Those Wonderful Female Librettists
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
News From VHSource, LLC Vol 10 October 2011 Those Wonderful Female Librettists eventually became totally deaf during a healthy The Ladies Rise To The Occasion portion of his career. That fact did not stop his career any women advocates seem to feel that the in the least. Mitchell is definitely on our list to plight of the female librettist is a relatively feature within the next year simply because he is a Mnew phenomenon over the past 50 years with huge giant in the early foundations of Broadway and the emergence of Gloria Steinem and women’s lib. In has more than 75 Broadway shows on his credits. fact one of the major movements in the performing arts Many occurred after suffering what should have been today – right now – is something known as 50/50/12. a game ending handicap. He is also proving to be That rallying cry translates to women’s representation very elusive – his name pops up all the time with in the arts/men’s representation in the arts/ 2012 or Victor Herbert, Weber & Fields, Florenz Ziegfeld, even more simply – moving women into 50% etc., but no one seems to have ever taken the time to participation in all aspects of the arts by the year 2012. paint a good picture of this giant. For those of you Please don’t think we are belittling this movement in looking for research projects, here is a big one. any way. Issues of concern almost always need at some point a loud drum beating drive to get people to at least Scott Joplin (1867-1917) – the wonderful examine situations African-American composer who dared to write an opera Treemonisha in 1910. Never produced in its However, the idea is also formulated around an entire form until 1972, it was still a huge intangible that is almost impossible to foist upon the achievement by a person who was not ever offered arts – the idea that theatres should hire anyone just “equal opportunity” but who did have creativity, skill because it would be nice to have half women and half and that most intangible item – passion. He “self men as actors, as directors and as playwrights. Art is published” his about passion, quality, vision, and talent – not really piano/vocal about gender. Still, it would be wonderfully refreshing score in 1911 – if every once in a while a theatre or producing company currently a might take it upon themselves to explore an entire full major “new” season of works about, written by and/or directed by i d e a b e i n g the less well represented – women, people of color, c o n s t a n t l y physically challenged, etc. discussed a hundred years It is also very important to keep in mind that the arts later. That are an individual driven genre. There have always been publication those artists who were “different” (read not able-bodied resulted in a white men) who have risen above all odds and review in the succeeded. publication A m e r i c a n Julian Mitchell (1854-1926) – while Mitchell began Musician and able-bodied and white, the creator of the position we Art Journal in have for a hundred years called the stage director June of 1911, 2 News From VHSource, LLC Vol 10 October 2011 which called his work “an entirely new phase of immediately following the crash of the Manhattan musical art and … a thoroughly American opera.” Note Opera Company in March of 1910. That calamity again the year – 1911—the genre – opera – and the took with it Herbert’s hopes for a production of his words “American opera.” Seems as if both Joplin and grand opera Natoma, and he was very much in need Herbert were on the same page, yet one was a of appeasment. Young was far from a beginning household name working with other household names playwright at the time. while the other was an under-represented, “different” voice not unlike all cutting edge new voices down Born Rida Johnson on February 28, 1875 in through the years. Herbert got his production within the Baltimore, Maryland, she was an actual American next year while Joplin’s work had to wait until 1972. A from birth – not always something all American good case can also be made that Joplin succeeded in writers of the time were able to say. She began her creating a new “American style” opera far better than artistic life as an actress with both the Viola Allen Herbert did. and E. H. Sothern Broadway companies. Her first known writing project was Lord Byron in 1900, a You will hear more about both Mitchell and Joplin at play produced by James Young who became her a later date. This month we want to focus on two very husband in a marriage lasting from 1904 -1910. The powerful female playwrights/librettists/lyricists who work was not a Broadway play. both rose to prominence with Victor Herbert between 1910 and 1911 and who had huge careers in the Young’s first Broadway play was Brown of Harvard, entertainment world apart from their Herbert opening in 1906 at the Princess Theatre, the same experiences. theatre of the famous Kern, Bolton and Wodehouse Princess Theatre operettas. While billed as a “play,” Their stories are very typical of all artists who prepare, this work produced her first known song, “When are passionate and in the right place at the right time. Love Is Young.” The work was also made into three However, even more importantly these women were different films in 1911, 1918 and 1926 (for which able to take the ball and continue down the field after young John Wayne joined his fellow USC football that wonderful moment in the sun came and went. That teammates during all the sports scenes). is how careers area born – how you mold the whole of your existence. Between this work and the 1910 Naughty Marietta, Young created five more plays and musicals, even mimicking Herbert a bit by opening multiple works in 1907 – the 1907 comic play The Boys of Company "B," The Lancers, a 1907 musical, Glorious Betsy, a 1908 play (turned into a silent film in 1928), The Lottery Man in 1909 (a later film version featured Oliver Hardy), and Ragged Robin, a musical in 1910. It was around the time of her divorce in late 1909-early 1910 that Ms. Young went to work for M. Witmark & Sons as a staff librettist/lyricist and found herself in the right place at the right time with an influential and “impressed” boss. Young found herself introduced to Hammerstein and Herbert in Rida Johnson Young (1875-1926) got the first late April 1910, thus forming the team that created opportunity to work with Herbert when Isidore America’s most famous operetta, Naughty Marietta, Witmark of M. Witmark & Sons – her boss at the (Broadway opening November 7, 1910.) For this time – recommended her to producer Arthur project she served as both librettist and lyricist, and Hammerstein, who was desperately seeking a thus, was responsible for the lyrics of some of the librettist/lyricist to pair with composer Herbert most famous American operetta songs of all time: 3 News From VHSource, LLC Vol 10 October 2011 “Ah, Sweet Mystery of Life,” “I’m Falling In Love also explains the three year cessation of creative With Someone,” “Tramp, Tramp, Tramp,” and “The output. Italian Street Song” to name but a few from that production. Obviously, Young was capable of working All in all, she crafted a significant writing career just as fast as Herbert – no small feat. while remaining an independent woman from 1910 to 1926. That career included more than 30 plays and Ms. Young opened musicals with such collaborators as Victor Herbert, two productions Jerome Kern and Sigmund Romberg, along with following the many lesser known composers resulting in the lyrics s u c c e s s o f to more than 500 songs. Hollywood had discovered Marietta during her work way back in 1911 and would continue to the 1911-1912 take her plays and musicals and turn them into silent season including films. Add that to the utilization of her Herbert B a r r y o f librettos and lyrics and one finds more than 42 Ballymore which different movies crediting Young in one way or contained another another. Quite a significant list of film credits for a of her famous song female. She was named to the Songwriters Hall of lyrics “Mother Fame (launched in 1969) as part of the very first class Machree.” Ms. of inductees in 1970, joining all those famous Young seems to fellows: Herbert, De Koven, Kern, Harry B. Smith, have penned two Cohan, Foster, George Gershwin, Joplin, Sousa, new works per year Richard Rodgers, and Romberg among many others. from 1911 through 1916, skipping only 1915, How many women joined Ms. Young that first year? apparently to take a breather. During the middle of this Only Katherine Lee Bates and Anne Caldwell. amazing run she combined in 1912 with American composing giant Jerome Kern for The Red Petticoat, Kern’s first completely original score. The next significant project teamed Young with composer Sigmund Romberg for Maytime which opened at the Shubert Theatre on August 16, 1917. The production starred Peggy Wood, and amassed 492 performances while relocating frequently to a total of four different theatres. This production helped establish Wood, a veteran of the chorus of Naughty Marietta, as a bona fide Broadway actress and Romberg as a Broadway Fred de Gresac (1879-1943), whom you will meet composer.