Full Description
Academic attention has focused on America's influence on European stage works, and yet dozens of operettas from Austria and Germany were produced on Broadway and in the West End, and their impact on the musical life of the early twentieth century is undeniable. In this ground breaking book, Derek B. Scott examines the cultural transfer of operetta from the German stage to Britain and the USA and offers a historical and critical survey of these operettas and their music. In the period 1900-1940, over sixty operettas were produced in the West End, and over seventy on Broadway. A study of these stage works is important for the light they shine on a variety of social topics of the period - from modernity and gender relations to new technology and new media - and these are investigated in the individual chapters. This book is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.
Contents
Introduction; Part I. The Production of Operetta: 1. The music of operetta; 2. Cultural transfer: translation and transcreation; 3. The business of operetta; 4. Directors, designers and performers; Part II. The Reception of Operetta: 5. The reception of operetta in London and New York; 6. Operetta and intermediality; 7. Operetta and modernity; 8. Operetta and cosmopolitanism; Postlude: the demise of operetta; Appendix 1. Productions of operetta from the German stage on Broadway and in the West End; Appendix 2. Longest runs of operetta from the German stage on Broadway and in the West End; Appendix 3. Operettas with English librettos by composers for the German stage; Appendix 4. Selected period recordings of English versions of operetta from the German stage; Appendix 5. Selected films in English of operettas from the German stage; Appendix 6. Research resources.
