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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, length of the work, and at face value, subject matter. Apart from its shorter length, the operetta is usually of a light and amusing character. It sometimes also includes satirical commentaries.
Henry Louis Reginald De Koven was an American music critic and prolific composer, particularly of comic operas.
Comic opera, sometimes known as light opera, is a sung dramatic work of a light or comic nature, usually with a happy ending and often including spoken dialogue.
Harry Bache Smith was a writer, lyricist and composer. The most prolific of all American stage writers, he is said to have written over 300 librettos and more than 6000 lyrics. Some of his best-known works were librettos for the composers Victor Herbert and Reginald De Koven. He also wrote the book or lyrics for several versions of the Ziegfeld Follies.
Félix Marie Henri Tilkin, better known by his pen name Ivan Caryll, was a Belgian-born composer of operettas and Edwardian musical comedies in the English language, who made his career in London and later New York. He composed some forty musical comedies and operettas.
The Lyric Theatre was a Broadway theatre built in 1903 in the Theater District of Manhattan in New York City. It had two formal entrances: at 213 West 42nd Street and 214-26 West 43rd Street. In 1934, it was converted into a movie theatre which it remained until closing in 1992. In 1996, its interior was demolished and the space was combined with that of the former Apollo Theatre to create the Ford Center, now the new Lyric Theatre. Both the 42nd and 43rd Street facades of the original Lyric were preserved and today form the front and back entrances of the modern Lyric Theatre.
Henry Martyn Blossom, Jr. was an American writer, playwright, novelist, opera librettist, and lyricist. He first gained wide attention for his second novel, Checkers: A Hard Luck Story (1896), which was successfully adapted by Blossom into a 1903 Broadway play, Checkers. It was Blossom's first stage work and his first critical success in the theatre. The play in turn was adapted by others creatives into two silent films, one in 1913 and the other in 1919, and the play was the basis for the 1920 Broadway musical Honey Girl. Checkers was soon followed by Blossom's first critical success as a lyricist, the comic opera The Yankee Consul (1903), on which he collaborated with fellow Saint Louis resident and composer Alfred G. Robyn. This work was also adapted into a silent film in 1921. He later collaborated with Robyn again; writing the book and lyrics for their 1912 musical All for the Ladies.
The Casino Theatre was a Broadway theatre located at 1404 Broadway and West 39th Street in New York City. Built in 1882, it was a leading presenter of mostly musicals and operettas until it closed in 1930.
Richard Traubner was an American journalist, author, operetta scholar and historian, and lecturer on theatre and film. His best-known book, Operetta: A Theatrical History, was first published in 1983.
Rob Roy is an operetta by composer Reginald De Koven and lyricist Harry B. Smith, frequent collaborators, loosely based upon the life of Scottish folk hero Robert Roy MacGregor, better known as Rob Roy, and the Walter Scott novel about him.
Gipsy Love is an operetta in three acts by Franz Lehár with a libretto by Alfred Willner and Robert Bodanzky, provided with English translations and revisions by several hands. The story centres on the daughter of a Romanian landowner who is engaged to a man of her own class but is attracted to a gipsy violinist at her engagement party. The brooding, romantic story featured dance music.
Bruder Straubinger is an operetta in three acts composed by Edmund Eysler to a German-language libretto by Moritz West and Ignaz Schnitzer. It premiered at the Theater an der Wien in Vienna on 20 February 1903 with Alexander Girardi in the title role.
Joseph William Herbert was a British-born American director, silent-film actor, singer and dramatist notable for being the first person to play Ko-Ko in America in a pirate production of Gilbert and Sullivan's The Mikado (1885) before joining D'Oyly Carte Opera Company touring companies across America (1885–1890).
Louis De Lange, also known as Louis De Lange Moss was an American playwright, actor, and theatrical manager. As a stage actor he primarily appeared in light operas and musicals; notably portraying Sir Joseph Porter in the original production of John Philip Sousa's pirated version of Gilbert and Sullivan's H.M.S. Pinafore in Philadelphia, on Broadway and on tour in 1879. As a dramatist he mainly wrote the books for musicals; often in collaboration with writer Edgar Smith on projects created for the comedy duo Lew Fields and Joe Weber. De Lange also worked as Fields and Weber's manager for their national tours. His wife was the Broadway actress Selma Mantell who appeared in the Ziegfeld Follies among other Broadway shows. Their son was the bandleader and lyricist Eddie DeLange.
Broadway to Tokio is a musical in three acts with music by Alfred Baldwin Sloane and lyrics and book co-authored by George V. Hobart and Louis Harrison. While the song material was composed entirely by Sloane, composer Reginald De Koven also contributed some dance music to the work. Karl Hoschna and Frank Sadler orchestrated the music. Essentially a revue, the musical incorporates elements of operetta, burlesque, ballet, and vaudeville.
Louis Harrison was an actor, playwright, comedian, lyricist, librettist, and theatre director. As both a performer and playwright, he was mainly active within the genres of musical theatre and light opera.
Ernest Albert, born Ernest Albert Brown, was an American painter, illustrator, muralist, and scenic designer. He was a prolific scenic designer, first in St. Louis and Chicago and then on Broadway. He is considered a major American landscape painter and was elected the first president of the Allied Artists of America in 1919.
The Little Duchess is a musical in three acts with music by Reginald De Koven and both book and lyrics by Harry B. Smith. Produced by Florenz Ziegfeld Jr., the work was an adaptation of Alfred Hennequin's 1878 play Niniche. The musical was created as a starring vehicle for Ziegfeld's longtime life partner, the actress Anna Held, who portrayed Clare de Brion, a.k.a "The Little Duchess".
Happyland, Or, The King of Elysia is a comic opera in two acts with music by Reginald De Koven and a libretto by Frederic Ranken.
Frederic G. Ranken was an American librettist, lyricist, and playwright for light operas and musicals staged on Broadway from 1899 through 1907. His greatest success was the libretto for Reginald De Koven's 1905 comic opera Happyland. He also wrote libretti for composers Victor Herbert and Ludwig Engländer, and was a lyricist for composers Alfred Baldwin Sloane and Gustave Kerker among others. As a playwright he wrote the books for several musicals.