However, a little more than a century ago the thriving form of operetta encompassed a large number of composers and writers who created a considerable body of works, many of which have since fallen into obscurity. Lyric Theatre is working to revive some of these lost shows with its fledgling new program, the Discovery Series, which gets started April 4­6 with the operetta Merrie England.

Don Tull, the show's director, says the very process by which Lyric Theatre chooses its regular season inspired the idea for the Discovery Series. "We have a repertory committee that picks the shows that we're going to do a couple years in advance," says Tull. "We would read through a whole lot of pieces and we'd say 'Well, nobody knows this; we really can't afford to do that.' But they're still pieces that people ought to hear."

The reasons why operettas are "lost" can vary, from the physical loss of the score in a fire right down to the whim of the audience. Tull likens it to the works of composers who were contemporaries of Beethoven that have since been overshadowed by his many famous compositions. "Even in Gilbert and Sullivan's works there are the three big shows that everybody knows, if they know Gilbert and Sullivan at all," says Tull. "But then there are others. For example, the next Gilbert and Sullivan we're doing, Princess Ida, is not well-known and yet it's one of the funniest pieces they wrote."

Arcane language could also be a culprit in many of these works being shelved, Tull says. A trend toward word play, he points out, strongly curbed the staying power of operettas that relied heavily on that trend because the jokes became obsolete.

Staging a forgotten work starts not on the stage but in the library, with lots of research, Tull says. "We're lucky with Merrie England. It actually has a very nice printed score and it is occasionally done in England and there's quite a nice CD of it originally recorded in the '60s. But with some of the others, you have to dredge down, go into libraries and find scores." Tull also says that there are a handful of definitive histories of operetta that can provide clues about when works were written and staged and how well—or badly—they were received by audiences.

Although the team behind Merrie England doesn't boast quite the same name recognition, that show is not without its ties to fame. Edward German, the composer for Merrie England, was a protégé of Arthur Sullivan's, and the operetta's librettist, Basil Hood, collaborated with Sullivan on some of the pieces he did without Gilbert.

Tull says the musical style is a little different, but not too much, from what people might expect of a Sullivan protégé. "It definitely has Sullivan-esque sounds in it," says Tull, "but being a younger person, German was more in tune with more recent developments. He never quite lost his classical roots, but there's some experimentation in terms of what we'd call a musical hall style. It's a bouncier, lighter style. The closest thing in this country at that time would have been George Cohan, that style. Not quite vaudeville, but along that line."

Merrie England tells a story of intrigues and romances on the sly in the court of Queen Elizabeth I. It will be presented as a semi-staged concert at Le Petit Trianon concert hall, without costumes or sets, and with performers holding scores. Accompaniment is pared down to a pianist (Although in this case, the accompaniment itself is another reason to see the show. Fourteen-year-old Christopher Koelzer, described by his castmates as a prodigy, will be at the piano).

Tull says the music was a great motivation in getting some of these pieces performed.

"Merrie England" runs April 4­6 at Le Petit Trianon in San Jose. Tickets are $15. For more information, call 408.986.1455 or visit www.lyrictheatre.org.