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

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.