Sigmund Romberg was a Hungarian-born American composer. He is best known for his musicals and operettas, particularly The Student Prince (1924), The Desert Song (1926) and The New Moon (1928).
Romberg in 1949
Operetta is a form of theatre and a genre of light opera. It includes spoken dialogue, songs, and dances. It is lighter than opera in terms of its music, orchestral size, length of the work, and at face value, subject matter. Apart from its shorter length, the operetta is usually of a light and amusing character. It sometimes also includes satirical commentaries.
The audience at the Théâtre des Bouffes-Parisiens, the birthplace of Jacques Offenbach's operettas. Caricature of 1860 by Émile Bayard.
A Columbia Records advertisement for a recording of Rita Montaner in a production of Eliseo Grenet and Ernesto Lecuona's Niña Rita, o, La Habana en 1830, an operetta from the Spanish genre of zarzuela.
Cover page of Boccaccio, oder Der Prinz von Palermo (Boccaccio, or the Prince of Palermo) by Franz von Suppé in 1879. An example of early Viennese operetta.
Playbill for a revival of Orphée aux enfers