{"product_id":"the-operetta-empire-by-micaela-baranello-9780520401228","title":"The Operetta Empire","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003eCHOICE\u003c\/em\u003e Outstanding Academic Title, 2022\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\"When the world comes to an end,\" Viennese writer Karl Kraus lamented in 1908, \"all the big city orchestras will still be playing \u003cem\u003eThe Merry Widow\u003c\/em\u003e.\" Viennese operettas like Franz Lehár's \u003cem\u003eThe Merry Widow\u003c\/em\u003e were preeminent cultural texts during the Austro-Hungarian Empire's final years.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eAlternately hopeful and nihilistic, operetta staged contemporary debates about gender, nationality, and labour. \u003cem\u003eThe Operetta Empire\u003c\/em\u003e delves into this vibrant theatrical culture, whose creators simultaneously sought the respectability of high art and the popularity of low entertainment.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eCase studies examine works by Lehár, Emmerich Kálmán, Oscar Straus, and Leo Fall in light of current musicological conversations about hybridity and middlebrow culture. Demonstrating a thorough mastery of the complex early twentieth-century Viennese cultural scene, and a sympathetic and redemptive critique of a neglected popular genre, Micaela Baranello establishes operetta as an important element of Viennese cultural life—one whose transgressions helped define the musical hierarchies of its day.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Unknown","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47432998289644,"sku":"9780520401228","price":66.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/9780520401228.jpg?v=1774765866","url":"https:\/\/bookhero.co.nz\/products\/the-operetta-empire-by-micaela-baranello-9780520401228","provider":"Book Hero","version":"1.0","type":"link"}