Silver operetta era
The silver operetta era is a period in the history of the Viennese operetta that follows the golden operetta era . It lasts from around 1900 to around 1940.
Circumstances of the time
This period was marked by the economic boom of the operetta genre and numerous theaters founded or converted in their favor. The Johann Strauss Theater , the Wiener Bürgertheater or the Wiener Stadttheater were built for the operetta . At the same time, this was a time of increasing internationalization of Viennese operetta, which can be seen in almost simultaneous premieres in Vienna, Berlin and New York City .
The era ended with the triumph of the revue and the cinema in the 1920s. Subsequent operettas are often referred to as "bronze" or mockingly as "tinny".
Representative
Franz Lehár with The Merry Widow , The Count of Luxembourg , Giuditta , Paganini , The Land of Smiles , The Tsarevich , Leo Fall with The Dollar Princess , The Merry Farmer , The Rose of Stambul and Madame Pompadour , Emmerich are often the main representatives of the silver era Kálmán with Countess Mariza and Die Csárdásfürstin as well as Ralph Benatzky with Im Weiße Rößl .
Other well-known composers of this era were Oscar Straus , Edmund Eysler , Robert Stolz , Nico Dostal and Rudolf Kattnigg .
The tenor Richard Tauber and the sopranos Fritzi Massary and Vera Schwarz , as well as the comedian Max Pallenberg, were among the big stage stars of these operettas . In the transition to the sound film era (from around 1930) the tenors Jan Kiepura and Joseph Schmidt made their mark .
Controversies in Secondary Literature
The lower esteem for a “silver” operetta compared to a “golden” one of the 19th century has often been questioned in recent literature. The old Vienna fashion of the 20th century devalued the contemporary with a preference for a glorified past. In this phase of the operetta "Jews particularly stood out", so that increased anti-Semitism is also cited as the reason for the downgrade.
Individual evidence
- ^ Marion Linhardt : Residenzstadt und Metropole: On a cultural topography of the Viennese entertainment theater (1858–1918) (= Theatron. 50). Niemeyer, Tübingen 2006, ISBN 3-484-66050-3 , p. 124ff.
- ^ Steven Beller: History of Austria. Translated from the English by Susi Schneider. Böhlau, Vienna 2007, ISBN 978-3-205-77528-7 , p. 204.