Anastasia Belina - The Cambridge Companion to Operetta

The Cambridge Companion to Operetta

Those whose thoughts of musical theatre are dominated by the Broadway musical will find this book a revelation. From the 1850s to the early 1930s, when urban theatres sought to mount glamorous musical entertainment, it was to operetta that they turned. It was a form of musical theatre that crossed national borders with ease and was adored by audiences around the world. This collection of essays by an array of international scholars examines the key figures in operetta in many different countries. It offers a critical and historical study of the widespread production of operetta and of the enthusiasm with which it was welcomed. Furthermore, it challenges nationalistic views of music and approaches operetta as a cosmopolitan genre. This Cambridge Companion contributes to a widening appreciation of the music of operetta and a deepening knowledge of the cultural importance of operetta around the world.

Anastasia Belina is Senior Research Fellow at the University of Leeds. She is author and editor of A Musician Divided (2013), Die tgliche Mhe ein Mensch zu sein (2013), Wagner in Russia, Poland and the Czech Lands (2013, co-edited edition) and The Business of Opera (2015, co-edited with Derek B. Scott). Between 2014 and 2019 she researched the reception of German operetta in Warsaw as part of an ERC-funded project. She is currently working on the BBC and AHRC project Forgotten Female Composers for which she is researching the life and work of Augusta Holms.

Derek B. Scott is Professor of Critical Musicology at the University of Leeds. His books include Sounds of the Metropolis (2008) and Musical Style and Social Meaning (2010). His musical compositions include two symphonies for brass band and an operetta, Wilberforce . He has also worked professionally as a singer, actor and pianist in radio, TV, concert hall and theatre. In 2014, he was awarded an Advanced Grant by the European Research Council to fund a five-year project researching the twentieth-century reception of operettas from the German stage on Broadway and in the West End.