Strauss in the operetta

The National Operetta will invite the audience on a musical journey on December 28-29. Enchanting music of the orchestra conducted by Oksana Madarash will turn the stage into... snow-covered streets of Vienna. “Our theater breaks stereotypes,” the Operetta’s artistic director Bohdan Strutynsky emphasized. “Our New Year concert program includes the best pieces of music by the Strauss family, father and children alike.” The symphony orchestra of the National Operetta will be the main “protagonist” of the show’s first part. Most pieces will be making their first appearance on Kyiv stage. They will include waltz Wine, Women and Song, known as Richard Wagner’s most favorite piece of music and first performed by the Vienna Male Choir in 1896, waltz-mazurka Woman’s Heart, waltz Beauty and polka Anna... The second part of the program will consist of musical surprises by the theater’s solo singers, choir, and ballet, who will perform accompanied by the orchestra. Among the many works of Johann Strauss which will be performed during the concert, story of The Blue Danube waltz stands out as particularly remarkable. Legend has it that manager of the Vienna Choir persuaded Strauss to write a play for his team. However, the lyrics were so hapless that even the music by Strauss did not save the play, and it failed. Later, at the opening of the World Expo in Paris, the maestro decided to perform a revised version of The Blue Danube. It was astoundingly successful! Paris triumph of Strauss the son eclipsed the success of his father. Waltz becomes a favorite in Austria, the composer’s homeland. The Kyiv Operetta will employ this piece of music as the basis for a grand show involving solo singers as well as the theater’s orchestra, choir, and ballet.