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34-511: The Los Angeles Civic Light Opera opened its first season in 1938 with the operetta Blossom Time , based on works by Franz Schubert , presented in English with stars John Charles Thomas and Francia White . The production was both a critical and financial success, and the company went on to have three more sold out productions that season with Sigmund Romberg 's The Student Prince , Romberg's The New Moon , and Jerome Kern 's Roberta . At

68-401: A fictionalized account of Schubert's romantic life, and the story was adapted from the 1912 novel Schwammerl by Rudolf Hans Bartsch (1873–1952). Originally the score was mostly Berté, with just one piece of Schubert's ("Ungeduld" from Die schöne Müllerin ), but the producers required Berté to discard his score and create a pasticcio of Schubert music. The original production opened at

102-516: A lower range, a precedent established by Schubert himself. Since the protagonist is a young man, performances by women's voices are less common. The piano part bears much of the expressive burden of the work, and is only seldom a mere 'accompaniment' to the singer. A typical performance lasts around sixty to seventy minutes. Müller published twenty-five poems in the first fascicule (1821) of Sieben und siebzig Gedichten aus den nachgelassenen Papieren eines reisenden Waldhornisten (Seventy-seven Poems from

136-634: A new English production was mounted at the Alhambra Theatre . The piece was revived at the London Coliseum in 1936, the Stoll Theatre in 1942, and His Majesty's Theatre in 1949. The tenor Richard Tauber played Schubert in several productions and tours of Das Dreimäderlhaus in Europe, first at Plauen , Germany, on 24 January 1920, and then in five performances of the original version at

170-557: A selection in their album A Treasury of Great Operettas , first offered for sale in 1963. Capriccio released a recording of Das Dreimäderlhaus in 1997, conducted by Alfred Walter, and Ohio Light Opera released a recording of the opera in 2002. In 2005, UK label Classics for Pleasure, a branch of EMI , released on CD the 1959 HMV recording of Lilac Time Die sch%C3%B6ne M%C3%BCllerin Die schöne Müllerin ( German pronunciation: [diː ˈʃøːnə ˈmʏlɐʁɪn] ,"The Fair Maid of

204-399: A sequel entitled Hannerl . Debuting during World War I , the operetta's popularity was fueled by the public's taste for nostalgia, harnessing an old-fashioned, sentimental story and Schubert's familiar music. Schubert worked hard to become a successful opera composer but found little success in this genre of music. With Das Dreimäderlhaus , ironically, his music finally became famous in

238-521: A stage work. Das Dreimäderlhaus then premiered in Paris on May 7, 1921, in a French adaptation by Hugues Delorme and Léon Abric called Chanson d'amour ( Song of Love ). The operetta was a success in France, and soon an English language adaption opened on Broadway as Blossom Time , with a new arrangement of Schubert's music by Sigmund Romberg and an adapted libretto by Dorothy Donnelly . This debuted at

272-647: A year in New York. During the 1950s and 1960s the LACLO was the most financially successful musical theatre subscription organization of its kind. However, in the 1970s the organization's audience size began to decrease and by the 1980s the company was experiencing serious financial difficulties. The company's last production was of John Kander 's Cabaret in 1987. The production starred Joel Grey , Alyson Reed , Regina Resnik , Werner Klemperer , Gregg Edelman , and David Staller . Composer, conductor, and pianist Harper MacKay

306-525: Is a lullaby sung by the brook. The Diabelli edition of 1830 in a facsimile score, with notes by Walther Dürr , was published (1996) by Bärenreiter . The version in most common use is the Peters Edition , edited by Max Friedlaender , and in this and several other editions (e. g. Schirmer ) the cycle is presented as the first 20 songs of Volume 1. There are versions in the original (high) keys, and transposed alternatives for lower voices. The Peters edition

340-422: Is in love with Schober. Schubert's friends arrange for Hannerl ("Mitzi" in this version) to have singing lessons with Schubert as the cover for why the other daughters are there, when the father appears. They then get him drunk so that he agrees to the double wedding. In Act III, some of Schubert's works are about to be given in a concert, but Schubert is too ill to attend. His friends return to his lodgings after

374-420: Is soon supplanted in her affections by a hunter clad in green, the color of a ribbon he gave the girl. In his anguish, he experiences an obsession with the color green, then an extravagant death fantasy in which flowers sprout from his grave to express his undying love. (See Beethoven's "Adelaide" for a similar fantasy.) In the end, the young man despairs and presumably drowns himself in the brook. The last number

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408-591: Is the other woman and warns her to stay away from her man. Schubert, still unable to tell Hannerl that he loves her, instead asks Schober to sing a song that he has written for her ("Ungeduld"). Hannerl misunderstands Grisi's warning, believing it to be about Schubert rather than Schober. She turns away from the composer and falls in love with Schober. In the Prater the following morning, everyone assembles. Eventually, Schubert ends up alone, disappointed, but consoled by Hannerl's happiness and by his music. Five years after

442-532: The Ambassador Theatre on September 29, 1921, where it ran for 592 performances; it was revived several times on Broadway over the next two decades. In London, the operetta was called Lilac Time , with an adapted libretto by Adrian Ross and music arranged by George H. Clutsam , using some of Berté's work. Lilac Time opened at the Lyric Theatre on December 22, 1922, and ran for 626 performances. Both

476-676: The Lyric Theatre on December 22, 1922, and ran for 626 performances, The production was directed by Dion Boucicault ; the musical director was Clarence Raybould . The cast at the London premiere was: The piece was revived at Daly's Theatre (1928), the Lyric (1930), and the Globe Theatre (1932). In 1933, soon after Richard Tauber had starred in a new production in German at the Aldwych Theatre ,

510-707: The Raimundtheater in Vienna on 15 January 1916 and ran for over 650 performances in its original run in Austria and for hundreds more in Germany, followed by many successful revivals. It starred Fritz Schrödter  [ de ] as Schubert and Anny Rainer as Hannerl. Schrödter was already 60 in 1916. In 1886, he had sung the part of the "Prince of Song" (i.e. Schubert) in Franz von Suppé 's operetta about Schubert. The operetta spawned

544-524: The Theater an der Wien in October 1921 [Neue Freie Presse]. He presented a new version of it in London in 1933, sung in German but with the English title Lilac Time , adapted by himself and Sylvio Mossée. Tauber made a film version in 1934 with Jane Baxter , and worked with Clutsam on a new version entitled Blossom Time based on the film. Clutsam included more new material in this version. It debuted on tour in

578-503: The 1940s, which was briefly issued on LP. In 1959 June Bronhill and Thomas Round recorded Lilac Time for HMV when they were stars of Sadler's Wells Opera . French Decca made a recording of the French version of the operetta (as Chanson d'Amour ) in 1962 conducted by Jésus Etcheverry ; the cast included Aimé Doniat as Schubert, André Mallabrera as Schober, Lina Dachary as Annette and Freda Betti as Nanette. Reader's Digest included

612-565: The British provinces, moving to the Lyric Theatre in London on 17 March 1942. The original London cast recorded at least four double-sided 12" acoustic recordings of highlights for the Vocalian company in 1922. The songs recorded included the following: The following discs were also recorded at the same time: Al Goodman conducted an album of 10 selections from Blossom Time for RCA Victor in

646-569: The Broadway and West End versions toured extensively in subsequent decades and were frequently revived until the 1950s. The operetta received productions in over 60 countries and was translated into numerous languages. By 1961, the piece was estimated to have played over 85,000 performances worldwide. It still receives occasional productions. In the spring of 1826, Schubert, a poor young composer, has quarters in an old Viennese house together with two friends. The three daughters of Christian Tschöll,

680-469: The Mill", Op. 25, D. 795), is a song cycle by Franz Schubert from 1823 based on 20 poems by Wilhelm Müller . It is the first of Schubert's two seminal cycles (preceding Winterreise ) , and a pinnacle of Lied repertoire. Die schöne Müllerin is performed by a pianist and a solo singer. The vocal part falls in the range of a tenor or soprano voice, but is often sung by other voices, transposed to

714-491: The Posthumous Papers of an Itinerant Hornist"). They arose from his unrequited passion for Luise Hensel , herself a poet as well as sister in law to Fanny Hensel and Felix Mendelssohn . Schubert set twenty of them to music between May and September 1823, while he was also writing his opera Fierrabras . He was 26 years old at the time. Schubert omitted five of the poems, such as a prologue and an epilogue delivered by

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748-542: The San Francisco Light Opera Company (SFLOC) in 1939. The LACLO and SFLOC joined forces and were able to offer New York producers the ability to book their shows in both L.A. and San Francisco. The Broadway producers took advantage of this opportunity and began extending their touring productions into California. While including touring productions from NYC in their annual season, the LACLO still continued to mount their own locally produced productions under

782-556: The Vienna opening, in 1921, the Shubert brothers acquired the American rights to Das Dreimäderlhaus with a view to customising the operetta for American audiences. They hired Donnelly and Romberg (their house composer) to adapt the libretto and music. The same team, three years later, adapted Old Heidelberg to make The Student Prince , but in the case of The Student Prince , the entire score

816-467: The artistic leadership of Lester. One major triumph for the company was the 1944 operetta Song of Norway which Lester commissioned Milton Lazarus , Robert Wright , and George Forrest to create using the music of Edvard Grieg . The production later went on to have a successful Broadway run. Wright and Forrest created several more original works for the LACLO, most notably the 1953 musical Kismet , which had an even greater success in New York. Perhaps

850-450: The character names and several of the settings. The plot follows the basic story of the original, but many significant details are changed, well-known Schubert pieces are gratuitously inserted and historically inaccurate material familiar to Americans of the era is added. For example, in Act I, Schubert writes "Ständchen" for Count Scharntoff, who plans to give it (as his own work) to his wife, who

884-570: The concert just before Schubert dies, surrounded by angels, as "Ave Maria" is heard. In 1922, in England, Das Dreimäderlhaus was adapted as Lilac Time by Adrian Ross with music by George H. Clutsam . Clutsam, an Australian composer, moved to London and wrote, among other things, a 1912 biography of Schubert. Later, he turned to the more profitable field of composing scores for musical comedies. Clutsam's adaptation hews more closely to Berté's original than does Romberg's. Lilac Time opened at

918-454: The court glass maker, visit the three friends. Two of the girls are in love with Schubert's roommates, and the third, Hannerl, is chaperoning her sisters. More of Schubert's friends come to visit. The father arrives in search of his daughters. Schubert's two roommates drink with Tschöll in their courtyard, underneath a Lilac tree, and he agrees to their engagements with his daughters. Schubert takes on Hannerl as his singing pupil, and although

952-471: The cycle, around half in simple strophic form , and they move from cheerful optimism to despair and tragedy. At the beginning of the cycle, a young journeyman miller wanders happily through the countryside. He comes upon a brook, which he follows to a mill. He falls in love with the miller's beautiful daughter (the "Müllerin" of the title). She is out of his reach as he is only a journeyman. He tries to impress her, but her response seems tentative. The young man

986-484: The most successful original work to be produced at the LACLO was the 1954 musical version of Peter Pan which Lester orchestrated as a star vehicle for Mary Martin . After opening in Los Angeles, the production moved to Broadway, winning Martin a Tony Award . The LACLO also exported a number of revivals to Broadway during its history, including a 1945 revival of Victor Herbert 's The Red Mill which ran for more than

1020-636: The poet. The work was published in 1824 by the firm of Sauer and Leidesdorf as Op. 25 under the title Die schöne Müllerin, ein Zyklus von Liedern, gedichtet von Wilhelm Müller (The Lovely Maid of the Mill, a song cycle to poems by Wilhelm Müller) and was dedicated to the singer Carl von Schönstein  [ de ] . The omitted poems were a "Prolog", "Das Mühlenleben" (following Nr. 6), "Erster Schmerz, letzter Scherz" (following Nr. 15), "Blümlein Vergißmein" (following Nr. 17) and "Epilog". There are twenty songs in

1054-553: The time the LACLO opened, Broadway touring productions out of New York City did not travel further west than the Rocky Mountains. However, the success of the LACLO's first season drew the attention of the theatre community in New York City; seeing for the first time the financial potential of theatre in Los Angeles. Lester further encouraged this interest by partnering with San Francisco theatre impresario Homer Curran who founded

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1088-409: The two fall in love, they are each too shy to reveal their feelings. A couple of months later, the first two daughters are marrying their fiancés at Tschöll's house, and the three roommates are all guests at the wedding. Actress Giuditta Grisi, the mistress of Baron Franz Schober, one of Schubert's friends, arrives. She is jealous and believes that he must be cheating on her. She assumes that Hannerl

1122-489: Was the LACLO's music director from 1962 through 1980. Das Dreim%C3%A4derlhaus Das Dreimäderlhaus ( House of the Three Girls ), adapted into English-language versions as Blossom Time and Lilac Time , is a Viennese pastiche operetta with music by Franz Schubert , rearranged by Heinrich Berté (1857–1924), and a libretto by Alfred Maria Willner and Heinz Reichert  [ de ] . The work gives

1156-480: Was written by Romberg, not by another composer. The Broadway production of Blossom Time opened at the Ambassador Theatre on September 29, 1921, where it ran for 592 performances, starring Bertram Peacock and Olga Cook. It became the second longest-running Broadway musical of the 1920s and, after extensive tours, played Broadway again in 1939 and 1943. The show was staged by J. C. Huffman . Donnelly changed

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