An operetta is a light opera in which not all of the words are sung — there is spoken dialogue — and in which dance may be included. Operettas are often comic and are usually shorter than operas. The style developed in Paris, and its roots can be traced back to Jacques Offenbach’s work in the 1850s. It was once one of the most popular types of musical entertainment.
A strong libretto is required because it includes spoken dialogue. Ludovic Halévy, who was one of the librettists for Georges Bizet’s Carmen, was the main librettist for Offenbach’s operettas. Jonathan Crémieux wrote the libretto for Orphée aux enfers — Orpheus in the Underworld in English — Offenbach’s best-known operetta, especially the famous cancan. It was first published in 1858, then revised and re-released in 1874.
Johann Strauss, Jr.’s work influenced the development of the operetta in Austria. After opening in the same year as Offenbach’s revised Orpheus, Die Fledermaus (The Bat in English), which had a libretto based on a work Halévy and Henri Meilhac, proved to be an enduring success. Since its first performance in 1885, Der Zigeunerbaron, or The Gypsy Baron in English, with a libretto Ignaz Schnitzer, has enjoyed enduring popularity.
The Englishman Sir William Schwenck Gilbert, in addition to Halévy, was another notable operetta librettist. Together with his countryman Sir Arthur Seymour Sullivan, they created fourteen operettas, eleven of which were first performed in the 1870s and 1880s and are still frequently performed in the twenty-first century.
Die Lustige Witwe (The Merry Widow in English), composed Franz Lehár with a libretto based on a work Mielhac in the early twentieth century, was the composer’s first broad success as well as a commercially successful venture. It first aired in 1905.
The distinctions between an operetta and a musical are not universally acknowledged. The operetta is more closely associated with Europe, whereas the musical is more closely associated with America. Rather than operetta, the musical is considered an offshoot of the entertainment genre known as musical comedy. Both entertain audiences with a combination of sung and spoken words, as well as dance.