Herbert Women!
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News From VHSource, LLC Vol 6 June 2017 Herbert Women! Here Herbert presents us with two very strong women, Happily Ever After? and that question just keeps rearing its head: “Will these relationships work after the audience goes home.” ast month’s wonderful week of Victor Herbert in Both Barry O’Day and Crown Prince Ivan get the girl. New York City led to interesting discussions over the Interestingly, both of these original works fall into the Lthree or four days as great friends from across the second decade of the new 20th century. The same country gathered in New York – California, Wisconsin, decade that saw women finally begin to get the right to Michigan, Connecticut, Massachusetts! We all enjoyed th vote. That issue had been brewing since the 1870s in two VHRP LIVE! 100 Anniversary performances of Europe and both the European and American male Herbert’s Eileen (1917) and the MasterVoices’ populations were getting fed up with the protestations performance of Herbert’s Babes In Toyland (1903). of strong females. One discussion in particular raised the issue of whether or Finland was the first European country to grant voting not Eileen and Barry O’Day would have lived happily ever rights to women in 1913, followed by Canada in 1917, after. The consensus seemed to be that they would NOT. Britain in 1918 and the United States in 1920. One Eileen had backed the O’Day into too many corners during could say women were definitely feeling their growing their courtship and never would have succeeded in stopping strength in the real world. him from being a true Irish rebel. We confess to not having thought much about such an issue, but as we began to However, when one looks at Herbert’s body of ponder the various Herbert heroines, the question could be theatrical work, one sees a very fascinating trait which applied in any number of Herbert works. Would Capt. might surprise the reader. Dick have actually married Marietta? Would Fifi of Mlle Modiste actually marry her soldier? Would Sylvia in Sweethearts stay with her Crown Prince after she became Queen? You get the picture. Co-incidently we are also beginning work on The Enchantress (1911) which centers around another crown prince smitten with a very un-royal opera star. After a teen life of womanizing, he feels he has found true love with this older “enchantress” who spends most of their encounter keeping the young man at arms’ length. Not only is Vivian a bit older than Prince Ivan, she is a CAREER woman bent on enjoying her life as an opera star in great demand and the occasional enchanting fling. One gets the feeling Vivian delights in bursting the male balloon. Emma Trentini, Marietta of Naughty Marietta 2 News From VHSource, LLC Vol 6 June 2017 Herbert spent his childhood and educational years in the company also provided the composer with excellent Germany of the 1860s through the 1880s, giving him a voices. Still strong masterful men are not in abundance in distinctly European romantic slant on life in general and the Herbert Cast Lists. A good case in point would be the place of women in society. This was the same period Capt. Ladislas in The Fortune Teller. In Mlle Modiste, of Norwegian playwright Henrik Johan Ibsen (1828- Herbert gives poor Etienne one song, “The Time, The 1906 [Nora in The Doll’s House -1879 and Hedda in Place and The Girl.” Hedda Gabler - 1890]), Swedish playwright Johan August Strindberg (1849-1912 [Julia in Miss Julie - Fully 50% or more of the Herbert works written prior to 1888]) and the beginnings of the Russian playwright 1900 were commissioned by vaudevillians. One finds Anton Chekhov (1860-1904). Chekhov would go on to men being the focus of a plot if the composer was hired create Irina in The Sea Gull - 1895, Yelena in Uncle to write for these artists. These Broadway talents were Vanya - 1899, Olga in Three Sisters - 1900, and Lyubov seeking to upgrade their reputations by using fine music. in The Cherry Orchard - 1904. Culturally, Europe was Interestingly, the male characters were never what one adding both naturalism as well as strong women into their would call strong men - Kibosh, Abel Conn, Kid Conner, theatrical mix. One would assume young Victor Herbert Con Kidder, etc. are hardly responsible characters – in would have been affected by this particular period when fact they had a strong dose of the Clown in them, such it came to his own attempts at dramatic literature. being the nature of vaudeville. Thus the plots created for Herbert’s music had the male characters spending the Herbert was also a majority of their time getting into and out of trouble and classically trained not necessarily saving any damsel in distress. musician and veteran of European romantic When Herbert begins writing in 1897-8 for women with orchestras and theatrical wonderful voices, the whole tone of each work changes composing (i.e., playing immensely. His librettos are suddenly filled with strong a year with the Eduard women who definitely are in control of their lives. Strauss Orchestra, with constant exposure to all Considering the fact that Victor Herbert did not write the Viennese composers librettos and lyrics, how is such a change possible? The of opera and only conclusion that one could come to is that Herbert operetta).Add must have had a far more important hand in crafting each romanticism to strong libretto than heretofore considered. It cannot be interesting women and coincidence that just because Herbert heroines can sing, one finds a mix not they are written as stronger female characters. There must echoed quite so have been a more intense collaboration between Alice Nielsen, Irma universally among his composer and librettist than previously considered. in The Fortune Teller American theatrical peers. Irma in The Fortune Teller, Greta in The Singing Girl, Babette in Babette, Marietta n Naughty Marietta, Fifi in First and foremost, Victor Herbert did not appear to ever Mlle Modiste, Yvonne in The Serenade, Vivian in The focus on strong capable male characters. His men often Enchantress, both Eileen and Maude in Eileen, Sylvia in are portrayed with a bit of tongue in check, especially Sweethearts, Pat in The Princess Pat – are all strong prior to 1900. women who seem to control their surroundings and circumstances. Often they declare they don’t need a man Partially, that would stem from vaudevillians (e.g., to complete their lives. They all also just happen to have Francis Wilson, Frank Daniels, Montgomery and Stone, huge talents in the vocal department or should we say Weber and Fields) being among the first to commission now require huge vocal talents. Did Herbert equate Herbert to write musical comedy. The Bostonians hired singing talent or lack thereof with strong/weak women? him to write operetta which to this day remains a different sort of genre from musical comedy. The 3 News From VHSource, LLC Vol 6 June 2017 The men in the above listed works also took a major turn Herbert, as the commissioned artist, had to acquiesce and towards at least romanticism and in the case of Captain write a few songs to match Wilson’s view of Cyrano – Dick Warington in Marietta, finally a strong hero shows hence the “Song of the Nose.” Herbert did managed to up with principals and goals. This relationship between retain most of what he wrote from his knowledge of Capt Dick and Marietta also raises the question – would Rostand’s Cyrano. However, not only couldn’t Wilson they have stayed together after the audience leaves? and Glaser sing the score well, but the audience didn’t Given each character’s persona, we would guess “maybe understand the “new” version of Cyrano and stayed away not.” Dick would probably have dumped her before she in droves once word of a country bumpkin hero leaked dumped him. out. After 28 performances, the Herbert/Reed/Wilson Cyrano slunk off on tour where even the rest of the On the other hand, Gretchen in The Red Mill, Bidalia in country wasn’t terribly interested. A favorite review The Idol’s Eye, Constance in The Ameer, Katherine mused that Reed should have turned the whole project Peepfogel in It Happened in Nordland, and many other over to Harry B. Smith who “certainly would have known less than stirring leading ladies often had a tendency to be how to fix it.” slightly on the air-head side and certainly not of the stock to be argued over or even remembered terribly well. The The question still ladies playing the roles in question were often well arises as to just how known names on Broadway but not of particularly high Herbert the composer vocal reputations. Again in almost every case mentioned got the librettists he above, Herbert the composer was writing more for the worked with to write vaudevillian male talent who had commissioned him. strong characters for talented singers and One of the few exceptions to the rule, appears to be weak, silly characters Cyrano de Bergerac. Soprano (sort of) Lulu Glaser was for ladies with less cast as Roxanne not because she could sing, but because than great talent. she was dating Francis Wilson (Cyrano) at the time Close collaboration (1899). If fact, she got terrible reviews for her singing. can be the only Yet, the character of Roxanne definitely falls into the answer. The composer strong woman category. Why you may ask didn’t Herbert could have clearly write a weak, silly girl for Roxanne? suggested the gravity of the character by the In this particular case, the plot of Cyrano was and songs he wrote for the remains very well known.