Page 69 - 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
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operetta as safe space
Photo 9: The terrorists in Julien Nitzberg and Roger Neill’s “very model of a modern
operetta” The Beastly Bombing: A Terrible Tale of Terrorists Tamed by the Tangles of True Love, Los
Angeles 2006 (Photo: Kim Gottlieb Walker)
marked: in the course of continuing popularization almost every move-
ment turns into its own caricature.42
We could apply Bovenschen’s verdict to operetta: what we have seen
as operetta in the past decades is a caricature of original opéra bouffe ide-
als and even of various once popular counter movements. What is present-
ed as ‘traditional’ at venues such as Ohio Light Opera or the Lehár Festival
in Bad Ischl, Volksoper Wien or the annual outdoor Mörbisch festival are
versions of operetta to which Bovenschen’s verdict applies. Combined with
many lackluster performances by opera companies, and an endless series
of horrendous TV broadcasts and films, and a constant re-issuing of prob-
lematic post-WW2 recordings that interpret operetta like a Lortzing ‘Sing-
spiel’ have more or less killed the genre as a relevant art form of broad-
er public appeal, leaving a small zombie-like group of followers who don’t
ever seem to die out and want their operetta exactly like this: a ‘safe’ near-
death experience.
Back to the Future?
Which brings us to the present-day: why should anyone in general, or aca-
demics in particular, take note of operetta? Why should audiences beyond
42 Silvia Bovenschen, Älter werden (Frankfurt a. M.: Fischer, 2013), 172.
67
Photo 9: The terrorists in Julien Nitzberg and Roger Neill’s “very model of a modern
operetta” The Beastly Bombing: A Terrible Tale of Terrorists Tamed by the Tangles of True Love, Los
Angeles 2006 (Photo: Kim Gottlieb Walker)
marked: in the course of continuing popularization almost every move-
ment turns into its own caricature.42
We could apply Bovenschen’s verdict to operetta: what we have seen
as operetta in the past decades is a caricature of original opéra bouffe ide-
als and even of various once popular counter movements. What is present-
ed as ‘traditional’ at venues such as Ohio Light Opera or the Lehár Festival
in Bad Ischl, Volksoper Wien or the annual outdoor Mörbisch festival are
versions of operetta to which Bovenschen’s verdict applies. Combined with
many lackluster performances by opera companies, and an endless series
of horrendous TV broadcasts and films, and a constant re-issuing of prob-
lematic post-WW2 recordings that interpret operetta like a Lortzing ‘Sing-
spiel’ have more or less killed the genre as a relevant art form of broad-
er public appeal, leaving a small zombie-like group of followers who don’t
ever seem to die out and want their operetta exactly like this: a ‘safe’ near-
death experience.
Back to the Future?
Which brings us to the present-day: why should anyone in general, or aca-
demics in particular, take note of operetta? Why should audiences beyond
42 Silvia Bovenschen, Älter werden (Frankfurt a. M.: Fischer, 2013), 172.
67
