I can't resist one more riposte to Bruce Alan Wilson, who feels that
'The Merry Widow' is about "ordinary people in ordinary situations" - well,
possibly, if aristocracy, lavish living and fantastic wealth are your idea
of the common lot!  Later Viennese operetta is indeed squarely based on
this heady mix of exotic escapism and *un*common people - the sort who
never did and could not possibly exist, even if we wanted them to.  That is
its chief attraction to those who love it.

Then there's Bruce's attempt to drive a wedge between 'Madam Butterfly'
(which paradoxically does deal with ordinary people in ordinary situations,
with a sad - not tragic - ending tacked on) and 'The Mikado', which
features an omnipotent God-King in the cast as well as his aristocratic son
and heir.  Gilbert's subject is public decapitation, and boiling in oil is
nearly the fate of three of its major characters.

Both scores feature pentatonic scales and original Japanese melodies -
but the one they have strikingly in common ("Miya-sama" a.k.a.  Yamadori's
leitmotif) is much more seriously presented by Sullivan than by Puccini.
Katisha's anguished solo music gives her a depth of sympathy fully on
a par with little Cio-Cio-San's pathetic end.  "The Sun Whose Rays" is
technically as difficult for the soprano to sing well as "One Fine Day".
"A Wandering Minstrel" much more varied in mood and vocal-dramatic demands
than anything Pinkerton has to utter.  Goro on the other hand is a
character straight out of comic opera ...  need I continue? 'The Mikado'
is much more socio-politically disruptive:  and unlike 'Madam Butterfly'
it caused a diplomatic incident between Japan and the West.

'Madam Butterfly' is an operetta with a sad ending, 'The Mikado' was
described by its creators as a "Japanese Opera".  In truth, I'm sure Bruce
would agree that both these marvellous works stand on their own feet.
They blur generic distinctions, and labelling one "serious" and the other
"light" (I'm no longer sure which is which!) is only apt to make newcomers
approach them with unhelpful and potentially misleading preconceptions.

In particular, the labelling of music theatre pieces involving spoken
dialogue as, obscurely, less elevated artistically has resulted in many
bizarre distortions.  Does anyone give a pfennig whether 'Die Zauberflote'
is called an opera or a singspiel? Is 'Fidelio' flawed by Beethoven's very
conscious artistic decision not to through-write it? What favours does the
no doubt strictly accurate but completely nonsensical labelling of 'Carmen'
as an "Opera Comique" do anyone or anything? End of polemic.

I do hope Bruce (and anyone else who's interested) might like to take a
look at the 'Zarzuela!' website

http://www.nashwan.demon.co.uk/zarzuela.htm

for a range of information on this marvellously wide-ranging Spanish
repertoire, on stage and CD, its composers, writers and singers.  As yet
there isn't anything published in English on the romantic zarzuela - though
Louise K.  Stein's book on baroque zarzuela is very good, and major guides
to the 19th and 20th century Spanish repertoire are in the pipeline, both
in America and Madrid.

In fact, I feel that part of the great strength in depth of the Madrid
music theatre tradition has been its public's refusal to glorify the
pretensions of any one particular stage genre above any other - its all
grist to their mill.  The only distinction which really matters is that
of quality.

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