Admired Offenbach’s operettas and made no secret of his desire to write one of his own.
Die Fledermaus (“The Bat” - 1874)
Would write ten more operettas, but Fledermaus remains his theatrical masterpiece.
European forms of entertainment dominated musical theatre in colonial America.
FIRST RECORDED musical theatre performance in the colonies was the ballad opera, Flora--arguably--in 1735. This was performed without stage, scenery, costumes or footlights in a courtroom in Charleston, South Carolina.