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.
Vienna is the capital, most populous city, and one of nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. Its larger metropolitan area has a population of nearly 2.9 million, representing nearly one-third of the country's population. Vienna is the cultural, economic, and political center of the country, the fifth-largest city by population in the European Union, and the most-populous of the cities on the Danube river.
Germany claims some of the most renowned composers, singers, producers and performers of the world. Germany is the largest music market in Europe, and third largest in the world.
Vienna has been an important center of musical innovation. 18th- and 19th-century composers were drawn to the city due to the patronage of the Habsburgs, and made Vienna the European capital of classical music. Joseph Haydn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven, Franz Schubert and Johann Strauss II, among others, were associated with the city, with Schubert being born in Vienna. During the Baroque period, Slavic and Hungarian folk forms influenced Austrian music. Vienna's status began its rise as a cultural center in the early 16th century, and was focused on instruments including the lute.
The Vienna State Opera is a historic opera house and opera company based in Vienna, Austria. The 1,709-seat Renaissance Revival venue was the first major building on the Vienna Ring Road. It was built from 1861 to 1869 following plans by August Sicard von Sicardsburg and Eduard van der Nüll, and designs by Josef Hlávka. The opera house was inaugurated as the "Vienna Court Opera" in the presence of Emperor Franz Joseph I and Empress Elisabeth of Austria. It became known by its current name after the establishment of the First Austrian Republic in 1921. The Vienna State Opera is the successor of the old Vienna Court Opera. The new site was chosen and the construction paid by Emperor Franz Joseph in 1861.
Opera in German is that of the German-speaking countries, which include Germany, Austria, and the historic German states that pre-date those countries.
Olga Neuwirth is an Austrian contemporary classical composer, visual artist and author. She is famed especially for her operas and music theater works, many of which have treated sociopolitical themes. She has emphasized an open-ended, interdisciplinary approach in her work, collaborating frequently with Elfriede Jelinek, exploiting live electronics, and incorporating video. In her opera Lost Highway, she adapted David Lynch's surrealist film with the same name. She has also written music for historic and contemporary films. Luigi Nono has inspired her both musically and politically.
Johann Nepomuk Eduard Ambrosius Nestroy was a singer, actor and playwright in the popular Austrian tradition of the Biedermeier period and its immediate aftermath. He participated in the 1848 revolutions and his work reflects the new liberal spirit then spreading throughout Europe.
The Vienna Festival (Wiener Festwochen) is a culture festival that takes place in Vienna for five or six weeks in May and June every year. The Vienna Festival was established in 1951, when Vienna was still occupied by the four Allied powers.
Austrian culture is characterised by historical and modern influences, including a history of interaction primarily between Celtic, Roman, Slavic and Germanic peoples. Austria is particularly known for its classical music, folk music, baroque architecture, coffee culture, winter sports and Alpine traditions.
The Viennese coffee house is a typical institution of Vienna that played an important part in shaping Viennese culture.
In eastern Austria, a Heuriger is a tavern where local winemakers serve their new wine under a special licence in alternating months during the growing season. Each state in Austria has slightly varying rules on how many Heuriger of a town can be open at any given time and for how long in total during the year. The Heurige are renowned for their atmosphere of Gemütlichkeit shared among a throng enjoying young wine, simple food, and – in some places – Schrammelmusik. They correspond to the Straußwirtschaften in the German Rheinland, the Frasche in Friuli-Venezia Giulia, and Osmica in Slovenia.
The Wiener Moderne or Viennese Modernism is a term describing the culture of Vienna in the period between approximately 1890 and 1910. It refers especially to the development of modernism in the Austrian capital and its effect on the spheres of philosophy, literature, music, art, design and architecture.
Alphons Czibulka was an Austro-Hungarian military bandmaster, composer, pianist and conductor.
Schrammelmusik is a style of Viennese folk music originating in the late nineteenth century and still performed in Austria. The style is named for the prolific folk composers Johann and Josef Schrammel.
Wiener Kammeroper is a chamber opera theatre and company in Vienna, Austria. Founded in 1948 by the conductor Hans Gabor, it was originally named Vienna Opera Studiom receiving its present name in 1953. It is located at 24 Fleischmarkt Street in the city centre. It has been managed by Theater an der Wien since 2012.
Extremschrammeln are an Austrian folk music band, led by guitarist and singer Roland Neuwirth. The group enhance the traditional Viennese folk music Schrammelmusik with satirical lyrics, as well as jazz, blues, rock, and 20th-century classical music influences. They perform original songs in German, Viennese, and English.
Johann Schrammel,, was an Austrian composer and musician.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to Vienna:
Heinz "Honzo" Holecek was an Austrian bass-baritone, known as an opera and operetta singer as well as a lied interpreter, was also a Viennese "all-round artist" – actor, parodist, and entertainer.
