Geoffrey Gaskell <[log in to unmask]> asks about Bernatzky and
Kalman:

>Would anyone care to put in a good word for these two composers?

They're still performed, at least here in Central Europe.  Of the two,
Kalman's the bigger name, a peer of the other three members of what I'll
call the Second Vienna Operetta School: Leo Fall, Oskar Straus and Franz
Lehar.  Bernatzky lives on mainly with his_ Im Weissen Roessl_, though
he composed at least two other operettas that are still occasionally
performed, _Meine Schwester und ich_ and _Bezauberndes Fraeulein_.  There
are songs in his works that remain much played and well remembered, eg _Es
muss ein wunderbares sein_ and _ Im Salzkammergut...__ Kalman was up there
with the very best of them, eg with his _Csardasfuerstin _, _Graefin
Maritza_ and was responsisble for some of the greatest hit songs of
pre-WWII Central Europe such as _Komm mit mir nach Varasdin_.  Both
composers were well trained, highly experienced and superbly deft in
their metier.  Their stuff was sung by some of the greatest names in
opera/operetta--Kiepura, Tauber, you name 'em..  I still attend some
performances, mainly Kalman and Lehar, as we have a house for light opera
here, the Gaertnerplatz Theater, that offers them.  I find both Kalman and
Benatzky pleasant and easy to listen to--as well as evocative of an, umm,
ormolu period of European music.  I can't recommend any recordings.  I
have some but I tend to listen carelessly.  It's when they're staged
and seen live that Bernatzky, and espcially Kalman, come to life for me.
Incidentally Kalman, like Lehar, was Hungarian, not Viennese, and Bernatzky
was born in a part of Austria-Hungary that's now in the Czech Republic.
(Oskar Straus, however, was echt Wien-- though partly trained in Berlin
by Max Bruch.)

Denis Fodor