The Operetta Empire: Music Theater in Early Twentieth-Century Vienna"When the world comes to an end," Viennese writer Karl Kraus lamented in 1908, "all the big city orchestras will still be playing The Merry Widow." Viennese operettas like Franz Lehár's The Merry Widow were preeminent cultural texts during the Austro-Hungarian Empire's final years. Alternately hopeful and nihilistic, operetta staged contemporary debates about gender, nationality, and labor. The Operetta Empire delves into this vibrant theatrical culture, whose creators simultaneously sought the respectability of high art and the popularity of low entertainment. Case studies examine works by Lehár, Emmerich Kálmán, Oscar Straus, and Leo Fall in light of current musicological conversations about hybridity and middlebrow culture. Demonstrating a thorough mastery of the complex early twentieth‐century Viennese cultural scene, and a sympathetic and redemptive critique of a neglected popular genre, Micaela Baranello establishes operetta as an important element of Viennese cultural life—one whose transgressions helped define the musical hierarchies of its day. |
What people are saying - Write a review
We haven't found any reviews in the usual places.
Contents
Operetta in Vienna | 1 |
Die lustige Witwe and the Creation of Silver Age Viennese Operetta | 15 |
Sentimentality Satire and Labor | 44 |
Hungary Vienna and the Gypsy Operetta 4 Operetta and the Great War 73 93 | 73 |
Exotic Liaisons | 122 |
Operetta in the Past Tense | 158 |
Notes | 177 |
215 | |
229 | |
Other editions - View all
The Operetta Empire: Music Theater in Early Twentieth-Century Vienna Micaela Baranello Limited preview - 2021 |
Common terms and phrases
already appears audience Austrian Bajadere become beginning Berlin century chapter characters composers considered critics Csárdásfürstin culture dance Danilo described early Eisen Empire entirely example exotic Fall finale Franz genre German Gold gab Gypsy Hungarian identity important Jewish Johann Kálmán Karl Kraus Land des Lächelns later Lehár Léon less librettists libretto lives lustige Witwe major March Neue never notes œ œ œ onstage opening Oper opera operetta orchestra original Paris Parisian particularly performance play plot political popular premiere present Press production reception refers remained represented role Rose satire score seems sentimental setting Silver Age singing social song sound stage Strauss style success suggests takes Tauber Theater tion traditional University Press Vienna Viennese Viennese operetta waltz Wien Wiener women writing written wrote