivan), and American operettas. In Part 2 we'll also discuss where you can still see operettas.
How is operetta different from opera?
The distinction of what is an opera and what is an operetta is anything but clear, though there are certain traits of each genre that can help to understand the differences. In general, operas were written based on commissions from royalty or wealthy patrons who expected highquality music,...