Mirjana Plath

• Plath, Mirjana (2026). Adjö Mimi! Margit Rosengren and the Transfer of Popular Musical Theatre to Sweden in the 1920s. I Gentili, Barbara; Kühl, Paolo M. & Rowden, Clair (Red.), Opera in Transnational Contexts. Circulating Identities and Cultures. Routledge. ISSN 9781032861111. s. 192–209. doi: https:/www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781003521402-18/adj%C3%B6-mimi-mirjana-plath. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv Vis sammendrag

  This chapter examines the transfer of popular musical theatre from Vienna to Sweden in the 1920s. Operetta was highly popular in Sweden from the mid-nineteenth century until the 1960s, with strong connections to German and Austrian theatre practices. Despite claims of a decline in quality during the 1920s and 30s, the genre thrived in Sweden. Swedish operetta star Margit Rosengren played a significant role in successful productions at that time. Her case exemplifies possible patterns of transfer of popular musical theatre from German-speaking cities to Sweden, and shows the popularisation and commercialisation of operettas in Stockholm. A case study on Ralph Benatzky’s Adjö Mimi! [Adieu Mimi!] (1927), featuring Rosengren, reveals strategies for cultural adaptations for Swedish audiences. The representation of localities and gender in the operetta links to the reception of operettas in Swedish provincial towns, as well as the personal decisions of the artistic team involved in the staging.

• Plath, Mirjana (2025). Vienna. I Carpenter, Alexander (Red.), Schoenberg in Context. Cambridge University Press. ISSN 9781316513828. s. 10–17. doi: https:/www.cambridge.org/us/universitypress/subjects/music/twentieth-century-and-contemporary-music/schoenberg-context?format=HB&isbn=9781316513828#description. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv Vis sammendrag

  This chapter highlights Schoenberg’s encounters with art, literature, politics, and religion in Vienna, the city where he spent more than half of his lifetime and where he made his first steps as a composer. With his broad interests, Schoenberg profited from the diverse, international metropolis, which affected his world views and artistic work. Social democratic ideas and the workers’ movement were influencing him as well as Jewish culture, embedded in the fall of the Habsburg Empire and rising Antisemitic ideas. Vienna’s coffee houses as meeting points for artistic circles, a vivid music scene, as well as the visual arts, such as the Secession, Jugendstil, and Expressionism, were equally inspiring for his artistic output.

• Plath, Mirjana (2025). The Evening Belongs to Max Hansen! Operetta Transfers from Vienna to Stockholm (1927–1945), Central Europe in Times of Change. LIT Verlag. ISSN 9783643918161. s. 107–126. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv Vis sammendrag

  This article examines the transfers of Viennese operettas to Stockholm between 1927 and 1945. The analysis of performance listings in Stockholm reveals the works and people that shaped the imported operetta repertoire in Sweden’s capital. Viennese operettas were received enthusiastically in Stockholm, with the compositions of Emmerich Kálmán and Ralph Benatzky being among the most performed works. A case study of Max Hansen’s production “Kvällen är min” (German title “Bei Kerzenlicht”, with music by Robert Katscher) sheds new light on the importance of the genre as a cultural ambassador for Austrian and Viennese culture in the first half of the 20th century.

• Plath, Mirjana (2025). Edelweiß, Gespensterspuk und einfältige Bauern: Tirolbilder in Millöckers Operette "Das verwunschene Schloss". I Duffner, Roman; Stahrenberg, Carolin & Krettenauer, Thomas (Red.), Klang der Berge? Populäres Musiktheater und Musikfilm zwischen Weltflucht, Alpenmythos und Gipfelsturm. Waxmann Verlag. ISSN 9783830949992. s. 123–142. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv Vis sammendrag

  This article examines the depiction of Tyrol in operetta, with Carl Millöcker’s "Das verwunschene Schloss" (1878) as a case study. It analyses the images of Tyrol created by the libretto and musical composition, as well as the representational traditions of common stereotypes. By taking up specific regional cultural characteristics and stereotypes, "Das verwunschene Schloss" creates a distinctive connection to Tyrol at its time. The region receives an inimitable profile in the operetta: "Das verwunschene Schloss" shows Tyroleans as close to nature and their agricultural homeland. Their crude humor is expressed in many places in the operetta, particularly through the inclusion of a 'Gstanzl' in the third act. At the same time, Tyroleans are portrayed as superstitious and religious. Furthermore, their simple-mindedness and poor education expose them to ridicule and enable an urban operetta audience to laugh about the caricatured portrayal of the bumbling peasant people.

• Plath, Mirjana (2023). Rosen in Tirol? Aspekte des Tirolerischen in Carl Zellers Operette Der Vogelhändler. Nestroyana – Blätter der Internationalen Nestroy-Gesellschaft. ISSN 1027-3921. 43(3/4), s. 118–137. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv

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• Plath, Mirjana (2026). Ein Bezauberndes Fräulein gegen den Faschismus. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv Vis sammendrag

  This paper discusses the political content of a 1945 operetta production in Stockholm. First performed in Vienna in 1933, the operetta "Bezauberndes Fräulein" was adapted by Max Hansen as "Förtjusande Fröken" for a Swedish audience. Through the inclusion of new musical numbers, it became a clear statement against fascism. Notably, the song "Ett, två, tre" draws on a Danish revue number criticising censorship while Denmark was occupied by Germany in the Second World War.

• Plath, Mirjana (2026). Die Karriere von Lizzi Waldmüller zwischen Erfolg und Fremdbestimmung. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv Vis sammendrag

  Dieser Vortrag untersucht den Karriereweg der Operettensängerin Lizzi Waldmüller (1904–1945) auf und hinter der Bühne. Im Fokus der Untersuchung steht insbesondere der Einfluss ihres zeitweiligen Lebensgefährten Max Hansen auf ihren Erfolg. Das Paar stand unter anderem gemeinsam bei der Uraufführung von Benatzkys Operette Bezauberndes Fräulein in Wien 1933 auf der Bühne. Waldmüller verkörperte mit der weiblichen Hauptrolle Annette eine reiche und privilegierte Frau, die ihren Willen selbstbewusst gegenüber ihren männlichen Gegenspielern durchsetzt. Diese Darstellung einer selbstbestimmten Frau auf der Bühne kontrastiert mit Waldmüllers Lebensrealität: Eine Korrespondenz von Max Hansen mit Rolf Jahn, dem Theaterdirektor des Deutschen Volkstheaters in Wien, lässt vermuten, dass ihre Karriere stark von Hansen geprägt war. Ohne ihr Wissen verhandelte Hansen im September 1935 mit Jahn ein mögliches Theaterengagement einschließlich der Gage für seine Partnerin. Der Schriftverkehr suggeriert, dass die Absprache der zwei Männer bewusst hinter ihrem Rücken getätigt wurde und ist ein Beispiel der Macht und Funktionsweise männlicher Netzwerke im Theater. Gleichzeitig kann Waldmüllers weiterer Erfolg auch im Kontext von politischem Opportunismus gelesen werden. So beschuldigte die jüdische Exilzeitung Aufbau die Sängerin 1942, dass sie ihre Beziehung zu dem jüdischstämmigen Hansen um 1938 beendet hätte, um in ihrer Karriere während des Nationalsozialismus zu profitieren. Als Fallstudie ergründet dieser Vortrag das Spannungsfeld, in dem Waldmüller sich in den 1930er und 1940er Jahren bewegte: er untersucht die Arbeitsbedingungen weiblicher Musiktheaterstars in einer Zeit mit starren Geschlechterrollen, die auf der Bühne zwar hinterfragt aber in der Realität von männlichen Entscheidungsträgern dominiert wurden. Gleichzeitig forderten die moralischen und rassistischen Abgründe in Nazi-Deutschland die Haltung von Akteuren der Unterhaltungsbranche heraus.

• Plath, Mirjana (2024). Popular Musical Theatre Beyond the Theatre Stages in Stockholm. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Plath, Mirjana (2024). "Im weißen Rössl" and Max Hansen’s Operetta Transfers to Stockholm in the 1930s. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Plath, Mirjana (2023). “Adjeu Mimi!“: A Case Study of Popular Music Theatre Transfer from Vienna to Sweden. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Plath, Mirjana (2023). Populäres Unterhaltungstheater aus Berlin und Wien als Exportschlager in Stockholm. Operettentransfer in der Zwischenkriegszeit im Kontext von Politik und Populärkultur. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Plath, Mirjana (2023). Rosen in Tirol? Aspekte des Tirolerischen in der Wiener Operette. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Plath, Mirjana (2023). German operetta as a means of escape for Nazi persecutees to Stockholm in the 1930s. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv Vis sammendrag

  In 1935, the operetta star Max Hansen celebrated a triumphal success with his staging of Värdshuset vita hästen in Stockholm, a Swedish translation of the German popular music theater piece Im weißen Rössl (world premiere: 1930 in Berlin). Hansen had made himself a striking career in Germany in the 1920s as a cabaret artist, singer, and operetta performer. Being of Jewish descent, he moved to safer places in Europe after Hitler came to power, finally arriving in Stockholm and continuing to perform his repertoire there. By working with operettas he already knew from his years in Germany, Hansen could continue his success in Sweden. But he didn’t only help operetta to another heyday in Stockholm: With his stagings, he also functioned as a beacon of hope for persecuted operetta artists. As letters to Hansen show, German and Austrian artists begged him to get an engagement in Hansen’s stagings and hence find a way to escape from the National Socialists. In this paper, I will examine the impact of Max Hansen on the operetta transfers from Berlin to Stockholm in the 1930s, with a special focus on the musical theater work Im weißen Rössl. Even though Stockholm had a thriving operetta scene for over 100 years (Paavolainen, 2020), there has been little research on this subject. The 1930s are an interesting decade to look at, with its fateful developments in Europe and especially Germany causing the mobility of many operetta artists. Therefore, this paper wants to shed light on the impact of people like Max Hansen and their role in the transfer of popular music theater at a time of persecution.

• Plath, Mirjana (2023). Popular Music Cultures of the 20th and 21st Centuries. [Radio]. Oslo. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Plath, Mirjana (2022). Transfer of Operettas between Vienna and Stockholm in the 1920s. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Plath, Mirjana (2022). Images of Tyrol in Viennese Operetta. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Plath, Mirjana (2015). Review: Olivier Moeschler: Der Schweizer Film: Kulturpolitik im Wandel: der Staat, die Filmschaffenden, das Publikum. MEDIENwissenschaft: Rezensionen | Reviews. ISSN 1431-5262. 32, s. 13–13. doi: 10.25969/mediarep/5187. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Plath, Mirjana (2025). Maxing out German Operetta in Stockholm: Max Hansen’s Popular Musical Theatre Transfers in the 1930s and 1940s. University of Oslo (UiO). Fulltekst i vitenarkiv Vis sammendrag

  This study investigates the role of the actor, cabaret artist, and stage director Max Hansen in the transfer, performance practice, and reception of popular musical theatre in Stockholm in the 1930s and 1940s. As a prominent satirist, voicing criticism against Hitler before 1933, and being of Jewish descent, Hansen left Nazi Germany in the 1930s and became a popular figure in the Swedish entertainment industry. In his exile, Hansen contributed to a vibrant operetta practice in Stockholm in the 1930s and 1940s, while the genre in other countries gradually lost its dominant position in popular culture. Performing mostly pieces from Berlin and Vienna, he promoted culture of Germanophone origin in Sweden, an allegedly neutral state in World War II, at a time when Nazi Germany instrumentalised culture to promote its ideologies both at home and abroad. The Swedish translation of "Bezauberndes Fräulein" in 1935 is Hansen’s first appearance in an operetta in Stockholm. The thesis then proceeds to investigate the period leading up to "Im weißen Rössl" in 1948. Drawing upon a rich array of archival materials, including stage books, personal letters, and theatre contracts, the research highlights the powerful position of Hansen in Stockholm’s theatre scene and the strategies theatre artists used to escape persecution in Nazi Germany. Hansen ridiculed nationalism and stereotypical gender roles, criticised the execution of persecuted politicians in Nazi Germany, and mocked supposed Nazi collaborators in his songs. By analysing performances and their cultural historical contexts, this study contributes to a richer and more nuanced understanding of how operetta served as both entertainment and a vehicle for social and political commentaries.

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