Page 70 - 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. 70
opereta med obema svetovnima vojnama
the zombie core group attend operetta performances? There is a noticeable
revival and renewal underway, on many levels. Ever since the conference
Operette unterm Hakenkreuz (Operetta under the Swastika) at Staatsoper-
ette Dresden in 2005 there has been a flood of publications about the polit-
ical dimension of operetta, whether it is Boris von Haken’s 2007 Der “Re
ichsdramaturg” Rainer Schlösser und die Musiktheater-Politik in der NS-Zeit
or Christoph Domke’s 2011 Unterhaltungsmusik und NS-Verfolgung, not to
mention Matthias Kauffmann’s monumental Operette im ‘Dritten Reich’:
Musikalisches Unterhaltungstheater zwischen 1933 und 1945. Many research-
ers have also started utilizing letters, business correspondences and diaries
for the first time for new biographies, e.g. Barbara Denscher with her 2017
‘Werkbiografie’ Der Operettenlibrettist Victor Léon. In many cases, though,
researchers present novel facts but shy away from asking hard questions,
e.g. Stefan Frey who writes about Leo Fall and the composer’s erratic behav-
ior and constant disappearances in the 2010 Leo Fall: Spöttischer Rebell der
Operette, yet never wonders if such typical drug addiction behavior might
not indicate that Fall and his wife were ‘junkies.’ It seems researchers still
have some way to go in accepting that in a world of ‘safe space’ operetta the
same ugly things happen as anywhere else, and that operetta composers
can write brilliantly carefree waltzes and still be addicts.
The new research goes hand in hand with a new interest in shows be-
yond the post-war core repertoire of Fledermaus, Merry Widow and White
Horse Inn. Barrie Kosky at Berlin’s Komische Oper has been especially im-
portant in reviving the jazz operettas of the 1920s, bringing long forgotten
titles back into circulation and thus showing that there are many aspects in
these shows that can be of interest for future generations of operetta fans.
Something that was also very evident in 2018 when the activist Gorki Thea
ter in Berlin offered the Mischa Spoliansky/Marcellus Schiffer cabaret op-
eretta Alles Schwindel and landed a hit. In a “Letter from Berlin” Irish Times
correspondent Derek Scally wrote in January 2018:
After initial caution about the unfamiliar repertoire, [Barrie Ko-
sky’s] Berlin audiences now cannot get enough of these new-
old works drawn from a deep well of forgotten cultural memory.
The latest revival from this source at Berlin’s Gorki Theatre is Al
les Schwindel (All’s a Swindle), a sly political revue from 1931 using
songs and scenes to mock both late-stage Weimar decadence and
the rising fascist wave. […] The Gorki Theatre’s knock-out revival
[…] involves a flimsy plot with its roots in deceptive lonely hearts
68
the zombie core group attend operetta performances? There is a noticeable
revival and renewal underway, on many levels. Ever since the conference
Operette unterm Hakenkreuz (Operetta under the Swastika) at Staatsoper-
ette Dresden in 2005 there has been a flood of publications about the polit-
ical dimension of operetta, whether it is Boris von Haken’s 2007 Der “Re
ichsdramaturg” Rainer Schlösser und die Musiktheater-Politik in der NS-Zeit
or Christoph Domke’s 2011 Unterhaltungsmusik und NS-Verfolgung, not to
mention Matthias Kauffmann’s monumental Operette im ‘Dritten Reich’:
Musikalisches Unterhaltungstheater zwischen 1933 und 1945. Many research-
ers have also started utilizing letters, business correspondences and diaries
for the first time for new biographies, e.g. Barbara Denscher with her 2017
‘Werkbiografie’ Der Operettenlibrettist Victor Léon. In many cases, though,
researchers present novel facts but shy away from asking hard questions,
e.g. Stefan Frey who writes about Leo Fall and the composer’s erratic behav-
ior and constant disappearances in the 2010 Leo Fall: Spöttischer Rebell der
Operette, yet never wonders if such typical drug addiction behavior might
not indicate that Fall and his wife were ‘junkies.’ It seems researchers still
have some way to go in accepting that in a world of ‘safe space’ operetta the
same ugly things happen as anywhere else, and that operetta composers
can write brilliantly carefree waltzes and still be addicts.
The new research goes hand in hand with a new interest in shows be-
yond the post-war core repertoire of Fledermaus, Merry Widow and White
Horse Inn. Barrie Kosky at Berlin’s Komische Oper has been especially im-
portant in reviving the jazz operettas of the 1920s, bringing long forgotten
titles back into circulation and thus showing that there are many aspects in
these shows that can be of interest for future generations of operetta fans.
Something that was also very evident in 2018 when the activist Gorki Thea
ter in Berlin offered the Mischa Spoliansky/Marcellus Schiffer cabaret op-
eretta Alles Schwindel and landed a hit. In a “Letter from Berlin” Irish Times
correspondent Derek Scally wrote in January 2018:
After initial caution about the unfamiliar repertoire, [Barrie Ko-
sky’s] Berlin audiences now cannot get enough of these new-
old works drawn from a deep well of forgotten cultural memory.
The latest revival from this source at Berlin’s Gorki Theatre is Al
les Schwindel (All’s a Swindle), a sly political revue from 1931 using
songs and scenes to mock both late-stage Weimar decadence and
the rising fascist wave. […] The Gorki Theatre’s knock-out revival
[…] involves a flimsy plot with its roots in deceptive lonely hearts
68
