Operetta

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A performance of an operetta.
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Operetta is a genre of the performing arts, related to opera, but lighter in terms of both music and subject matter. Because it is closely related to both opera and also to musical theater, in many cases, it is difficult to differentiate between them. The term began as a label for stage works that were shorter or otherwise less ambitious than full scale operas, in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Operetta became hugely popular in America in the nineteenth century, in no small part thanks to works by the likes of Gilbert and Sullivan and Johann Strauss. In addition, the operetta is the precursor of modern musical theater.

Operettas have had a vast impact on western culture. They have made opera, a typically dense and epic form of entertainment, available to the common public and accessible and enjoyable to all. They have influenced the development of later musical styles, particularly the Broadway musical, originating in New York, which has now gained popularity around the world, outstripping both Opera and Operetta.

Overview

Normally, in an operetta, some of the libretto is spoken rather than sung. Instead of moving directly from one musical number to another, the singers are given periods dialogue interspersed between the musical segments, which are performed without any singing or musical accompaniment, though sometimes musical themes are played quietly under the dialogue. Some operettas include passages of recitative, a style of semi-sung, semi-spoken text used in light opera between the musical numbers.

Operettas are often considered less "serious" than operas, although this has more to do with the often comic (or even farcical) plots than with the caliber of the music. Topical satire is a feature common to many operettas, although this is also true of some more serious operas as well. Formerly, opera expressed politics in code in some countries, such as France; for example, the circumstances of the title character in the opera Robert le diable was a code for the parental conflict and resolution of the king of France at its first performance.

Operetta is a precursor of the modern musical comedy. At the same time, it has continued to exist alongside the newer form—with each influencing the other. There is a fundamental but subtle distinction between the two forms—and this distinction is quite useful, provided one recognizes that nothing about the definition is clear, simple, or unambiguous.

Most operettas can be described as light operas with acting, whereas most musicals are closer to being plays with singing. This can best be seen in the performers chosen in the two forms. An operetta's cast will normally be classically trained opera singers; indeed, there is essentially no difference between the scores for an opera and an operetta, except for the operetta's lightness, and the dialogue segments between the numbers. A musical uses actors who sing, but usually not in an operatic style. The actors in a musical are also usually required to dance.

No matter how the distinction is drawn between operetta and musical, there are bound to be exceptions. W.S. Gilbert, for example, said that he preferred to use actors who could sing for his operetta productions, while Ezio Pinza, a great Don Giovanni, appeared on Broadway in the musicalSouth Pacific, and there are features of operetta vocal style in Kern's musical, Show Boat (1927), Bernstein's Candide, and Walt Disney's animated Snow White (1937) among others.

History

Operetta grew out of the French opéra comique around the middle of the nineteenth century, to satisfy a need for short, light works to contrast with the full-length entertainment of the increasingly serious opéra comique. By this time the "comique" part of the genre name had become misleading: Carmen (1875) is an example of an opéra comique with a tragic plot. Opéra comique had dominated the French operatic stage since the decline of tragédie lyrique.

Though Jacques Offenbach is usually credited with having written the first operettas, such as his La belle Hélène (1864), Ernest Newman remarked that the credit should really go to one Hervé, a singer, composer, librettist, conductor, and scene painter, whose real name was Florimond Ronger (1825-1892). "But it was Offenbach who took up the genre and gave it its enormous vogue during the Second Empire and afterwards."[1] Robert Planquette, André Messager, and others carried on this tradition.

File:The mikaido.jpg
A performance of Gilbert and Sullivan's The Mikado.

The most significant composer of operetta in the German language was the Austrian Johann Strauss, Jr. (1825-1899). His first work in this genre was Indigo und die vierzig Räuber (1871). It was his third operetta, Die Fledermaus (1874), which became the most performed operetta in the world and remained his most popular stage work. Its libretto was based on a comedy written by Offenbach's librettists. In fact, Strauss may have been convinced to write the operetta by Offenbach himself although it is now suggested that it may have been his first wife, Henrietta Treffz who repeatedly encouraged Strauss to try his hand at writing for the theater. In all, he wrote 16 operettas and one opera in his lifetime, mostly with great success when first premiered although they are now largely forgotten, since his later librettists were not very talented and he worked for some of the time independent of the plot. His operettas, waltzes, polkas, and marches often have a strongly Viennese style and his great popularity has caused many to think of him as the national composer of Austria. In fact, when his stage works were first performed, the Theater an der Wien never failed to draw huge crowds, and after many of the numbers the audience would noisily call for encores.

Franz von Suppé, a contemporary of Strauss, closely modeled his operettas after Offenbach. The Viennese tradition was carried on by Franz Lehár, Oscar Straus, Carl Zeller, Karl Millöcker, Leo Fall, Richard Heuberger, Edmund Eysler, Ralph Benatzky, Robert Stolz, Emmerich Kálmán, Nico Dostal, and Sigmund Romberg in the twentieth century.

The height of English-language operetta (at the time known in England as comic opera to distinguish it from French or German operetta) was reached by Gilbert and Sullivan, who had a long-running collaboration in England during the Victorian era. With W.S. Gilbert writing the libretto and Sir Arthur Sullivan composing the music, the pair produced 14 "comic operas" together, most of which were enormously popular in both Britain and elsewhere, especially the U.S., and remain popular to this day. Works such as H.M.S. Pinafore, The Pirates of Penzance, and The Mikado continue to enjoy regular performances and even some film adaptations. These comic operas influenced the later American operettas, such as those by Victor Herbert, and musical comedy.

English operetta continued into the twentieth century, with works by composers such as Edward German, Lionel Monckton, and Harold Fraser-Simson—but increasingly these took on features of musical comedy until the distinction between an "old fashioned musical" and a "modern operetta" became very blurred indeed. Old fashioned British musicals, in particular, retained an "operetta-ish" flavor well into the 1950s. More modern operettas include Candide and, some would claim, musicals like Brigadoon.

A late twentieth century renewal of the importance of recitative and serious musical composing developed in rock operas such as Andrew Lloyd Webber's Jesus Christ, Superstar, Evita, and Phantom of the Opera have rearranged the elements of opera, operetta and musical theater in yet another way, yielding works with music more like an operetta than a musical, serious plot lines more typical of a standard opera than an operetta, yet performed primarily by artists with musical theater backgrounds, in musical theater venues.

Structure

A scene from Ralph Benatsky's operetta, The White Horse Inn.

The exact structure of an operetta is difficult to pin down, mostly because of its loose definition. It is useful, however, to point out some of the things that define the differences between an operetta, a Broadway-style musical and a standard opera. In an opera, the drama is carried along by the music and singing. Operas usually emphasize an epic, grand style, with more emphasis on singing than acting. Operettas, on the other hand, tend to have dialogue broken up by musical numbers. An operetta is almost casual in comparison, and the singing style is very different. Many operettas can be performed by average or fair singers, whereas most operas cannot.

Operetta does not ask much of its audience, in contrast with opera, which is often hard to understand unless one is familiar with the story beforehand. Operettas are romantic, and nearly always promise a happy ending. The score is accessible and soaring, with the tenor and soprano taking center stage and a supporting cast that included comedians and a large male chorus. The setting is often an exotic European country or a mythic utopia—or often, a combination of the two. And the plots usually center around aristocratic, farcical, love stories.[2]

Famous operetta writers

Composer Country Key Work(s) Wrote Lived
Paul Abraham Hungary Victoria and Her Hussar (1930) (7 total) 19300-1937 1892-1960
Edmond Audran France La fille à Cacolet (1889) (total 29 operettas and operas comique) 1889-1897 1842-1901
Ralph Benatsky Austrian German White Horse Inn (1930) (total 3 plus many songs and film scores) 1928-1930 1884-1957
Manuel Fernandez Caballero
Frederic Clay
Charles Cuvillier
Roger Dumas
Ludwig Englander
Leo Fall
Richard Genee
Edward German
Jeronimo Gimenez
Walter W. Goetze
Bruno Granichstaedten
Richard Heuberger
Herve/Florimond Ronger France Several hundred stage works, including revues and operettas (1842-1897) 1858-1862 1825-1892
Jeno Huszka
Leon Jessel
Emmerich Kalman
Rudolf Kattnigg
Gustave Kerker
Franz Lehar
Charles Lecoq
Louis-Aime Maillart
Oskar Nedbal
Jacques Offenbach France La belle Hélène (1864) (total more than 40 stage works between 1847 and 1880) 1864 1819-1880
Robert Planquette
Sigmund Romberg
Victor Roger
Luois Roth
Gaston Serpette
Vincent Scotto
Dmitri Shostakovich
John Philip Sousa
Johann Strauss Jr Austria Die Fledermaus (1874), (16 total) 1871-1897 1825-1899
Oscar Straus
Arthur Sullivan England H.M.S. Pinafore (1878), Pirates of Penzance (1879), The Mikado (1885) (over 25 total) 1871-1900 1842-1900
Jean Gilbert
Albert Szirmai
Ivan Zajc

Notes

  1. Ernest Newman, in Louis Biacolli, ed. The Opera Reader (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1953), 317.
  2. PBS, Operetta. Retrieved July 28, 2008.

References
ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

  • Bordman, Gerald. American Operetta. New York: Oxford University Press, 1981.
  • Ganzl, Kurt. The Encyclopedia of Musical Theatre. New York: Schirmer Books, 2001.
  • The Guide to Light Opera and Operetta, Introduction. Retrieved July 28, 2008.
  • Traubner, Richard. Operetta: A Theatrical History. Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Company, 1983

External links

All links retrieved July 21, 2008.


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