Operetta

As usual, we’re showcasing some of the musicals that opened this month on this week’s Dress Circle (9/6 7:00 p.m.). Since there hasn’t been a new musical open since 2020, we thought we’d do something a little different. We’re still looking at overtures and opening numbers, but this time, we’re focusing on eight operettas.

As promised, we’ll be looking at two operettas on this week’s Sunday Opera (1/25 3:00 p.m.), Joseph Beer’s “The Polish Wedding” and Leo Fall’s “The Rose of Istanbul.”

Beginning in November, I thought about looking for a new opera to play as we approached the New Year. However, by the beginning of December, I’d already heard from several people who asked me to repeat Johann Strauss' “Die Fledermaus” because it’s become a part of their family tradition. Who am I to go against tradition? So, on this week’s Sunday Opera (12/28 3:00 p.m.), the all-star “bat” returns!

We’re taking a look at two versions of the Orpheus legend that were written about 100 years but stylistically lightyears apart on this week’s Sunday Opera (4/27 3:00 p.m.) with Franz Joseph Haydn’s “L’anima del filosofo ossia Orfeo ed Euridice” and Jacque Offenbach’s “Orpheus in the Underworld.”

It was a wonderful surprise when I once again got emails requesting what has become a New Year’s tradition on the Sunday Opera. I’m rather pleased to once again offer a European tradition on this week’s Sunday Opera (12/29 3:00 p.m.) as we prepare you for your New Year’s celebrations with Johann Strauss’ “Die Fledermaus.”

Even though September is a quiet month for Broadway musical openings, we've turned to twelve shows covering 123 years of Broadway history from 1898 to 2021 for some wonderful songs.

We've programmed fourteen songs about "music" from a wide variety of musicals for this week's program from Edward German's "Tom Jones" to last year's "New York, New York" by Kander and Ebb.

This week's program features a complete recording of Kalman's operetta "The Duchess of Chicago" and highlights of "Countess Maritza" to celebrate the wonderful work of this often forgotten composer.

We've combined a bit of silliness with calendar art for this week's program as we scheduled fifteen marches from a variety of sources (Broadway, Hollywood, television) to celebrate the month of March - even though none of the marches really have anything to do with the month.

This week's Sunday Opera is a gala production from 1960 and features one of the best of Prince Orlofsky's party entertainment. We'll follow the opera with some New Year's waltzes.