Please recommend non-Gilbert&Sullivan operetta

[bloodyjack]

I would be æternally grateful.

[Elidor]

1. What do you have against Gilbert & Sullivan?

Oooo, the æ ligature. Mr. bloody fancy-pants, aren't we?

[Elidor]

2. I'm kidding around, btw

I think.

[bloodyjack]

4. nothing against Gilbert & Sullivan. I just need to listen to something...

...new occasionally.

[MuseRider]

3. The Threepenny Opera

Kurt Weill/Bertolt Brecht

[Metatron]

8. I agree!

It's great.

[BoX o BooX]

5. The Merry Widow, by Franz Lehar.

Truth to tell, Sweeney Todd by Stephen Sondheim is more operetta than musical, and is performed by opera companies worldwide.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

6. Try Sigmund Romberg...

"The Student Prince", "The New Moon", and "The Desert Song" come to mind...

[pbg]

7. Depends on what you're looking for.

There's nobody out there that's even vaguely like G&S.

But I've listened to The Bohemian Girl by Michael Balfe (1845) and found it tuneful and not too stupid. (Laurel & Hardy did a parody of it, btw)

The dominant mode is that of The Student Prince and Sigmund Romberg, which has really not aged well.

There's Offenbach, and Die Fledermaus, though (which I love) but then you get into 'but that's not operetta! That's real opera!"

Then there's zarzuela, which I've never seen performed and only heard songs from.

http://www.zarzuela.net/

This site is pretty good:

http://www.musicals101.com/operetta.htm