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VICTOR HERBERT ................. 16820$ $$FM 04-14-08 14:34:09 PS PAGE i ................. 16820$ $$FM 04-14-08 14:34:09 PS PAGE ii VICTOR HERBERT A Theatrical Life C:>A<DJA9 C:>A<DJA9 ;DG9=6BJC>K:GH>INEG:HH New York ................. 16820$ $$FM 04-14-08 14:34:10 PS PAGE iii Copyright ᭧ 2008 Neil Gould All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any other—except for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior permission of the publisher. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Gould, Neil, 1943– Victor Herbert : a theatrical life / Neil Gould.—1st ed. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index. ISBN-13: 978-0-8232-2871-3 (cloth) 1. Herbert, Victor, 1859–1924. 2. Composers—United States—Biography. I. Title. ML410.H52G68 2008 780.92—dc22 [B] 2008003059 Printed in the United States of America First edition Quotation from H. L. Mencken reprinted by permission of the Enoch Pratt Free Library, Baltimore, Maryland, in accordance with the terms of Mr. Mencken’s bequest. Quotations from ‘‘Yesterthoughts,’’ the reminiscences of Frederick Stahlberg, by kind permission of the Trustees of Yale University. Quotations from Victor Herbert—Lee and J.J. Shubert correspondence, courtesy of Shubert Archive, N.Y. ................. 16820$ $$FM 04-14-08 14:34:10 PS PAGE iv ‘‘Crazy’’ John Baldwin, Teacher, Mentor, Friend Herbert P. Jacoby, Esq., Almus pater ................. 16820$ $$FM 04-14-08 14:34:10 PS PAGE v ................. 16820$ $$FM 04-14-08 14:34:10 PS PAGE vi contents Acknowledgments ix Preface xiii 1 Ireland, My Sireland 1 2 In Old New York 18 3 Oh, My Name Is Victor Herbert—I’m the Leader of the Band 62 4 Pittsburgh—Heaven and Hell 84 5 Coda Brilliante 157 6 Paterfamilias 169 7 Oyez! Oyez! Oyez! 190 8 A Theatrical Musician at Work 233 9 Act One 247 10 Entr’acte I: Ace of Clubs 307 11 Act Two: Scene One 322 12 Operetta as Social Document 342 13 Act Two: Scene Two 368 14 Entre’acte II: Uncrowned Kings 433 15 Act Three: Scene One 444 16 An Opera Manque´ 462 17 Act Three: Scene Two 474 18 Media vitae in morte sumus 508 19 Postlude 525 20 February 1, 2003 547 Appendix A: Stage Compositions by Victor Herbert 549 Appendix B: Published Instrumental, Choral, and Miscellaneous Works 558 Abbreviations 569 Notes 571 Bibliography 597 Index 599 vii ................. 16820$ CNTS 04-14-08 14:34:13 PS PAGE vii ................. 16820$ CNTS 04-14-08 14:34:13 PS PAGE viii acknowledgments In the course of researching and writing this biography it has been my good fortune to make the acquaintance of many friends of Victor Herbert. These colleagues, I discovered to my delight, form a kind of unofficial fan club whose only bond was forged by the fact that each provided support and encouragement for this project above and beyond his professional responsibilities. First among these is Herbert P. Jacoby, chairman of the Victor Herbert Foundation, whose generous support, constant encouragement, and wise correctives were invaluable. It was at his suggestion that I began the seven years of challenging work that have proven uniquely rewarding. To Ar- thur G. Adams, friend and unofficial editor, who read the manuscript in development and made many insightful contributions, I am equally grateful. Librarians from London to Hollywood, from Chicago to Austin, whose enthusiasm led me to much information I might otherwise have missed, are the real heroes of this study. Ray White of the music division of the Library of Congress is a name well known to afficionados of ac- knowledgments sections of countless musical studies; his helpfulness and that of his staff are beyond praise. Librarian Raya Then provided entree to the many hidden treasures of the Buffalo and Erie County Public Li- brary’s collection. Her warmth and personal attention, her provision of scores and recordings, her generosity of time and spirit proved a welcome antidote to the Sturm und Drang of early November, 2000. Lewis Har- dee, fellow Lamb and historian of our club, guided me through ancient archives open only to initiates. To Miles Kreuger and the Institute of the American Musical I am indebted for generous hospitality and invaluable materials not available elsewhere. Three unpublished memoirs provided personal commentary on the fabric of Herbert’s life. These are ‘‘Yesterthoughts,’’ from the Gilmore Music Library at Yale University; the recollections of Charles Dillingham; and the autobiography of Werner Janssen. I am grateful to Richard Boursy, archivist of the Rare Book and Manuscript Division at Yale, to the New York Public Library and to Mrs. Christina Jenssen for making these resources available. ix ................. 16820$ $ACK 04-14-08 14:34:16 PS PAGE ix Boston was a main focus of Herbert’s activity. Annette Fern of the Pusey Theater Collection at Harvard University provided guidance and wise counsel. I am also grateful to the staffs of the Loeb Music Library at Harvard and the Boston Public Library for their valuable assistance in accessing the papers of Richard Aldrich and the Brown Collection, respectively. The research librarians of the following institutions expeditiously re- sponded to my many exacting inquiries: the Newbury Library, Chicago; the American-Irish Historical Society of New York; the Columbia Univer- sity Oral History Collection, New York; the Margaret Herrick Library of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Los Angeles; and the Rare Book and Manuscript Division of Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey. The Peabody Conservatory and the Milton Eisenhower Li- brary (Levy Collection), both of the Johns Hopkins University; Cathy Logan of the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh; the Manuscript Division of the University of Texas at Austin; the Vassar College Archives; David Sanjik of the BMI Archives, New York; Reagan Fletcher of the Shubert Archives, New York; Robert Kimball for his ASCAP anecdotes; and Sarah Hartwell at the Rauner Library at Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire; and ‘‘Chris in the library’’ at DCC—to all of these my sincerest thanks and respect. In London the archivists of the Honourable Society of the Middle Temple and of Lincoln’s Inn were able to help me finally determine the facts of Herbert’s paternal lineage. At the Portsmouth, New Hampshire, Public Library I found invaluable information on the ‘‘Bostonians’’ among the papers of Henry Clay Barnabee. Timothy Doyle, Dean of Lawrence- ville School, Lawrenceville, New Jersey, an historian himself, kindly made available information about the academic career of Clifford Herbert, which made it possible for me to gain insight into the family life of the Herberts. John Privatera supplied me with the court transcripts of Herbert v. Musical Courier Co.; this material was not easy to come by. To my friend and attorney Richard J. Miller, Jr., for his pro bono service to the Herbert cause ‘‘with heart and with voice,’’ my deepest appreciation. To Drs. Brent Petty and William Brieger of the Johns Hopkins School of Medi- cine I am indebted for guidance in my discussion of Herbert’s medical condition and his care under a homeopathic physician. Bernt and Ruth Schlesinger were of invaluable aid in transliterating Herbert’s early letters from Frakturschrift to modern German calligraphy. x acknowledgments ................. 16820$ $ACK 04-14-08 14:34:17 PS PAGE x And to Florence Graff, my long-suffering computer genie and some- time copy editor, I express my thanks for her perseverance and patience. Finally, to the directors and editors at Fordham University Press, Sav- erio Procario, Bob Oppedisano, Mary Beatrice Schulte, Mary Lou Pena, Nicholas Frankovich, and Aldene Fredenburg, I am indebted for encour- agement and above all patience, as we traveled this long and winding road together. acknowledgments xi ................. 16820$ $ACK 04-14-08 14:34:17 PS PAGE xi ................. 16820$ $ACK 04-14-08 14:34:17 PS PAGE xii preface In 1992, the year the Victor Herbert Festival was established at Saratoga Springs, New York, I was standing in front of the Adelphi Hotel, the last survivor of Saratoga’s Gilded Age (the hotel, not me). A large poster announced, ‘‘Victor Herbert Returns to Saratoga’’; it referred to a cabaret entertainment I was producing in the old ballroom at the Adelphi, in honor of the hundredth anniversary of Herbert’s first performances with his orchestra at the Grand Union Hotel. I was testing the waters—was there still an audience for the Herbert repertoire? As I busied myself positioning the poster, two teen-aged girls stopped to look. ‘‘Victor Herbert! Who’s that?’’ one asked. ‘‘Oh,’’ said the other, pulling her friend along, ‘‘he’s dead.’’ Well, I thought, at least she knew that. It’s a start. And it was, and not just for the girls. I had not grown up with any particular love for Herbert myself, although my work as a stage director specializing in light opera and operetta had led me around his traces. I had first been bitten by the operetta bug at a series of D’Oyly Carte performances, and during my years of work in Switzerland, Austria and Germany, by a combination of good fortune and osmosis, I had absorbed what the old routined chorus members of provincial theaters referred to as ‘‘Der echte Operettenstil’’—genuine operetta production style. Those old guys in the chorus of the Landestheater Salzburg had been young chorus boys in the original productions of Lehar and Kalman operettas. They tolerated the young American regisseur with good humor, and after evening performances, over strong Romanian wine, they taught me the right way to do things.