Chicago Folks Operetta's 2013 summer season will kick off with the first Chicago performance in over 25 years of Franz Lehár's The Land of Smiles. Featuring a new English translation, the show will run for 10 performances, starting June 28 and running through July 14 at Stage 773 in Chicago.

Only a few more weeks to go and Moïse Simons' operetta Toi c'est moi from 1934 will see its very belated German premiere as Du bist ich – in provincial Altenburg, of all places. The much anticipated new staging by dancer/actor Götz Hellriegel will make many local operetta fans ask: who is Simons anyway? And is this Toi c'est moi really worth seeing (and travelling for)?

At the Staatsoperette Dresden, Johann Strauss' kinky Carneval operetta Eine Nacht in Venedig was given a brand new production, officially based on the "Racek edition" from 1970, part of the Johann Strauss Complete Edition started in 1967 by publishing house Doblinger in Vienna. The claim of the theater is to make "the original charm of the operetta the guiding light" ("Die Staatsoperette Dresden wird den ursprünglichen Charme [von Eine Nacht in Venedig] zum Leitbild ihrer Neuproduktion nehmen"). At least that's what the Staatsoperetten website says.

Well, what do you know? Now the Israeli Opera company is jumping onto the operetta band wagon too. Its general director Hanna Munitz presented the 2013/14 season to the press this week at the Israel Opera House, aka the Tel Aviv Performing Arts Center or TAPAC. Amid the Traviatas, Bohemes and Tales of Hoffman you find: a Countess Maritza! So, Kálmán's 1924 operetta hit was chosen to convince Israeli audiences of the joys of the genre. A genre that was, until 1933, dominated by Jewish composers, writers, theater directors and performers – Emmerich Kálmán being one of them, forced into exile in 1938 when the Germans occupied Austria where Kálmán had been living since 1909.

Now it's official: the Komische Oper Berlin will continue its operetta crusade next season with a new all-star production of Nico Dostal's Clivia (1933) in March 2014. This was announced this week by intendant Barrie Kosky who also told the press who will play the title role. None other than Christoph Marti who – years ago – was responsible for one of the most famous modern day operetta productions, Das weiße Rössl at the Bar jeder Vernunft (available on DVD.) Marti is part of the comedy trio "Die Geschwister Pfister" and will play Clivia alongside his partner Toni Pfister (Tobias Bonn) and Fräulein Schneider (Andreja Schneider). It's the first time that a Berlin opera house hires the entire group, and it's also the first time that some of the most beloved cabaret artists debut at an opera house here.