Operetta is a form of theatre and a genre of light opera. It includes spoken dialogue, songs, and dances. It is lighter than opera in terms of its music, orchestral size, and length of the work. Apart from its shorter length, the operetta is usually of a light and amusing character. The subject matter may portray "lovers' spats, mistaken identities, sudden reversals of fortune, and glittering parties". It sometimes also includes satirical commentaries.
Johann Baptist Strauss II, also known as Johann Strauss Jr., the Younger or the Son, was an Austrian composer of light music, particularly dance music and operettas as well as a violinist. He composed over 500 waltzes, polkas, quadrilles, and other types of dance music, as well as several operettas and a ballet. In his lifetime, he was known as "The Waltz King", and was largely responsible for the popularity of the waltz in 19th century|Vienna during the 19th century. Some of Johann Strauss's most famous works include "The Blue Danube", "Kaiser-Walzer", "Tales from the Vienna Woods", "Frühlingsstimmen", and the "Tritsch-Tratsch-Polka". Among his operettas, Die Fledermaus and Der Zigeunerbaron are the best known.
Karl August Leopold Böhm was an Austrian conductor. He was best known for his performances of the music of Mozart, Wagner, and Richard Strauss.
Herbert von Karajan was an Austrian conductor. He was principal conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic for 34 years. During the Nazi era, he debuted at the Salzburg Festival, with the Vienna Philharmonic, the Berlin Philharmonic, and during World War II he conducted at the Berlin State Opera. Generally regarded as one of the greatest conductors of the 20th century, he was a controversial but dominant figure in European classical music from the mid-1950s until his death. Part of the reason for this was the large number of recordings he made and their prominence during his lifetime. By one estimate, he sold an estimated 200 million records.
Franz Lehár was an Austro-Hungarian composer. He is mainly known for his operettas, of which the most successful and best known is The Merry Widow.
Eduard Hanslick was an Austrian music critic, aesthetician and historian. Among the leading critics of his time, he was the chief music critic of the Neue Freie Presse from 1864 until the end of his life. His best known work, the 1854 treatise Vom Musikalisch-Schönen, was a landmark in the aesthetics of music and outlines much of his artistic and philosophical beliefs on music.
Emmerich Kálmán was a Hungarian composer of operettas and a prominent figure in the development of Viennese operetta in the 20th century. Among his most popular works are Die Csárdásfürstin (1915) and Gräfin Mariza (1924). Influences on his compositional style include Hungarian folk music, the Viennese style of precursors such as Johann Strauss II and Franz Lehár, and, in his later works, American jazz. As a result of the Anschluss, Kálmán and his family fled to Paris and then to the United States. He eventually returned to Europe in 1949 and died in Paris in 1953.
Franz von Suppé, born Francesco Ezechiele Ermenegildo de Suppé was an Austrian composer of light operas and other theatre music. He came from the Kingdom of Dalmatia, Austro-Hungarian Empire. A composer and conductor of the Romantic period, he is notable for his four dozen operettas, including the first operetta to a German libretto. Some of them remain in the repertory, particularly in German-speaking countries, and he composed a substantial quantity of church music, but he is now chiefly known for his overtures, which remain popular in the concert hall and on record. Among the best-known are Poet and Peasant, Light Cavalry, Morning, Noon, and Night in Vienna and Pique Dame.
Opera in German is that of the German-speaking countries, which include Germany, Austria, and the historic German states that pre-date those countries.
Jan Wiktor Kiepura was a Polish opera singer and actor. He enjoyed a successful international career and performed at leading concert halls around the world including La Scala, Metropolitan Opera, Royal Opera House, Opéra-Comique, La Fenice and Teatro Colón. He was the recipient of numerous national and international distinctions and honours including Poland's Order of Polonia Restituta, France's Legion of Honour and Sweden's Order of the Polar Star.
Robert Elisabeth Stolz was an Austrian songwriter and conductor as well as a composer of operettas and film music.
Fritz Löhner-Beda, born Bedřich Löwy, was an Austrian librettist, lyricist and writer. Once nearly forgotten, many of his songs and tunes remain popular today. He was murdered in Auschwitz III Monowitz concentration camp.
Marta Eggerth was a Hungarian actress and singer from "The Silver Age of Operetta". Many of the 20th century's most famous operetta composers, including Franz Lehár, Fritz Kreisler, Robert Stolz, Oscar Straus, and Paul Abraham, composed works especially for her.
Edmund Samuel Eysler, was an Austrian composer.
Heinrich Reinhardt (1865–1922) was an Austrian composer. He died on 31 January 1922 in Vienna and is buried at the Döbling Cemetery.
Julius Bittner was an Austrian composer.
The Gymnasium Wasagasse is a secondary school in Alsergrund, the 9th district of Vienna. Alumni of the school include two Nobel laureates, an Academy Award winner and many notable politicians, artists and scientists.
Olive Moorefield is an American actress and singer. She appeared in more than twenty films from 1954 to 1976.
Peter Minich was an Austrian stage actor who became a tenor performing in operas, operettas and musical films. He was for decades the lead tenor of the Volksoper in Vienna, focused on Viennese operetta.
Carl Friedrich Clemens Weinmüller was an operatic bass and theatre director. A bass with the Imperial Ccourt Opera in Vienna, he is known for performing Rocco in the premiere of Beethoven's Fidelio.
