Page 551 - Weiss, Jernej, ur./ed. 2021. Opereta med obema svetovnima vojnama ▪︎ Operetta between the Two World Wars. Koper/Ljubljana: Založba Univerze na Primorskem in Festival Ljubljana. Studia musicologica Labacensia, 5
P. 551
oi: https://doi.org/10.26493/978-961-293-055-4.549-570
Summaries
Jacques Amblard
Operetta in Marseille (France) During the 1930’s, a Bridge
to the New Cultural Industry: The Example of Tino Rossi
During the 1930s, Marseille, perhaps the most emblematic city of south-
ern France, had at least two major venues for operettas: the “Théâtre des
Variétés” and the “Alcazar”. This is where the young Corsican singer Tino
Rossi made his debut. However, the nascent cultural industry, soon stigma-
tised by Adorno (during this very period), put Rossi in these places of tran-
sition, of mutation. An impresario called him “king of the charming sing-
ers”. The operetta genre in the 1930s thus appears as a historic hub. Rossi,
first a typical operetta tenorino, “logically” became a variety singer, one who
is still top ranked with regard to records in France. The commonly accepted
fact that operetta as a genre fell into disregard after the Second World War
is perhaps mistaken. Operettas might not have really disappeared, but just
mutated, into musicals (like West Side Story, which won 10 Oscars in 1962),
or even into these millions of albums of variety and pop music which be-
came the norm, today, of our postmodern music. The term “operetta sing-
er” is thus wrongly associated with a bygone age, as it may in fact represent
a pillar of present-day Western society, called “Société du spectacle” by Guy
Debord (1967). In a way, today “all our society might be operetta”.
Keywords: Cultural industry, records, spectacle, operetta, Tino Rossi
549
Summaries
Jacques Amblard
Operetta in Marseille (France) During the 1930’s, a Bridge
to the New Cultural Industry: The Example of Tino Rossi
During the 1930s, Marseille, perhaps the most emblematic city of south-
ern France, had at least two major venues for operettas: the “Théâtre des
Variétés” and the “Alcazar”. This is where the young Corsican singer Tino
Rossi made his debut. However, the nascent cultural industry, soon stigma-
tised by Adorno (during this very period), put Rossi in these places of tran-
sition, of mutation. An impresario called him “king of the charming sing-
ers”. The operetta genre in the 1930s thus appears as a historic hub. Rossi,
first a typical operetta tenorino, “logically” became a variety singer, one who
is still top ranked with regard to records in France. The commonly accepted
fact that operetta as a genre fell into disregard after the Second World War
is perhaps mistaken. Operettas might not have really disappeared, but just
mutated, into musicals (like West Side Story, which won 10 Oscars in 1962),
or even into these millions of albums of variety and pop music which be-
came the norm, today, of our postmodern music. The term “operetta sing-
er” is thus wrongly associated with a bygone age, as it may in fact represent
a pillar of present-day Western society, called “Société du spectacle” by Guy
Debord (1967). In a way, today “all our society might be operetta”.
Keywords: Cultural industry, records, spectacle, operetta, Tino Rossi
549
