German Operetta on Broadway and in the West End, 1900-1940

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 on radio and TV, and in 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.

'This virtuoso study provides valuable insights into the musical styles, business models, stars, creators and infrastructures associated with operetta during the decades surrounding the turn of the twentieth century. Scott provides salient distinctions between Viennese and Berlin operetta styles and discusses how both approaches played out in London and New York. His insights into the concepts and production systems of operetta complicate and therefore add to previous accounts of the genre. Scott's book helps us gain a deeper appreciation of this highly popular and influential part of the wider musical theatre firmament and its influence on contemporary transnational practices.' William Everett, University of Missouri, Kansas City

• Introduction; Part I. The Production of Operetta: 1. The music of operetta; 2. Cultural transfer: translation and transcreation; 3. The business of operetta; 4. Directors, designers and performers; Part II. The Reception of Operetta: 5. The reception of operetta in London and New York; 6. Operetta and intermediality; 7. Operetta and modernity; 8. Operetta and cosmopolitanism; Postlude: the demise of operetta; Appendix 1. Productions of operetta from the German stage on Broadway and in the West End; Appendix 2. Longest runs of operetta from the German stage on Broadway and in the West End; Appendix 3. Operettas with English librettos by composers for the German stage; Appendix 4. Selected period recordings of English versions of operetta from the German stage; Appendix 5. Selected films in English of operettas from the German stage; Appendix 6. Research resources.