With Professor Ann Sears. This course will meet on March 7, 14, 21, 28 and April 4, 11.

Operetta is a form of light opera that includes spoken dialogue, songs, and dances. Operetta became popular in France in the mid-19th century, then spread to other countries, including the United States. It is an important precursor to musical theater and the basis for many musical films. We will examine the works of Johann Strauss, Jacques Offenbach, France Lehár, Gilbert and Sullivan, Sigmund Romberg, Rudolph Friml, Victor Herbert, Rogers and Hart, Jerome Kern, and Leonard Bernstein. Works to be studied include H.M.S. Pinafore, Die Fledermaus, The Merry Widow, Naughty Marietta, The Desert Song, Show Boat, Pal Joey, Oklahoma!, Rose-Marie, and Candide. 

Ann Sears is Professor of Music at Wheaton College (Massachusetts) where she teaches piano and music history.   She holds degrees from the New England Conservatory of Music, Arizona State University, and from The Catholic University of America.  Her principal teachers were Victor Rosenbaum, Thomas Mastroianni, and Linda Cutting.  She has presented papers and lecture-recitals at many national music association meetings and performed extensively as a solo and collaborative pianist in the United States and Europe. She most recently appeared at the Oxford Lieder Festival in England with soprano Louise Toppin and baritone Alan Williams, at St. Saviour’s Concert Series in Bar Harbor, Maine, and at liveARTS in Franklin, Massachusetts with Nicholas Kitchen, violin.  Her co-authored critical edition of Harry T. Burleigh was published in November, 2023.  She is currently president of the Chaminade Music Club in Attleboro, MA, president of the board of the Norton Institute for Continuing Education, and artistic director of the liveARTS concert series in Franklin, MA.