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2 - Viennese Golden-Age Operetta: Drinking, Dancing and Social Criticism in a Multi-Ethnic Empire

from Part I - Early Centres of Operetta

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 November 2019

Anastasia Belina
Affiliation:
University of Leeds
Derek B. Scott
Affiliation:
University of Leeds
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Summary

Viennese operetta, while partly modelled on Offenbach, was also shaped by the city’s role as the centre of a multicultural empire and by its vibrant earlier tradition of popular musical theatre. The Volkstheater heritage included an emphasis on Viennese identity and character types, the depiction of ethnic and class differences and ironic sociopolitical critiques. These blended easily with the French operetta tradition. Plots of Viennese operettas often emphasized the mixture of many types of people: rich and poor, masters and servants, country and city folk and, of course, the various ethnicities of Austria-Hungary, such as Czechs, Hungarians, Gipsies and Jews. Social dances were featured in both plot and music, with the typical Viennese waltz playing the key role of showing that no matter what foreign exotic characters crossed the stage, Austrian identity was the true centre of the universe and romantic love. Dramatic finales and simple couplets with improvised stanzas were additional musical staples. Sentimentality was central to Viennese operetta, but a good dose of realism lay behind it. Even though various peoples were represented as stereotypes, operetta brought out the empire’s diversity and presented the idealistic possibility that mutual understanding could help it endure.

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Chapter
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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2019

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References

Recommended Reading

Allinson, Mark. Germany and Austria 1814–2000. Abingdon, UK; New York: Routledge, 2014.Google Scholar
Crittenden, Camille. Johann Strauß and Vienna: Operetta and the Politics of Popular Culture. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000.Google Scholar
Csáky, Moritz. Ideologie der Operette und Wiener Moderne: Ein kulturhistorischer Essay. Vienna: Böhlau, 1996.Google Scholar
Linke, Norbert. Johann Strauß (Sohn) in Selbstzeugnissen und Bilddokumenten. Reinbek bei Hamburg: Rowohlt, 1982.Google Scholar
Roser, Hans-Dieter. Franz von Suppé: Werk und Leben, Neue Musikportraits III. Vienna: Steinbauer, 2007.Google Scholar
Traubner, Richard. Operetta: A Theatrical History. New York: Routledge, 2003.Google Scholar

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