Arts & Culture

Operetta

Is the operetta, a dying if not dead breed, or is it just provincial? A mixture of kitsch, farce and social crack-papering? An object of nostalgia worthy of the over 70´s? It did shine gloriously for a century, with its temples and its stars, from ´La Belle Hortense´ to Luis Mariano. It made hearts beat faster. How can its success be explained? The operetta came into the limelight when opera itself became too big a show, heavy and elitist. Offenbach, lest we forget, was a contemporary of Wagner. Born under the signs of parody and satire, it flitted between orchestration, sung tunes and dialogue, taking its lead from the theater, drama or light comedy. The countries of its success were the France of the Second Empire and the Vienna of the Austria-Hungary days & artificial regimes, caricatures of monarchy, and operetta Empires where the bourgeoisie paid the piper and called the tune. It is perhaps for this reason that for a long time, it brought to the stage the nostalgia of imperial pomp, women in crinoline and prince-heavy storylines. Saint-Saëns said: "Operetta is one of Opera´s daughters who went wrong´. Perhaps it is in fact a mischievous younger sister, irreverent or simple depending on the era…