Austropop

12 October 2022 until 4 September 2023

Austropop actually begins with Mozart and Schikaneder - this is also reflected in Falco, which immediately provides the framework for the new exhibition, which thematically juxtaposes pop phenomena across the ages and is jointly curated by a team of curators from the Theatre Museum.

Austria has produced many pop stars. They include Johann Nestroy as a great folk actor and, of course, Johann Strauss, who caused a sensation in America as well as in Russia with true pop concerts. Numerous operettas also thrilled audiences on Broadway and in early film adaptations, and with them popular Austrian musical theatre works came to international stages. The tenor Richard Tauber was one of the great pop stars of the 1930s.

Armin Berg and Hermann Leopoldi used humour to put their fingers in the wounds of society in their songs; this continued after the Second World War with Helmut Qualtinger and led to the beginning of the era known as "Austropop". Arik Brauer, André Heller and Marianne Mendt poured social criticism into their own new forms. Ludwig Hirsch and Georg Danzer, Wolfgang Ambros and Rainhard Fendrich founded Austropop, which continues to develop today.

Star cult, popular themes such as sports enthusiasm from the "Wunderteam" to Wolfgang Ambros' Schifoan, the personality cult around Empress Elisabeth from operetta to film to musical, the image of Austria between the "Weißes Rössl" and the Sound of Music, but also the rejection of the popular are just some of the themes covered in this exhibition.