Bitter Sweet (operetta)

Bitter Sweet was an operetta written by Noel Coward and first produced in 1929. The relatively simple plot - set in 19th-Century Austria and concerning a young woman's elopement with her music teacher - is used as the hook for a series of excellent light-operatic numbers, many with surprisingly complex melodies strongly reminiscent of the best work of Gilbert and Sullivan. Of the songs in the show, the best known by far is I'll See You Again, used as a recurring motif throughout the play. Short on memorable Cowardian dialogue, Bitter Sweet nonetheless stands out as containing some of Coward's best music and has always been popular in revivals around the world, a number of which have been recorded for posterity on CD. It was filmed twice, in 1933 and 1940.