Mitch Friedfeld <[log in to unmask]> writes:

>I listened to a G&S Greatest Hits CD today.  My wife posed one of *those*
>questions:  What makes it an operetta? I said, "The heroine doesn't die."
>I thought that was pretty good for the spur of the moment.

Many Gilbert and Sullivan fans would point out that the collaborators
carefully called their mutual works 'opera' not 'operetta', which had
a frivolous, French connotation which G&S were anxious to avoid.

>Well, listers, what does make an operetta? The fact that it makes you
>laugh? That it's fun? The type of music? Is there such a thing as an
>operetta that might be opera? Or are they two separate and distinct art
>forms?

Strictly speaking, as a separate art form, 'operetta' only applies to
Viennese, German and other central European light operas.  Aside from
these pedantic distinction, I don't think the term can be defined further.

The best operettas, like the best zarzuelas and Gilbert & Sullivan, have
ended up in the mainstream opera repertoire.

Christopher Webber,  Blackheath, London,  UK.
http://www.nashwan.demon.co.uk/zarzuela.htm
"ZARZUELA!"