Music 2701A/B Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Johann Strauss Ii, Jacques Offenbach, Voice Type
31 Oct 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
Document Summary
Go by many names: comic operas, operettas, musical comedy. A collection of acts; sometimes with a theme, sometimes completely disparate. Have their roots on variety, vaudeville, music halls and minstrel shows. Operetta developed from the opera comique, which came from a desire for short light works to constrast with opera tragique. Operetta; term for little opera (only used in viennese and parisian) Jacques offenbach is usually credited with having written the four operettas. First big success a two act operetta "orpheus in the underworld" in the theatre des varietes. Silly stuff, not kings and queens, or gods and goddesses. Lighter for people to enjoy and relate to. Orpheus is seen as a cocky classical musician. Takes the traditional myth of orpheus and eurydice and turns it upside down. Jupiter causes a lightning bolt to fall near orpheus, making him look around, losing eurydice. Everyone is happy to go to hades, it s a party.
