Producer Arthur Hammerstein, attempting to create popular new shows without altering operetta tradition, sought exotic, unusual settings for his new productions.

It is not clear whether Mr. Keene considers the season's other new musical, Stephen Sondheim's "Little Night Music," as an extension of the company's operetta tradition or as part of the regular opera season.

In addition to the two opera houses, Budapest offers the lover of musical theater a separate company wholly devoted to the Central European operetta tradition.

The shows featured modern American settings and simple scene changes (one set for each act) to suit the small theatre, eschewing operetta traditions of foreign locales and elaborate scenery.

He is a champion of living composers, and a particular advocate of Sibelius, Janáček, Ravel, lesser-known British composers and the Viennese waltz and operetta tradition.

Like the Princess Theatre shows, it featured modern American settings, eschewing operetta traditions of foreign locales and elaborate scenery.

The operetta tradition started in France and soon spread to Austria and other countries.

The composer Jacques Offenbach can be thought of as the creator of the operetta tradition.

The city has a powerful operetta tradition, and the Volksoper in recent decades has been its primary preserver.

Certainly one of the festival's highlights is a representative of the classic operetta tradition: the Hungarian-born soprano Marta Eggerth, a major operetta star of stage and screen, for whom both Lehar and Kalman wrote.