Zeitoper

Zeitoper, 'opera of the times', is the topical opera of Weimar Germany, flourishing briefly between about 1926 and 1933. Its composers — *Ernst Krenek*, *Kurt Weill*, *Paul Hindemith* — set contemporary life on the operatic stage: trains, telephones, radio, hotels, jazz bands and dance halls, in place of myth and history. Scores mix operatic singing with jazz, cabaret and popular dance idioms, use film, loudspeakers and modern stage technology, and favour short, sharply plotted forms. The epitome is Krenek's "Jonny spielt auf" (1927), whose jazz-band hero made it the most performed new opera of the era.