Coming up in Philly music: Roaming through Romberg

Nowadays we call them musicals. Mozart’s audience called them songspiels. The basic idea appeals to a lot of people: the characters burst into song when they express their strongest feelings and engage in spoken dialogue the rest of the time.

In the first decades of the 20th century they were called operettas, and they were primarily created by Viennese composers, including Austrians who emigrated to America. Philly’s Concert Operetta Theater has been keeping that romantic, tuneful tradition alive with concert-style performances of the Viennese and American classics. For its first event of the season, COT will vary its format and present an anthology program devoted to the American most associated with the form. Sigmund Romberg composed operetta’s biggest American hit, The Student Prince, and many of the songs that capture its essence.

If you like songs like Stout Hearted Men, One Alone, and the drinking song from The Student Prince, you’ll find what you’re looking for on Spruce Street, at the Academy of Vocal Arts. Concert Operetta vocalists are young artists with good track records, and they’re coached and directed by pros who love the form. For people with the right kind of personality, the result is a visit to a world that is romantic, schmaltzy, unrealistic — and irresistible.

Concert Operetta Theater (COT) presents Remembering Romberg on November 17 and 18 at 4pm at the Helen Corning Warden Theater at the Academy of Vocal Arts (1920 Spruce Street, Philadelphia). Tickets ($30; $20 for seniors; $10 for students; kids under 16 free) are available by calling 215-389-0548 and at the door. The venue has a ramp for wheelchair access at the rear of the building; please call COT for more accessibility info.