Operetta took shape in mid-19th-century Paris thanks to Jacques Offenbach (Orpheus in the Underworld), and reached its “golden” flowering in Vienna with Johann Strauss II (Die Fledermaus), while Franz Lehár (The Merry Widow) ushered in its “silver age”. Unlike opera, here musical numbers alternate with spoken scenes.
The genre blends satire, the lyric waltz, the can-can, and a brilliant finale. Operetta was the direct forerunner of the American musical. In Ukrainian musical theatre the traditions of the light genre were developed by 20th-century composers, with plots often drawn from folk life and humour.
