Operetta

"I have always been captivated by the form of the operetta which, in my opinion, is one of the most felicitous forms ever produced by the theatre. While opera remains something awkward, something hopelessly doomed to pretentiousness, operetta, in its divine idiocy, in its heavenly sclerosis, in its glorious etherealness thanks to song, dance, gesture and mask, seems to me the perfect theatre, perfectly theatrical."—Witold Gombrowicz’s commentary on his Operetta from A Kind of Testament: Interviews with Dominique de Roux [Trans. Hamilton]*In Operette (Operetta), Witold Gombrowicz presents the history of the twentieth century as a series of costume changes. He contrasts this with a person who wants to withdraw from this process in order to be ‘naked’.Baron Firulet and Count Agenor, both frivolous souls, vie for the heart of Albertinette. They shower her with the most sophisticated possible clothing. But Albertinette, obliged to wear these wondrous, hideous clothes, secretly dreams of nudity. Meanwhile, revolutionaries infiltrate the court: they want to overthrow the prevailing fashion, ‘The Shape’, at the forthcoming royal ball. Distrust your clothes! Question your costume!