Der lustige Krieg, Bregenz Festival

By Larry L Lash [Financial Times, 12 August 2005]

With operetta an endangered species, thanks are due to the Bregenz Festival for dusting-off Johann Strauss's big hit of 1881, Der lustige Krieg. Written seven years after Die Fledermaus and forgotten by the intrusion of the 20th century, it shows Strauss as tuneful as ever, but abandoning the strict "numbers" approach to operetta and developing a more sophisticated compositional style.