Katinka is an operetta in three acts composed by Rudolf Friml to a libretto by Otto Harbach. It was first performed at the Park Theatre in Morristown, New Jersey, on December 2, 1915, with May Naudain in the title role and subsequently received its Broadway premiere on December 23, 1915 at the 44th Street Theatre.
Katinka marked the third collaboration between Rudolf Friml and his lyricist Otto Harbach. The show's producer, Arthur Hammerstein, had also produced Friml and Harbach's The Firefly (1912) and High Jinks (1913). The work was originally entitled Elaine, after Hammerstein's daughter, who had a small role in High Jinks and according to the New York Times was to have featured in the new production. In the end, Elaine Hammerstein left Broadway to begin a career in movies, and the operetta's name was changed to Katinka. [1]
Katinka was first performed at the Park Theatre in Morristown, New Jersey on December 2, 1915 and subsequently moved to the 44th Street Theatre for its Broadway premiere on December 23, 1915. [2] The production starring May Naudain and Sam Ash as Katinka and Ivan was conducted by John McGhie and directed by Frank Smithson, with set design by Edward Sundquist and costume design by Paul Arlington. The show was an immediate success and ran on Broadway for 220 performances. It also had personal consequences for Friml, who began an affair with one of the chorus singers, Blanche Betters. The couple married in 1917 and divorced acrimoniously two years later, a fact which caused a New York judge to deny his 1921 request to become a naturalized US citizen. [3] Following its Broadway run, Katinka toured to several American cities including Los Angeles, Boston, Baltimore, St. Louis, and Atlanta and had regular revivals in the US until the late 1940s, as well as radio broadcasts. One of its rare 21st century revivals was in November 2009, when it was performed in concert version by the Comic Opera Guild of Ann Arbor, Michigan. [4]
Katinka also enjoyed considerable success outside the United States particularly in Australia and New Zealand. It premiered in New Zealand in April 1918 at the Grand Opera House, Wellington, and in Australia on June 8, 1918 at Her Majesty's Theatre, Melbourne. On both occasions, the title role was sung by Gladys Moncrieff. It was her first starring role and one she was to sing well into the 1940s. Other young performers who appeared in the Australian productions and went on to prominent careers were dancer Robert Helpmann (1930) and actor Cyril Ritchard (1918). Katinka had its UK premiere on August 30, 1923 at the Shaftesbury Theatre with Helen Gilliland in the title role and ran for 108 performances.
Setting: Yalta, Istanbul, and Vienna shortly before the outbreak of World War I [6]
The play opens in Yalta at a villa on the Black Sea. Reluctantly following her mother's wishes, Katinka marries Boris Strogoff, the Russian Ambassador to Austria, although she is really in love with his attaché, Ivan Dimitri, and he with her. After the wedding, Thaddeus Hopper, a wealthy American and Ivan's friend, helps her escape to Turkey.
Ivan and Boris Strogoff's servant Petrov arrive in Istanbul hoping to find Strogoff's first wife Olga, who chose to live in a harem rather than remain married to him. If she is found, Strogoff's marriage to Katinka can be annulled on grounds of bigamy, leaving her free to marry Ivan. Katinka and Thaddeus Hopper are also in the city, where she is staying in Hopper's rooms. The arrival of Hopper's wife, Helen, causes complications when she becomes suspicious of the arrangements. Hopper has arranged for Katinka to be hidden in the harem of Izzet Pasha, but Arif Bey, Pasha's warden, mistakenly carries Mrs. Hopper off to the harem instead of Katinka. Meanwhile, Herr Knopf is planning to open the Café-Turkois-in-Vienna and has come to Istanbul looking for women to work there. Helen is amongst those he takes back to Vienna.
The main characters are all in Vienna, where they have assembled at Herr Knopf's café. Olga, who had been living in Izzet Pasha's harem under the name of "Nashan", reveals her true identity. The Hoppers are reconciled, and Katinka and Ivan are reunited.
Excerpts from Katinka can be heard on the 1987 recording Rudolf Friml: Chansonette with soprano Teresa Ringholz and the Eastman-Dryden Orchestra conducted by Donald Hunsberger (Arabesque Records). [8]
Rudolf Friml himself plays a piano version of "Allah's Holiday" on Friml plays Friml, recorded at the Studio Mozarteum in Prague in September 1964 (Supraphon). [9]
Oscar Greeley Clendenning Hammerstein II was an American lyricist, librettist, theatrical producer, and director in musical theater for nearly 40 years. He won eight Tony Awards and two Academy Awards for Best Original Song. Many of his songs are standard repertoire for vocalists and jazz musicians. He co-wrote 850 songs.
Otto Abels Harbach, born Otto Abels Hauerbach was an American lyricist and librettist of nearly 50 musical comedies and operettas. Harbach collaborated as lyricist or librettist with many of the leading Broadway composers of the early 20th century, including Jerome Kern, Louis Hirsch, Herbert Stothart, Vincent Youmans, George Gershwin, and Sigmund Romberg. Harbach believed that music, lyrics, and story should be closely connected, and, as Oscar Hammerstein II's mentor, he encouraged Hammerstein to write musicals in this manner. Harbach is considered one of the first great Broadway lyricists, and he helped raise the status of the lyricist in an age more concerned with music, spectacle, and stars. Some of his more famous lyrics are "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes", "Indian Love Call" and "Cuddle up a Little Closer, Lovey Mine".
This is a list of notable events in music that took place in the year 1925.
This is a list of notable events in music that took place in the year 1924.
This is a list of notable events in music that took place in the year 1916.
This is a list of notable events in music that took place in the year 1912.
Charles Rudolf Friml was a Czech-born composer of operettas, musicals, songs and piano pieces, as well as a pianist. After musical training and a brief performing career in his native Prague, Friml moved to the United States, where he became a composer. His best-known works are Rose-Marie and The Vagabond King, each of which enjoyed success on Broadway and in London and were adapted for film.
Eugene Onegin, Op. 24, is an opera in 3 acts, composed by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. The libretto, organised by the composer himself, very closely follows certain passages in Alexander Pushkin's 1825–1832 novel in verse, retaining much of his poetry. Tchaikovsky's friend Konstantin Shilovsky contributed M. Triquet's verses in Act 2, Scene 1, while Tchaikovsky himself arranged the text for Lensky's arioso in Act 1, Scene 1, and almost all of Prince Gremin's aria in Act 3, Scene 1.
Rose-Marie is an operetta-style musical with music by Rudolf Friml and Herbert Stothart, and book and lyrics by Otto Harbach and Oscar Hammerstein II. The story is set in the Canadian Rocky Mountains and concerns Rose-Marie La Flemme, a French Canadian girl who loves miner Jim Kenyon. When Jim falls under suspicion for murder, her brother Emile plans for Rose-Marie to marry Edward Hawley, a city man.
Le Corsaire is a ballet typically presented in three acts, with a libretto originally created by Jules-Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges loosely based on the poem The Corsair by Lord Byron. Originally choreographed by Joseph Mazilier to the music of Adolphe Adam and other composers, it was first presented by the ballet of the Théâtre Impérial de l’Opéra in Paris on 23 January 1856. All modern productions of Le Corsaire are derived from the revivals staged by the Ballet Master Marius Petipa for the Imperial Ballet of St. Petersburg throughout the mid to late 19th century.
Arthur Hammerstein was an American songwriter, dramatist, playwright and theater manager.
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.
The Messenger Boy is a musical comedy in two acts by James T. Tanner and Alfred Murray, lyrics by Adrian Ross and Percy Greenbank, with music by Ivan Caryll and Lionel Monckton, with additional numbers by Paul Rubens. The story concerns a rascally financier who tries to discredit a rival in love; it takes place in London, Cairo and Paris.
The Vagabond King is a 1925 operetta by Rudolf Friml in four acts, with a book and lyrics by Brian Hooker and William H. Post, based upon Justin Huntly McCarthy's 1901 romantic novel and play If I Were King. The story is a fictionalized episode in the life of the 15th-century poet and thief François Villon, centering on his wooing of Katherine De Vaucelles, and relating how he becomes “king for a day” and defends France against the invading forces of the Duke of Burgundy.
The Blue Paradise is a musical in a prologue and two acts, with music by Edmund Eysler, Sigmund Romberg and Leo Edwards, lyrics primarily by Herbert Reynolds, and a book by Edgar Smith, based on the operetta Ein Tag im Paradies by Eysler with original text by Leo Stein and Bela Jenbach. The story is set in a Viennese cafe, where a man realizes that he cannot recapture his long lost love.
The Three Musketeers is a musical with a book by William Anthony McGuire, lyrics by Clifford Grey and P. G. Wodehouse, and music by Rudolf Friml. It is based on the classic 1844 novel by Alexandre Dumas, père. Set in France and England in 1626, it recounts the adventures of a young man named d'Artagnan after he leaves home to become a Musketeer of the Guard. The three men of the title are his friends Athos, Porthos and Aramis.
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.
The Firefly is a 1937 American historical musical film directed by Robert Z. Leonard and starring Jeanette MacDonald, Allan Jones and Warren William. The film is an adaptation of the operetta of the same name by composer Rudolf Friml and librettist Otto A. Harbach that premiered on Broadway in 1912. The film used nearly all of the music from the operetta but jettisoned the plot in favor of a new storyline set in Spain during the time of the Emperor Napoleon I. It added a new song, "The Donkey Serenade", which became extremely popular, as was one of the Friml songs, "Giannina Mia". The original release prints of the film were elaborately tinted with Sepia-Blue, Sepia-Orange and Sepia-Blue-Pink.
Wildflower or The Wildflower, is a musical in three acts with book and lyrics by Otto Harbach and Oscar Hammerstein II and music by Herbert Stothart and Vincent Youmans. The plot concerns a pretty Italian farmgirl, Nina, who has a fiery temper. She stands to inherit a fortune provided that she can keep her temper under control for six months. If she fails, the money goes to her cousin Bianca, who tries to provoke her. She manages to do it, and gets the money, as well as her man, Guido. Several of the songs were published, among which "Bambalina" and the title song were the most popular. The musical proved to be Day's last Broadway show before moving to London.
Tabasco is a "burlesque opera in two acts" with music by George W. Chadwick and a libretto by R. A. Barnet. The work is written in a blend of styles including operetta, musical theatre, Victorian burlesque, and vaudeville. The opera was created without the knowledge of McIlhenny Company, maker of Tabasco brand pepper sauce since 1868. The company, however, subsequently approved its performance. The opera went on to tour the U.S. to critical acclaim, but disagreements between Chadwick and the opera's producer eventually derailed its success.