King’s College London

Faculty of Arts & Humanities

Coversheet for submission of coursework
(Undergraduate & Taught Postgraduate)
Complete all sections of this form and ensure it is the first page of the document you submit.
Failure to attach the coversheet as required may result in your work not being accepted for
assessment.

Word count, which should be calculated electronically, must be stated accurately below.
For details of what is included in the word count, and penalties incurred by exceeding the word count
limit, please consult the coursework submission policy in the Faculty handbook.

DECLARATION BY STUDENT
This assignment is entirely my own work. Quotations from secondary literature are indicated by the
use of inverted commas around ALL such quotations AND by reference in the text or notes to the
author concerned. ALL primary and secondary literature used in this piece of work is indicated in the
bibliography placed at the end, and dependence upon ANY source used is indicated at the
appropriate point in the text. I confirm that no sources have been used other than those stated.
I understand what is meant by plagiarism and have signed at enrolment the declaration
concerning the avoidance of plagiarism.
I understand that plagiarism is a serious academic offence that may result in disciplinary
action being taken.
I understand that I must submit work BEFORE the deadline, and that failure to do so will result
in capped marks.

(This is a letter followed by five digits,

Candidate no. Y 2 2 2 3 1 and can be found on Student Records)

Module Title: Contemporary Musicology

Module Code:
5AAMS211
(e.g. 5AABC123 )

Assignment: The Present State of Operetta Studies

(may be abbreviated)

Assignment tutor/group: Roger Parker

Deadline: 16th January 2018

Date Submitted: 15th January 2018

Word Count: 3,146

Your assignment may be used as an example of good practice for other students to refer to in
future. If selected, your assignment will be presented anonymously and may include feedback
comments or the specific grade awarded. Participation is optional and will not affect your grade.
Do you consent to your assignment being used in this way? Please tick the appropriate box below.

YES x NO
 The present state of operetta studies

The recent edition of Opera Quarterly is ground-breaking in that it is the first in the journal’s history

to focus purely on operetta.1 This itself poses several questions about why the genre has received very

little scholarly attention from a journal which, in its own words, is the “the definitive publication for

anyone serious about opera”.2 As the guest editors Carolyn Abbate and Flora Willson discuss in their

introductory note, this is due, in part, to operetta’s reputation as a popular genre with an emphasis

on commercial activity. By focusing my attention on Tobias Becker and Micaela Baranello in their

respective contributions to the journal, and on the “Note From The Guest Editors”, I shall examine

how the scholars within this issue have approached the subject of operetta and attempt to justify its

importance within “serious” musicological study despite its reputation as an apparently popularist

genre. These articles all develop the ideas of popularism, globalisation and aesthetic transformation

to explain the genre’s commercial success and raise questions of where operetta should fall within the

popular/classical music spectrum. They do, however, all approach the topic from different sides and

through this we can establish an appreciation of how study needs to continue to approach operetta

from a variety of angles in order to raise it to a level of scholarship comparable to “opera studies”.3 By

examining in detail the work of these scholars, as well as looking at the other articles in the journal,

broader questions arise as to the wider epistemological debate over “high and low” art and how these

affect our value judgements about a work’s musical content.

Abbate and Willson pose many questions which need to be answered if we wish to understand

how and why operetta has traditionally been side-lined due to its reputation for being “basically

entertaining” rather than being worthy of study within “musicology’s inner sanctum”.4 As the guest

editors point out, it is a profound move for academic writing to engage with the genre “on its own

1
Carolyn Abbate and Flora Willson, "A Note From The Guest Editors", Opera Quarterly, Issue 33, Volume 1
December 2017, pp. 1-6, https://doi.org/10.1093/oq/kbx021, p. 1.
2
Ibid.
3
Ibid.
4
Ibid.
terms”.5 Throughout the journal, this is exactly what scholars attempt to do; allowing operetta to be

examined from the perspective of its intentions and reception, showing the reader a multiplicity of

views and explanations as to how it became a commercially and culturally successful genre.6 The

scholars approach this study whilst still remaining respectful for the inherent levity within the art. This

levity exists in musical parody, satirical humour and word play. Abbate and Willson highlight that one

of the problems that exists in trying to promote the “serious” study of operetta is the comparatively

scarce supply of existing commentary on the subject, with Richard Traubner and Siegfried Kracauer

still looming large over the musicological field despite the age of their writing.7 Ideas that are raised

in Kracauer’s book continue to be prevalent within this journal as the contributors attempt to re-

examine his intention “to read operetta constructively in relation to the historical moment and

political circumstances of its production or reception”.8 Abbate and Willson point out that Kracauer’s

work was received with criticism by other members of the Frankfurt School in part due to its focus on

the materiality.9 The commerciality of operetta is a trope which is continually returned to by all

5
Ibid.
6
Flora Willson stated that the gest editors believed that they “had a certain scholarly responsibility to be as
open-minded as possible and to consider research by scholars on operetta of any era and geographical
location”. Email from Flora Willson, 3rd January 2018.
7
Abbate and Willson, pp. 1-2.
Richard Traubner, Operetta: A Theatrical History (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1983).
Siegfrid Kracauer, Jacques Offenbach and the Paris of His Time (1937), trans. Gwenda David and Erich
Mosbacher (New York: Zone Books, 2002).
8
Abbate and Willson, p. 3.
Kracauer did not intend to write a musical study of Offenbach or his operettas, wanting to focus on Parisian
political culture, therefore his continuing influence within the musicological field is interesting. For Willson, he
continues to remain important as he was “one of the few heavyweight critical/cultural theorists to show
sustained interest in operetta”. The guest editors had wanted to include an article about how Kracauer’s
writing had influenced thinking about operetta over the last century. Due to authors dropping out, however,
this was not able to occur. Email from Willson, 3rd January 2018.
9
The overtly communist members of the Frankfurt-School viewed mass culture as an extremely dangerous and
damaging phenomenon. This arose out of their concern about the failure of the Marxist uprising in Western
Europe and the speed of acceptance of the Fascist regime in German during the early 1930s. The thinkers of
the Frankfurt-School believed in anti-capitalism and so Kracauer’s work which highlights operetta’s commercial
unashamedness challenges the groups ideological convictions.
The Editors of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, "Frankfurt School | German Research Group", Encyclopaedia
Britannica, 15th December 2017, https://www.britannica.com/topic/Frankfurt-School, [28 December 2017].
contributors. Materiality is one of the reasons we are encouraged to view the genre as an example of

popular music.

In Carl Dahlhaus’ Foundations of Music History, he discusses epistemological differences of

how particular types of music are predisposed to being studied using particular approaches.10 A binary

is created between classical music and popular music where the former should be looked at in an

aesthetic manner whereas the latter should undergo cultural study. This is placing a value judgement

on the intrinsic musical content of the two styles whilst giving only minor qualifications as to what fits

in each category. Dahlhaus uses the examples of “a Bach cantata” and “a piece of juke-box music”.11

These are obviously written with different intentions, one crucial difference between them is their

commercial motivations. The intended performance location and the phrase “To the Glory of God

Alone” (Soli Deo Gloria) written at the end of a cantata highlights that the piece’s intention was not

purely to create individual monetary return. Simply by using the phrase “juke-box music” Dahlhaus

creates a link with money (usually, to make such a machine work, the user had to pay) and through

this we can extrapolate that this category is defined by music which was composed with the intention

of creating financial reward. This leads to questions about where we should put operetta on this scale,

since as defined by Traubner and highlighted by Abbate and Willson, operetta has a “commercial

unpretentiousness”.12 If we follow Dahlhaus’ definition then, the genre should be studied in a way

conducive to “social history”.13 This partially justifies the apparent trends in traditional operetta study,

explaining its approach through sociology and distinction as a low art.14 This idea is constrained by the

10
Carl Dalhaus, Foundations of Music History (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983), p. 9.
11
Ibid.
12
Abbate and Willson, p. 2.
Traubner’s quote continues ‘[…]has always given operetta a bad name in the highest circles of musical art,
where profits are not ordinarily placed before artistic creation’. This also suggest that operetta has again been
removed from classification as a “high” art.
13
Dahlhaus, p. 9.
Looking at the look at Kracauer’s book, we see how he creates a “rather two-dimensional study” operetta as
sounding performance. Performance acts as a point of commonality between different styles of music
however can be talked about without serious musicological intent. Email from Willson, 3rd January 2018.
14
Foundations of Music History was written in 1983 and so it is important to consider the ways in which more
recent academic writing has approached the topic of popular music. Simon Frith, in his book Performing Rites:
On the Value of Popular Music (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1996), discusses how popular and
populist musics should be only categorised if we remain conscious of the connected value connotations. This is
notion that operetta can be thought of as an homogenous genre and that it should be studied in a

single way. Dahlhaus’ arguments do not encourage a multifaceted approach to scholarship of any

musical style.

In this edition of Opera Quarterly, the contributors provide insights into operetta from a

variety of angles however themes recur from several of the scholars. Discussions of popularisation of

the genre are important in both Becker’s article “Globalizing Operetta before the First World War”

and Baranello’s article ““Operettendämmerung”: Die lustigen Nibelungen and the failures of

Wagnerian Operetta”. Despite the German-centric nature of the issue, both scholars discuss how

operetta became musically and culturally influenced through its geographical placement and how this

in turn affected the genres’ appeal and commercial success.15 They consider how the genre was

developing in relation to opera and reflect on how this affects our understanding and appreciation of

operetta in terms of its creation and reception. Becker develops his arguments based on the way that

operetta was turned into a cultural commodity influenced by and influencing globalisation. In contrast,

Baranello focuses her discussion on how Wagner (seen within the article as an example of “high” art)

was initially parodied by operetta composers. As this parody moved to emulation, it was both reflected

and reflective of changing opinions towards the genre. The scholars also take different approaches to

the formation of their arguments, allowing us to appreciate that operetta can be studied by methods

used on other music within “musicology’s inner sanctum”.16 Becker produces a more ethnographic

study whereas Baranello dwells on precise musical examples to illustrate her points.

interesting when considered in terms of operetta because of its popularity with audiences at the time however
is now viewed by some as a member of the classical music distinction. (Traubner, p. x).
15
The fact that the issue tilted towards “German-speaking culture and the late-19th/early-20th century was
more a result of chance than a conscious decision”. Email from Willson, 3 rd January 2018.
Matala De Mazza provides an insight into Offenbach’s work but approaches it, looking at the ways that
individual actresses created roles. The stage parodied real life, providing another attraction for audiences;
wanting to see actresses with scandalous reputations portray similar characters on stage.
Ethel Matala de Mazza, “The Diva: Fates of an Archetypal Figure in Operetta”, The Opera Quarterly, Volume
33, Issue 1, 1 December 2017, Pages 49–61, https://doi.org/10.1093/oq/kbx018.
16
Abbate and Willson, p. 1.
 Becker’s article states that operetta was “the most global operatic genre”, far outpacing opera

as a global phenomenon.17 This is another example of how the popularity of operetta is considered to

be crucial, again forcing us to examine the genre in relation to opera.18 Abbate and Willson highlight

this in their comment that “opera and operetta were themselves in cross-circulation” and it is also

central to Baranello’s argument.19 Becker builds directly on Kracauer’s idea that the music of Jacques

Offenbach was “an international phenomenon in an age of international development”. 20 He develops

his argument by comparing how Franz Lehar’s Die lustige Witwe and Jean Gilbert’s Die keusche

Susanne were transformed as they circulated around the world and particularly across Europe.

According to Becker, operetta is a product of the city and immigration; gaining success at home and

abroad by embracing the variations in culture across the locations it moved through.

Becker argues that, by looking at the history of operetta and the history of globalisation in

combination, each can help the other to develop our understanding as to why both concepts were so

important in the late 19th and early 20th century. He explains that globalisation tends to be

acknowledged as a process of standardisation whereas operetta and theatre resists this movement.

By combining our study of the two fields, Becker suggests that the boarder outlook helps us to

appreciate the genre as valuable. This value is not only found in terms of musical and theatrical

influences from the “cosmopolitan make up of operetta” but also of as a point of cultural commodity

exchange.21 Becker prefers a cyclic rather than binary system between globalisation and

cosmopolitanism. Operetta, cosmopolitanism and globalisation are seen as feeding and influencing

each other by making themselves accessible to their audiences through localisation. For Becker,

17
Tobias Becker, “Globalizing Operetta before the First World War”, The Opera Quarterly, Volume 33, Issue 1,
1 December 2017, pp. 7–27, https://doi.org/10.1093/oq/kbx014, p. 8.
18
This inherent connectivity between the two is diminished when operetta is considered and viewed as a
lower form of art than opera. As the guest editors point out in their opening paragraph, the ‘etta’ at the end of
the word is considered diminutive not only of length (as it was originally intended) but also of musical value.
19
Abbate and Willson, p. 5 and Micaela Baranello, ““Operettendämmerung”: Die lustigen Nibelungen and the
Failures of Wagnerian Operetta”, The Opera Quarterly, Volume 33, Issue 1, 1 December 2017, pp. 28–48,
https://doi.org/10.1093/oq/kbx020.
20
Becker p. 10.
21
Becker, pp. 10-11.
operetta’s “cosmopolitanism existed in a feedback loop with economic factors, that is, its

globalisation” where transformations that occurred were essential to ensure financial success.22

A similar idea of transformation to ensure success is seen in Baranello’s article. She discusses

how composers’ approaches to the inclusion of Wagnerian material changes in parallel with

alterations in audience demographics.23 Baranello creates two categories of operetta, with one

perceived as “higher” than the other.24 She defines two groups: one containing Offenbach and works

such as Die lustigen Nebelungen (described by the writer as less satirical); the other containing the

rest of operetta.25 “The result is a historiography that has elevated a small proportion of the

repertoire, sometimes even defining the genre as to exclude large swathes of it”.26 This is again

reflective of the type and scope of study which much of the operetta genre has received. She continues

with the idea that operetta could achieve respectability using “Wagnerian models”; gaining credibility

through the satirical treatment of high art.27 Baranello claims that, “for Kracauer, satire’s unmasking

of Wagnerian hypnosis gave it a kind of high culture credibility, a recurring theme in operetta

reception”.28 For this parody to work, it had to be intentional by the composer.29 This is reminiscent

of Becker’s argument in saying that lyric transformations occurred to ensure that the satire remained

appropriate for the new countries’ audiences. Both Baranello and Becker discuss how operetta makes

use of a variety of musical styles. It is through this combination of influences that Baranello claims that

the identity of operetta is contested.30 Although Baranello focuses her study on Europe (particularly

22
Becker, p. 16.
23
Baranello, p.44.
24
Ibid, p. 30.
25
Ibid.
26
Ibid.
Abbate discusses the “radical binary” between Offenbach and Wagner expanding the idea to cover operetta
films and our broader interpretation of how audiences experience the levity of operetta. Carolyn Abbate,
“Offenbach, Kracauer, and Ethical Frivolity”, The Opera Quarterly, Volume 33, Issue 1, 1 December 2017, pp.
62–86, https://doi.org/10.1093/oq/kbx019.
27
Ibid.
28
Ibid, p. 29.
29
Ibid, p. 33.
30
Becker, p. 22 and Baranello, p.41.
The scholars are approaching the problems of defining operetta as a single entity and that trying to find the
appropriate scholastic approach is confused further due to the fundamental levity within it. It is finding this
identifying such centres as France, Vienna and England) and Becker has a more global approach, both

acknowledge that cross-cultural and geographical influences are crucially important in our study.

Baranello extends this even further in her statement “that operetta fell in aesthetic value as

it rose in international popularity is rarely in question”.31 This returns to the problem which was

presented in Dahlhaus’ Foundations of Music History about how we ascribe value to music. Baranello’s

use of “Operettendämmerung” in her title refers to the end and decline in operetta. She bases this

idea in the article on how operetta moved from parodying Wagner into emulation.32 She suggests that

this emulation is no longer a source of amusement but now an example of how the genre was

transforming into a “popular culture”. 33 It is through this move that operetta is being viewed as less

valuable – still calling the genre’s value into question. Baranello quotes Dahlhaus describing operetta

as a “pseudomorphic hybrid foredoomed to artistic failures”.34 This suggests that Baranello agrees

with Dahlhaus; that the movement from parody to imitation was negative and reduced the aesthetic

merit of the works. It also helps to provide an answer to our earlier question of where we should

position operetta on the scale of classical to popular music within Dahlhaus’ criteria. Baranello helps

to show how this value judgement has changed over time through production and reception when

she quotes Lehar as believing that he was “improving operetta” by including more and more

Wagnerian techniques.35

Both authors end their articles by trying to locate their contributions within the broader music

and musicological scene. This is important because, as Willson says, operetta belongs “in the grey

areas between various types of opera and musical theatre”.36 Baranello contextualises her article

through stating that operetta belongs in a world “even larger than Wagner’s”.37 This goes back to the

balance between levity, or as she defines it, “frivolity”, that Abbate focuses on in her individual contribution to
the issue.
31
Baranello, p. 30.
32
Ibid, p. 42.
33
Ibid, p. 44.
34
Ibid, p. 30.
35
Ibid, p. 42.
36
Email from Willson, 3rd January 2018.
37
Ibid, p. 45.
ideas Abbate and Willson mentioned in their introduction, highlighting that operetta should be

studied in a broader context than its traditional setting and deserves to be looked at in connection

with more “serious” music. Becker on the other hand, attempts to locate operetta within the setting

of modern musical theatre and its global dissemination. He states that operetta is far less global today

than it was before the Second World War.38 Becker justifies it by saying that The Phantom of the Opera

has been seen in less countries than The Merry Widow. Through his terminology, Becker implies that

The Phantom of the Opera is an operetta, which broadens the category of operetta however this

classification is not supported by the views of the production’s creators.39 Becker also fails to

substantiate his ideas about dissemination with evidence.40 The strength of his thesis is reduced as

Becker introduces additional issues into his conclusion without prior discussion.

The articles within this issue of Opera Quarterly demonstrate the possibility of studying

operetta in a “serious” way and that this can be done whilst maintaining respect for the levity which

is a fundamental component of this theatrical genre. The scholars maintain that the genre was popular

– both in terms of its cultural and society appeal and through its commercial success but use this to

raise useful questions about the way we approach musicological study of popularist music more

generally. All of this helps to justify the guest editors’ theory in the introductory note that it is possible

to study operetta seriously without insisting that it is a genre that is entirely serious in how it

entertains. Many questions remain unanswered within the musicological field of operetta and a lot of

ground still needs to be made up before it has reached a level of scholarship comparative to opera.

More work is required to look at the variety within operetta and move away from attempting to study

it as a homogenous art as well as continuing to look at how it fits within the broader theatrical music

spectrum. Dahlhaus’ work, although raising important points, is now becoming old and as the field of

musicology is challenged by the study of more popular music genres, scholars need to be prepared to

38
Becker, p. 23.
39
"The Phantom Of The Opera In London", The Phantom Of The Opera, December 2017,
https://uk.thephantomoftheopera.com/ [29 December 2017].
40
Both these shows have been made into films and thus it is harder to calculate the circulation of the shows.
Abbate discusses the effects of operetta films in her article within the issue.
use more multifaceted approaches in their studies. It is through scholarly work such as this issue that

this development can be maintained and valuable resources provided which help move operetta

towards the “inner sanctum”.41

Bibliography

Journal Papers

Abbate, Carolyn, “Offenbach, Kracauer, and Ethical Frivolity”, The Opera Quarterly, Volume 33, Issue
1, 1 December 2017, pp. 62–86, https://doi.org/10.1093/oq/kbx019.

Abbate, Carolyn and Flora Willson, "A Note From The Guest Editors", Opera Quarterly, Issue 33,
Volume 1 December 2017, pp. 1-6, https://doi.org/10.1093/oq/kbx021.

Baranello, Micaela ““Operettendämmerung”: Die lustigen Nibelungen and the Failures of Wagnerian
Operetta”, The Opera Quarterly, Volume 33, Issue 1, 1 December 2017, pp. 28–48,
https://doi.org/10.1093/oq/kbx020.

Becker, Tobias, “Globalizing Operetta before the First World War”, The Opera Quarterly, Volume 33,
Issue 1, 1 December 2017, pp. 7–27, https://doi.org/10.1093/oq/kbx014.

Matala de Mazza, Ethel, “The Diva: Fates of an Archetypal Figure in Operetta”, The Opera Quarterly,
Volume 33, Issue 1, 1 December 2017, Pages 49–61, https://doi.org/10.1093/oq/kbx018.

Books

Dalhaus, Carl, Foundations of Music History (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983).

Firth, Simon,Performing Rites: On the Value of Popular Music (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University
Press, 1996).

Kracauer, Siegfrid, Jacques Offenbach and the Paris of His Time (1937), trans. Gwenda David and Erich
Mosbacher (New York: Zone Books, 2002).

Traubner, Richard Operetta: A Theatrical History (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1983).

Websites

The Editors of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, "Frankfurt School | German Research Group",
Encyclopaedia Britannica, 15th December 2017, https://www.britannica.com/topic/Frankfurt-School,
[28 December 2017].

"The Phantom Of The Opera In London", The Phantom Of The Opera, December 2017,
https://uk.thephantomoftheopera.com/ [29 December 2017].

41
Abbate and Willson, p. 1.
Films

Schumacher, Joel, The Phantom Of The Opera (Pinewood Studios, 2004).

Lubitsch, Ernst, The Merry Widow (Hollywood, 1934).

Emails

Email from Dr Flora Willson, received 3rd January 2018.