Universität Wien

170622 SE Seminar: Breaking Points of Modernism (2014S)

Going global: Operetta at the Eve of World War I

Continuous assessment of course work

When Franz Lehár's Viennese operetta THE MERRY WIDOW arrived London in 1907, it was not only one of the most remarkable West End hits but also the beginning of a new age of global entertainment. The first time in theatre history the reception of a play by a mass audience took place world wide.

Registration/Deregistration

Note: The time of your registration within the registration period has no effect on the allocation of places (no first come, first served).

Details

max. 40 participants
Language: German

Lecturers

Classes (iCal) - next class is marked with N

  • Thursday 13.03. 15:00 - 18:15 (Schreyvogelsaal (THW) Hofburg, 1.Stock)
  • Friday 14.03. 09:45 - 13:00 (Schreyvogelsaal (THW) Hofburg, 1.Stock)
  • Thursday 10.04. 15:00 - 18:15 (Schreyvogelsaal (THW) Hofburg, 1.Stock)
  • Friday 11.04. 09:45 - 13:00 (Schreyvogelsaal (THW) Hofburg, 1.Stock)
  • Thursday 22.05. 15:00 - 18:15 (Schreyvogelsaal (THW) Hofburg, 1.Stock)
  • Friday 23.05. 09:45 - 13:00 (Schreyvogelsaal (THW) Hofburg, 1.Stock)

Information

Aims, contents and method of the course

Popular culture was no longer a very specific topic of national traditions as it used to be, whenTHE MERRY WIDOW and her successors have overcome those national boundaries and thus established a new international show business in the early 20th century. In the consequence a cross-cultural exchange emerged conforming the birth of the modern world; at that time. Along with Lehár a new generation of composers propagated the new style on the continent, among others like Oscar Straus, Leo Fall and Emmerich Kálmán or Jean Gilbert. All their works made their way successfully around the world as part of a new theatrical mobility.

Assessment and permitted materials

Referat und Hausarbeit

Minimum requirements and assessment criteria

How did operetta transform its appearance in different countries? Which details were changed and which weren't? And how did this cross-cultural exchange work out in detail? Which theatrical forms were created in this process and by which artists (performers, composers, adapters, entrepreneurs)? The seminar will treat operetta as a case study for discussing such research questions.

Examination topics

Text-, Musik- und Auuführungsanalyse; Rezeptionsforschung; Publikumssoziologie; Kulturelle Crossovers; Transkulturelle Kommunikation, Historische Auuführungsforschung

Reading list

W. Macqueen-Pope, D. L. Murray: Fortune's Favourite. The Life and times of Franz Lehár, London: Hutchinson, 1953Gerald Bordman, American Operetta. From H.M.S. Pinafore to Sweeney Todd, New York / Oxford 1981
Richard Traubner, Operetta. A Theatratical History, Garden City, New York 1983
Kurt Gänzl, The Encyclopedia of The Musical Theatre, New York 1994
Erika Diane Rappaport: Shopping for Pleasure. Women in the Making of London’s West End, Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 2000
David Walsh and Len Platt: Musical Theater and American Culture, Westport, CT/London: Praeger, 2003
Len Platt: Musical Comedy on the West End Stage, 1890-1939, Basingstoke/New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004

Association in the course directory

II.2.1. und II.2.2. Theorie- und Forschungsseminar Theaterwissenschaft; 092: § 5(1)

Last modified: Sa 24.04.2021 00:19