Operetta sometimes is called “stepdaughter of muses”, because it’s usually said that operetta can’t be considered “high art” (like for example tragedy or opera). But we take the risk to say that operetta has much more admirers: first of all audience like melodrama, and at second people like to draw away and get amused.
The beginnings of operetta are at the remote past – at the times of Italian La Comedia Dell’ Arte, in German Singspiel, old French opera-buff and Spanish zarzuela. Operetta (“small opera” in w-f-w translation) appeared in the middle of 9th century in Paris of 50th, on its stylish avenues. As its founders Offenbach and Erve are recognized. New stage of operetta history began in Vienna when Johann Strauss-son, well-known “king of waltz”, tried himself in more large-scale music form and created famous “The Bat”. Then appeared the names of Lehar and Kalman, of composers that possessed great music talent and that are really devoted their lives to this genre. Nowadays their operettas are recognized as smash hits – “Merry widow”, “The Circus Princess”, “Silva”… All this composers are classics of operetta genre. Along with them hundreds of composers of different countries adverted to musical comedy. Also operetta appeared in USA where it was altered into new form well-known for every music comedy lover (we mean musical).
At 10th of September 1865 Saint-Petersburg Imperial Alexandrinskiy Theatre presented new production “Orpheus in the Underworld” by Jacques Offenbach. So began the triumphal path of operetta in Russia. Hard to believe that first Russian operetta was written on the base of novel by L. Tolstoy “Hadji Murat” by composer Dekker-Shenk. Russia also gave the world names of authors of wonderful operettas – Dunaevsky, Streljnikov, Solovyev-Sedoy, Milutin, Basner and others.