Italian Street Song

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"Italian Street Song" is a popular song written by Victor Herbert (music) and Rida Johnson Young (lyrics) in 1910.

The song was written for and introduced in the operetta Naughty Marietta , which originally opened in Syracuse, New York on October 24, 1910.

Since 1935, the song has been most closely associated with Jeanette MacDonald, who played the lead role of "Marietta" in the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer film version of the operetta that was released in that year. The song proved to be one of her most popular; she recorded it multiple times throughout her lifetime and she often performed it during concerts and radio appearances for the rest of her career. Her recording of the song was released as RCA Victor 78 RPM single #10-1134-A with Orchestra and Maximilian Pilzer, conducting.

Billy May recorded a Latin-styled version of the piece for his 1954 album Naughty Operetta! [1] The recording was later included on Capitol's Ultra-Lounge Internet-only album "Ciao Bella!" [2]

The children's novel Zizzy Zing by Ursula Dubosarsky takes its name from a line of The Italian Street Song, which is played on a record by one of the characters. [3]

It was performed on Sesame Street by Plácido Flamingo, accompanied by an orchestra of animals making musical versions of their noises, conducted by Seiji Ozawa.

Related Research Articles

<i>Naughty Marietta</i> (film) 1935 American operetta film

Naughty Marietta is a 1935 American musical romance film based on the 1910 operetta of the same name by Victor Herbert. Jeanette MacDonald stars as a princess who flees an arranged marriage. She sails for New Orleans and is rescued from pirates by Captain Richard Warrington.

This is a list of notable events in music that took place in the year 1910.

Victor Herbert Irish-American composer

Victor August Herbert was an American composer, cellist and conductor of English and Irish ancestry and German training. Although Herbert enjoyed important careers as a cello soloist and conductor, he is best known for composing many successful operettas that premiered on Broadway from the 1890s to World War I. He was also prominent among the Tin Pan Alley composers and was later a founder of the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP). A prolific composer, Herbert produced two operas, a cantata, 43 operettas, incidental music to 10 plays, 31 compositions for orchestra, nine band compositions, nine cello compositions, five violin compositions with piano or orchestra, 22 piano compositions and numerous songs, choral compositions and orchestrations of works by other composers, among other music.

<i>Sweethearts</i> (musical)

Sweethearts is an operetta or musical play in two acts with music by Victor Herbert, lyrics by Robert B. Smith and book by Harry B. Smith and Fred de Gresac.

<i>The Desert Song</i>

The Desert Song is an operetta with music by Sigmund Romberg and book and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II, Otto Harbach and Frank Mandel. It was inspired by the 1925 uprising of the Riffs, a group of Moroccan fighters, against French colonial rule. It was also inspired by stories of Lawrence of Arabia aiding native guerrillas. Many tales romanticizing Arab North Africa were in vogue, including Beau Geste and The Son of the Sheik.

The New Moon is the name of an operetta with music by Sigmund Romberg and book and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II, Frank Mandel, and Laurence Schwab. The show was the third and last in a string of Broadway hits for Romberg written in the style of Viennese operetta. It spawned a number of revivals and two film versions, and it is still played by light opera companies. The piece turned out to be "Broadway's last hit operetta", as World War II and the Golden Age of musicals approached.

"If " is a popular song with music written by Tolchard Evans and the lyrics written by Robert Hargreaves and Stanley J. Damerell. The song was written in 1934, but the most popular versions were recorded in 1950-1951. Perry Como's version, recorded November 28, 1950, was a number-one hit on the Billboard charts for eight weeks. The Como version was released under the following labels and catalog numbers:

<i>Naughty Marietta</i> (operetta) 1910 comic opera by Rida Johnson Young and Victor Herbert

Naughty Marietta is an operetta in two acts, with libretto by Rida Johnson Young and music by Victor Herbert. Set in New Orleans in 1780, it tells how Captain Richard Warrington is commissioned to unmask and capture a notorious French pirate calling himself "Bras Pique" – and how he is helped and hindered by a high-spirited runaway, Contessa Marietta. The score includes many well-known songs, including "Ah! Sweet Mystery of Life".

<i>Little Mary Sunshine</i> 1959 musical

Little Mary Sunshine is a musical that parodies old-fashioned operettas and musicals. The book, music, and lyrics are by Rick Besoyan. The original Off-Broadway production premiered November 18, 1959 at the Orpheum Theatre in New York City's East Village. Staying in the neighborhood, it moved to the Player's Theatre on June 21, 1961, then, finally, to the Cherry Lane Theatre on March 21, 1962. Closing was Sept. 2, 1962. Combined run was 1,143 performances. It was seen briefly in a West End production in 1962 and has become a popular show for amateur and semi-professional groups in the United States and elsewhere.

<i>Mlle. Modiste</i>

Mlle. Modiste is an operetta in two acts composed by Victor Herbert with a libretto by Henry Blossom. It concerns hat shop girl Fifi, who longs to be an opera singer, but who is such a good hat seller that her employer, Mme. Cecil, discourages her in her ambitions and exploits her commercial talents. Also, Fifi loves Etienne de Bouvray, who returns her love, but his uncle, Count Henri, opposes their union. The operetta features the song "Kiss Me Again".

The Ohio Light Opera is a professional opera company based in Wooster, Ohio that performs the light opera repertory, including Gilbert and Sullivan, American, British and continental operettas, and other musical theatre works, especially of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The company is also known for its recordings of these works.

Ursula Dubosarsky Australian writer

Ursula Dubosarsky is an Australian writer of fiction and non-fiction for children and young adults, whose work is characterised by a child's vision and comic voice of both clarity and ambiguity. She has won nine national literary prizes, including five New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards, more than any other writer in the Awards' 30-year history. She was appointed the Australian Children's Laureate for 2020–2021.

Naughty Marietta may refer to:

<i>The Red Mill</i>

The Red Mill is an operetta written by Victor Herbert, with a libretto by Henry Blossom. The farcical story concerns two American vaudevillians who wreak havoc at an inn in Holland, interfering with two marriages; but all ends well. The musical premiered on Broadway on September 24, 1906 at the Knickerbocker Theatre and ran for 274 performances, starring comedians Fred Stone and David C. Montgomery. It also had a London run and toured extensively, and in 1945 had a long-running Broadway revival. The Red Mill includes the famous songs "Every Day is Lady's Day with Me", "The Streets of New York", "You Never Can Tell About a Woman", and "Because You're You".

Rida Johnson Young American dramatist

Rida Johnson Young was an American playwright, songwriter and librettist. In her career, Young wrote over thirty plays and musicals, and over 500 songs. She was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1970. Some of her best-known lyrics include "Mother Machree" from the 1910 show Barry of Ballymore, "Italian Street Song", "I'm Falling in Love with Someone" and "Ah! Sweet Mystery of Life" from Naughty Marietta, and "Will You Remember?" from Maytime.

<i>The Firefly</i> (operetta)

The Firefly was the first operetta written by composer Rudolf Friml, with a libretto by Otto Harbach. The story concerns a young Italian girl, who is a street singer in New York. She disguises herself and serves as a cabin boy on a ship to Bermuda, where she falls in love. Complications arise, and eventually, she becomes a grand opera diva.

"Naughty Marietta" is an American television episode of the 1910 operetta Naughty Marietta. The music for the operetta was composed by Victor Herbert. The book and the lyrics were written by Rida Johnson Young. First telecast live in the United States on January 15, 1955, the conductor for the production was Charles Sanford. The television version, which is slightly different from the operetta, as well as different from the film, was made twenty years after the film version with Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy. "Naughty Marietta" marked the first musical television appearance by Alfred Drake.

George Greeley Musical artist

George Greeley was an Italian-American pianist, conductor, composer, arranger, recording artist and record producer who is known for his extensive work across the spectrum of the entertainment industry. Starting as an arranger and pianist with several notable big bands in the 1940s, he segued into the Hollywood radio scene, working on several nationally broadcast variety programs. After conducting an Army Air Force Band during World War II, he was hired by Columbia Pictures as a staff pianist and orchestrator. He worked as pianist on several hundred motion pictures, worked with many famous composers orchestrating their soundtrack compositions, and created original compositions of his own in several dozen movies. It was Greeley's hands that performed the piano parts that Tyrone Power mimed in The Eddy Duchin Story. Concurrent with his work at Columbia Pictures, George Greeley also worked at Capitol Records as music director, pianist, and conductor for many artists such as Gordon MacRae, Jane Powell, Jo Stafford, Frankie Laine, and Doris Day. He was hired in the late 1950s by the newly established Warner Brothers Records. George Greeley arranged, orchestrated and performed as primary artist for a series of hit recordings entitled "Popular Piano Concertos." As music tastes changed in the late 1960s, Greeley had already moved into television, composing themes and music for popular TV series like My Favorite Martian,The Ghost and Mrs. Muir,Nanny and the Professor, and Small Wonder. He performed as featured piano soloist and as guest conductor in concert appearances around the world. He died from emphysema at age 89 in Los Angeles, California.

"Beyond the Blue Horizon" is a 1930 song composed by Leo Robin, Richard A. Whiting, and W. Franke Harling, and was first performed by Jeanette MacDonald in the 1930 film Monte Carlo. It was released that November as a single on a 78 rpm disc along with the song "Always, in All Ways" on Victor Records. Four takes were recorded on August 4 at the Hollywood Recording Studio, conducted by LeRoy Shield, with MacDonald and the vocal group The Rounders; the second take was chosen for release.

Jeanette MacDonald discography Artist discography

American actress/singer Jeanette MacDonald recorded over 50 songs during her film career for RCA Victor and its foreign counterparts. Due to the limited statistics released to the public, it is not certain how many songs and singles she has released or their exact popularity in music charts, although she has officially recorded eight studio albums and released seven compilation albums. Despite soundtracks for musical films not becoming a concept until the 1940s, many of her singles were re-recordings of songs she had performed in the movies ; her first "album" was the single "Dream Lover"/"March of the Grenadiers" (1930) on 78 rpm discs for The Love Parade. She also recorded a cover album of songs featured in Sigmund Romberg's Up in Central Park in 1945 with Robert Merrill, as well as non-English records during her 1931 European tour.

References

  1. www.discogs.com https://www.discogs.com/Billy-May-His-Orchestra-Billy-Mays-Naughty-Operetta/master/682826 . Retrieved July 3, 2020.{{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  2. "Italian Street Song" by Billy May on YouTube
  3. littlelibraryofrescuedbooks.blogspot.com.au http://littlelibraryofrescuedbooks.blogspot.com.au/2011/06/zizzy-zing-by-ursula-dubosarsky.html . Retrieved July 19, 2012.{{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)