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69-440: Oscar Greeley Clendenning Hammerstein II ( / ˈ h æ m ər s t aɪ n / ; July 12, 1895 – August 23, 1960) was an American lyricist, librettist , theatrical producer , and (usually uncredited) 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. He

138-524: A 20-year collaboration with Harbach. Out of this collaboration came his first musical, Always You , for which he wrote the book and lyrics. It opened on Broadway in 1920. In 1921 Hammerstein joined The Lambs club. Throughout the next forty years, Hammerstein teamed up with many other composers, including Jerome Kern , with whom Hammerstein enjoyed a highly successful collaboration. In 1927, Kern and Hammerstein wrote their biggest hit based on Edna Ferber 's bestselling eponymous novel, Show Boat , which

207-558: A baby daughter, whom she names Kim (because she was born at the moment when the Cotton Blossom was at the convergence on the Mississippi of the states of K entucky , I llinois , and M issouri ). Shortly afterward, Captain Andy falls overboard during a storm and drowns. Rather than live with the stern Parthy, Magnolia and Ravenal leave for Chicago with Kim. In the big city, the couple

276-453: A dramatic hourlong version of the Ferber novel in which he played the role of Captain Andy, and author Edna Ferber made her acting debut as Parthy. Margaret Sullavan played Magnolia as an adult, William Johnstone played Ravenal and, because of her success onstage in the role, Helen Morgan played Julie, though the one song she sang had nothing to do with the stage version of Show Boat . It

345-402: A fortune, to her daughter Kim. Joining Magnolia is Ellie, a widow since her husband Schultzy has died. Although Brooks Atkinson , the noted New York Times theatre critic, proclaimed the musical adaptation as being "positively slavish" to the novel, Hammerstein made several changes in adapting it to the musical stage. On March 31, 1939, on The Campbell Playhouse , Orson Welles presented

414-443: A highly successful play by its librettist, Gabriele D'Annunzio , a celebrated Italian poet, novelist and dramatist of the day. In some cases, the operatic adaptation has become more famous than the literary text on which it was based, as with Claude Debussy 's Pelléas et Mélisande after a play by Maurice Maeterlinck . The question of which is more important in opera – the music or the words – has been debated over time, and forms

483-485: A show boat and we'll just drift down the rivers, playing the towns as we come to them." Show boats were floating theaters that traveled along rivers of the United States from the 1870s to the 1930s. The performers lived aboard the vessels. With song, dance, and dramatic productions, show boats provided entertainment for small riverside towns that were otherwise quite isolated. Ferber, who had never heard of show boats,

552-516: A song sung by those in favor of reaching an accommodation with the Nazis, " No Way to Stop It ", was cut. As recent revivals of Show Boat , Oklahoma! , Carousel , and The King and I in London and New York show, Hammerstein was one of the more tough-minded and socially conscious American musical theater artists. According to Richard Kislan, "The shows of Rodgers and Hammerstein were the product of sincerity. In

621-456: A stepson, Henry Jacobson, and a stepdaughter, Susan Blanchard . His son William married the screenwriter Jane-Howard Hammerstein . Hammerstein died of stomach cancer on August 23, 1960, at his home Highland Farm in Doylestown, Pennsylvania , aged 65, nine months after the opening of The Sound of Music on Broadway. The final song he wrote was " Edelweiss ", which was added near the end of

690-445: A subject and developing a sketch of the action in the form of a scenario , as well as revisions that might come about when the work is in production, as with out-of-town tryouts for Broadway musicals, or changes made for a specific local audience. A famous case of the latter is Wagner's 1861 revision of the original 1845 Dresden version of his opera Tannhäuser for Paris. The opera libretto from its inception ( c.  1600 )

759-440: A theoretician, as a Peter Brook , as an innovator. People don't understand how experimental Show Boat and Oklahoma! felt at the time they were done. Oscar is not about the 'lark that is learning to pray'—that's easy to make fun of. He's about Allegro ", Hammerstein's most experimental musical. His reputation for being sentimental is based largely on the movie versions of the musicals, especially The Sound of Music , in which

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828-453: A time, all is well, but soon Pete begins making unwanted advances toward Julie. He gets into a fist fight with Steve, is soundly beaten, and swears revenge. He implies knowing some dark secret concerning Julie. When the troupe arrives in fictional Lemoyne, Mississippi , Pete steals Julie's picture from the box office and takes it to the local sheriff. Julie claims she does not feel well enough to perform, and Parthy observes that Julie fell sick

897-538: Is also sometimes used to refer to the text of major liturgical works, such as the Mass , requiem and sacred cantata, or the story line of a ballet . The Italian word libretto ( pronounced [liˈbretto] , plural libretti [liˈbretti] ) is the diminutive of the word libro ("book"). Sometimes other-language equivalents are used for libretti in that language, livret for French works, Textbuch for German and libreto for Spanish. A libretto

966-441: Is alternately rich and poor, depending on Ravenal's gambling winnings (he does not try to find regular work, and cheats on Magnolia with prostitutes). Finally, after about ten years, Parthy announces she is coming to visit. The destitute Ravenal, desperate for money, borrows some from Hetty Chilson, the local whorehouse madam . He returns to Magnolia at their boarding house but is drunk. As he sleeps off his stupor, Magnolia returns

1035-501: Is best known for his collaborations with composer Richard Rodgers , as the duo Rodgers and Hammerstein , whose musicals include Oklahoma! , Carousel , South Pacific , The King and I , Flower Drum Song , and The Sound of Music . Described by Stephen Sondheim as an "experimental playwright", Hammerstein helped bring the American musical to new maturity by popularizing musicals that focused on stories and character rather than

1104-462: Is distinct from a synopsis or scenario of the plot, in that the libretto contains all the words and stage directions, while a synopsis summarizes the plot. Some ballet historians also use the word libretto to refer to the 15- to 40-page books which were on sale to 19th century ballet audiences in Paris and contained a very detailed description of the ballet's story, scene by scene. The relationship of

1173-588: Is greatly different from the Edna Ferber novel from which it was adapted , uses some of Ferber's original dialogue, notably during the miscegenation scene. And Lionel Bart 's Oliver! uses chunks of dialogue from Charles Dickens 's novel Oliver Twist , although it bills itself as a "free adaptation" of the novel. As the originating language of opera, Italian dominated that genre in Europe (except in France) well through

1242-525: Is little else but an irresistible story; but that, surely, is enough." By the time the James Adams Floating Theatre was destroyed by fire in 1941, the era of show boats had ended, supplanted by the motion pictures theater. The time is the late nineteenth century. Captain Andy Hawks is a former riverboat owner with a shrewish wife, Parthy Ann, and a 10-year-old daughter, Magnolia. He buys

1311-419: Is not always written before the music. Some composers, such as Mikhail Glinka , Alexander Serov , Rimsky-Korsakov , Puccini and Mascagni wrote passages of music without text and subsequently had the librettist add words to the vocal melody lines (this has often been the case with American popular song and musicals in the 20th century, as with Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart 's collaboration, although with

1380-722: Is often revived, as it is considered one of the masterpieces of American musical theater. "Here we come to a completely new genre—the musical play as distinguished from musical comedy. Now ... the play was the thing, and everything else was subservient to that play. Now ... came complete integration of song, humor and production numbers into a single and inextricable artistic entity." Many years later, Hammerstein's wife Dorothy bristled when she overheard someone remark that Jerome Kern had written " Ol' Man River ". "Indeed not", she retorted. "Jerome Kern wrote 'dum, dum, dum-dum'. My husband wrote 'Ol' Man River'." Other Kern–Hammerstein musicals include Sunny , Sweet Adeline , Music in

1449-649: Is presented annually. The York Theatre Company of New York City is the administrator of the award. Past awardees are composers such as Stephen Sondheim and performers such as Carol Channing . Oscar Hammerstein was a member of the American Theater Hall of Fame . Librettist A libretto (From the Italian word libretto , lit.   ' booklet ' ) is the text used in, or intended for, an extended musical work such as an opera , operetta , masque , oratorio , cantata or musical . The term libretto

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1518-494: The Jewish Women's Archive in 2020, Allison Abrams described Show Boat as "problematic" on race, claiming that the novel "maintains a romanticized and subordinate image of Black Americans", uses "dehumanizing and animalistic terms" for Black people, perpetuates racial stereotypes about Black men, and "lumps Black Americans in the fold of the working class which is reflective of a perception of race as an economic class...and less so

1587-422: The aria " Nessun dorma " from Puccini's Turandot , the final lines in the libretto are "Tramontate, stelle! All'alba, vincerò!" (Fade, you stars! At dawn, I will win!). However, in the score they are sung as "Tramontate, stelle! Tramontate, stelle! All'alba, vincerò! Vincerò! Vincerò!". Because the modern musical tends to be published in two separate but intersecting formats (i.e., the book and lyrics, with all

1656-431: The librettist (that is, the writer of a libretto) to the composer in the creation of a musical work has varied over the centuries, as have the sources and the writing techniques employed. In the context of a modern English-language musical theatre piece, the libretto is considered to encompass both the book of the work (i.e., the spoken dialogue) and the sung lyrics. Libretti for operas, oratorios and cantatas in

1725-415: The public domain ) this format is supplemented with melodic excerpts of musical notation for important numbers. Printed scores for operas naturally contain the entire libretto, although there can exist significant differences between the score and the separately printed text. More often than not, this involves the extra repetition of words or phrases from the libretto in the actual score. For example, in

1794-473: The revue A Grand Night for Singing . Hammerstein also wrote the book and lyrics for Carmen Jones , an adaptation of Georges Bizet 's opera Carmen , with an all-black cast that became a 1943 Broadway musical and a 1954 film , starring Dorothy Dandridge . An active advocate for writers' rights within the theater industry , Hammerstein was a member of the Dramatists Guild of America . In 1956, he

1863-463: The 17th and 18th centuries were generally written by someone other than the composer, often a well-known poet. Pietro Trapassi , known as Metastasio (1698–1782) was one of the most highly regarded librettists in Europe. His libretti were set many times by many different composers. Another noted 18th-century librettist was Lorenzo Da Ponte . He wrote the libretti for three of Mozart 's greatest operas, and for many other composers as well. Eugène Scribe

1932-602: The 18th century, and even into the next century in Russia, for example, when the Italian opera troupe in Saint Petersburg was challenged by the emerging native Russian repertory. Significant exceptions before 1800 can be found in Purcell 's works, Handel 's first operas, ballad opera and Singspiel of the 18th century, etc. Just as with literature and song, the libretto has its share of problems and challenges with translation . In

2001-670: The Air , Three Sisters , and Very Warm for May . Hammerstein also collaborated with Vincent Youmans ( Wildflower ), Rudolf Friml ( Rose-Marie ), and Sigmund Romberg ( The Desert Song and The New Moon ). Hammerstein's most successful and sustained collaboration began when he teamed up with Rodgers to write a musical adaptation of the play Green Grow the Lilacs . Rodgers' first partner, Lorenz Hart , originally planned to collaborate with Rodgers on this piece, but his alcoholism had spiraled out of control, rendering him incapacitated. Hart

2070-855: The Century " list as compiled by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), the National Endowment for the Arts , and Scholastic Corporation : His advice and work influenced Stephen Sondheim , a friend of the Hammerstein family from childhood. Sondheim has attributed his success in theater, and especially as a lyricist, directly to Hammerstein's influence and guidance. The Oscar Hammerstein Award for Lifetime Achievement in Musical Theater

2139-412: The Lilacs , Carousel used dialogue from Ferenc Molnár 's Liliom , My Fair Lady took most of its dialogue word-for-word from George Bernard Shaw 's Pygmalion , Man of La Mancha was adapted from the 1959 television play I, Don Quixote , which supplied most of the dialogue, and the 1954 musical version of Peter Pan used J. M. Barrie 's dialogue. Even the musical Show Boat , which

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2208-533: The Mississippi River. Kim has married and become a successful actress on Broadway in New York City . Her father Ravenal has been dead for several years. One night, Magnolia receives a telegram announcing the death of her mother Parthy, from whom she has been long estranged. She returns to the show boat, which she decides to keep and manage, rather than to scrap. She gives all of her inheritance from Parthy,

2277-480: The Roof has a composer ( Jerry Bock ), a lyricist ( Sheldon Harnick ) and the writer of the "book" ( Joseph Stein ). In rare cases, the composer writes everything except the dance arrangements – music, lyrics and libretto, as Lionel Bart did for Oliver! . Other matters in the process of developing a libretto parallel those of spoken dramas for stage or screen. There are the preliminary steps of selecting or suggesting

2346-508: The arts. Hammerstein attended Columbia University (1912–1916) and studied at Columbia Law School until 1917. As a student, he maintained high grades and engaged in numerous extracurricular activities. These included playing first base on the baseball team, performing in the Varsity Show and becoming an active member of Pi Lambda Phi fraternity. After his father's death, in June 1914, when he

2415-640: The base of the statue of Father Duffy on Times Square where two trumpeters blew taps. It was the most complete blackout on Broadway since World War II, and the greatest tribute of its kind ever paid to one man. According to The Complete Lyrics of Oscar Hammerstein II , edited by Amy Asch, Hammerstein contributed the lyrics to 850 songs, including " Ol' Man River ", " Can't Help Lovin' That Man " and " Make Believe " from Show Boat ; " Indian Love Call " from Rose-Marie ; " People Will Say We're in Love " and " Oklahoma " (which has been

2484-472: The basis of at least two operas, Richard Strauss 's Capriccio and Antonio Salieri 's Prima la musica e poi le parole . Libretti have been made available in several formats, some more nearly complete than others. The text – i.e., the spoken dialogue, song lyrics and stage directions, as applicable – is commonly published separately from the music (such a booklet is usually included with sound recordings of most operas). Sometimes (particularly for operas in

2553-470: The composer (past or present) of the musical score to an opera or operetta is usually given top billing for the completed work, and the writer of the lyrics relegated to second place or a mere footnote, a notable exception being Gertrude Stein , who received top billing for Four Saints in Three Acts . Another exception was Alberto Franchetti 's 1906 opera La figlia di Iorio which was a close rendering of

2622-549: The composer. In some 17th-century operas still being performed, the name of the librettist was not even recorded. As the printing of libretti for sale at performances became more common, these records often survive better than music left in manuscript. But even in late 18th century London, reviews rarely mentioned the name of the librettist, as Lorenzo Da Ponte lamented in his memoirs. By the 20th century some librettists became recognised as part of famous collaborations, as with Gilbert and Sullivan or Rodgers and Hammerstein . Today

2691-409: The couple and leaves. He tells Steve and Julie to leave the boat, which they do, after Julie sorrowfully says goodbye to the girl Magnolia. Years later the plot returns to the boat, where Magnolia is now 18 and the newest leading lady. She has no leading man. After Gaylord Ravenal , a handsome riverboat gambler, is hired, he and Magnolia promptly fall in love and elope. Months later, Magnolia has had

2760-561: The entire Times Square area in New York City was blacked out in honor of the man who had done so much to light up that particular part of the world. From 8:57 to 9:00 p.m., every neon sign and every light bulb was turned off and all traffic was halted between 42nd Street and 53rd Street, and between eighth Ave and the Avenue of the Americas. A crowd of 5,000 people, many with heads bowed, assembled at

2829-544: The few remaining show boats in the country, the James Adams Floating Theatre , which plied the Pamlico River and Great Dismal Swamp Canal. An account of Ferber's visit to Bath is posted at NCHistoricSites.org. The material she gathered, especially the reminiscences of Charles Hunter, the director and chief actor, provided her with "a treasure-trove of show-boat material, human, touching, true." Ferber spent

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2898-521: The later team of Rodgers and Hammerstein the lyrics were generally written first, which was Rodgers' preferred modus operandi). Some composers wrote their own libretti. Richard Wagner is perhaps most famous in this regard, with his transformations of Germanic legends and events into epic subjects for his operas and music dramas. Hector Berlioz , too, wrote the libretti for two of his best-known works, La damnation de Faust and Les Troyens . Alban Berg adapted Georg Büchner 's play Woyzeck for

2967-424: The libretto of Wozzeck . Sometimes the libretto is written in close collaboration with the composer; this can involve adaptation, as was the case with Rimsky-Korsakov and his librettist Vladimir Belsky , or an entirely original work. In the case of musicals, the music, the lyrics and the "book" (i.e., the spoken dialogue and the stage directions) may each have its own author. Thus, a musical such as Fiddler on

3036-449: The light of criticism directed against them and their universe of sweetness and light, it is important to understand that they believed sincerely in what they wrote." According to Marc Bauch, "The Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals are romantic musical plays. Love is important." According to The Rodgers and Hammerstein Story by Stanley Green, For three minutes, on the night of September first,

3105-504: The lighthearted entertainment that the musical had been known for beforehand. He also collaborated with Jerome Kern (with whom he wrote the 1927 musical Show Boat ), Vincent Youmans , Rudolf Friml , Richard A. Whiting , and Sigmund Romberg . Oscar Greeley Clendenning Hammerstein II was born on West 125th Street in Harlem, New York . The son of Alice Hammerstein ( née Nimmo) and theatrical manager William Hammerstein . His grandfather

3174-402: The lyrics of the arias , duets , trios and choruses written in verse. The libretto of a musical, on the other hand, is almost always written in prose (except for the song lyrics). The libretto of a musical, if the musical is adapted from a play (or even a novel), may even borrow their source's original dialogue liberally – much as Oklahoma! used dialogue from Lynn Riggs 's Green Grow

3243-491: The money to Hetty and discovers the madam's secretary is Julie Dozier. Julie is devastated that Magnolia has found her working in the whorehouse. (The fate of Steve goes unmentioned in the novel.) When Magnolia returns to the boarding house, she finds Ravenal gone, having left behind nothing but a farewell note. She never sees him again. She goes out to get work and is hired at a local nightclub called Joppers. The story moves forward to 1926, when show boats are becoming scarce on

3312-477: The musical in 1936 and 1951. In August 1924, Edna Ferber watched as the opening performance of her play Minick (co-written with George S. Kaufman ) was disrupted by an invasion of bats that had been nesting undetected in the chandeliers and dome of the playhouse. Alarmed theatergoers scurried for the exits. As the crew recovered from this debacle, Winthrop Ames , the show's producer, jokingly remarked: "Next time... we won't bother with tryouts. We'll all charter

3381-445: The necessary encouragement for other gifted writers to create musical plays of their own". The partnership went on to produce not only the aforementioned, but also other Broadway musicals such as Allegro , Me and Juliet , Pipe Dream , Flower Drum Song , and The Sound of Music , as well as the musical film State Fair (and its stage adaptation of the same name ), and the television musical Cinderella , all featured in

3450-451: The new show boat Cotton Blossom . Among its acting cast are Julie Dozier and her husband Steve Baker, and Ellie Chipley and her husband, affectionately known as "Schultzy". Other members of the crew are Pete, the engineer of the towboat Mollie Able , which propels the show boat; Frank the utility man; and Windy McClain, the pilot. Steve and Julie are close, and Julie becomes Magnolia's best friend, showing motherly affection toward her. For

3519-662: The next year in France and New York writing the novel, and published it in the summer of 1926. The mix of romance, realistic depiction of racial issues, and nostalgia for a vanishing American past was an immediate hit with the public, and the novel was number one on the bestseller lists for twelve weeks. The critical reception was more cautious but still positive. In his New York Times review, Louis Kronenberger wrote: "With Show Boat , Miss Ferber establishes herself not as one of those who are inaugurating first-rate literature, but as one of those who are reviving first-rate story-telling. This

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3588-411: The official state song of Oklahoma since 1953) from Oklahoma! ; " If I Loved You " and " You'll Never Walk Alone " from Carousel , " Some Enchanted Evening ", from South Pacific ; " Getting to Know You " and " Shall We Dance " from The King and I ; and the title song as well as " Climb Ev'ry Mountain " from The Sound of Music . Several albums of Hammerstein's musicals were named to the " Songs of

3657-442: The old Betty Grable – Don Ameche – Carmen Miranda vehicles, are largely unaffected, but this practice is especially misleading in translations of musicals like Show Boat , The Wizard of Oz , My Fair Lady or Carousel , in which the lyrics to the songs and the spoken text are often or always closely integrated, and the lyrics serve to further the plot. Availability of printed or projected translations today makes singing in

3726-471: The original language more practical, although one cannot discount the desire to hear a sung drama in one's own language. The Spanish words libretista (playwright, script writer or screenwriter) and libreto (script or screen play), which are used in the Hispanic TV and cinema industry, derived their meanings from the original operatic sense. Librettists have historically received less prominent credit than

3795-629: The past (and even today), foreign musical stage works with spoken dialogue, especially comedies, were sometimes performed with the sung portions in the original language and the spoken dialogue in the vernacular. The effects of leaving lyrics untranslated depend on the piece. A man like Louis Durdilly would translate the whole libretto, dialogues and airs, into French: Così fan tutte became Ainsi font toutes, ou la Fidélité des femmes , and instead of Ferrando singing "Un' aura amorosa" French-speaking audiences were treated to Fernand singing "Ma belle est fidèle autant qu'elle est belle". Many musicals, such as

3864-432: The revelation and hysterically denounces her friend. Steve says he has "negro blood" in him, and the rest of the company backs him up. The sheriff, not realizing that Steve's claim is based only on his having sucked some blood from Julie's hand, recites as Mississippi law that "one drop of Negro blood makes you a Negro in these parts". Although still suspicious, he is convinced by Windy, a boyhood friend, that he cannot arrest

3933-527: The second act during rehearsal. The lights of Times Square were turned off for one minute, and London's West End lights were dimmed in recognition of his contribution to the musical. He was cremated, and his ashes were buried at the Ferncliff Cemetery in Hartsdale, New York . A memorial plaque was unveiled at Southwark Cathedral , England, on May 24, 1961. After Hammerstein's death, The Sound of Music

4002-401: The words, and the piano-vocal score, with all the musical material, including some spoken cues), both are needed in order to make a thorough reading of an entire show. Show Boat (novel) Show Boat was adapted as a Broadway musical in 1927 by Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II . Three films followed: a 1929 version that depended partly on the musical, and two full adaptations of

4071-400: The year before in the same town. When they hear what Pete has done, Steve takes out a pocket knife, makes a cut on Julie's hand, and sucks blood from it. The sheriff arrives and announces that there is a miscegenation case on board: since Julie is black and Steve is white, their marriage is illegal. Julie admits that she is half-black. Ellie, who has been very close to Julie, becomes upset at

4140-648: Was 19, he participated in his first play with the Varsity Show, entitled On Your Way . Throughout the rest of his college career, Hammerstein wrote and performed in several Varsity Shows. Following his graduation, he sat on the judging committee for the show and continued to contribute to several musicals, including Fly With Me , written by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart . After quitting law school to pursue theater , Hammerstein began his first professional collaboration, with Herbert Stothart , Otto Harbach and Frank Mandel. He began as an apprentice and went on to form

4209-495: Was a "show, that, like Show Boat , became a milestone, such that subsequent historians writing about important moments in twentieth-century theater began to identify eras according to their relationship to Oklahoma! " After Oklahoma! , Rodgers and Hammerstein were the most important contributors to the musical-play form—with such masterworks as Carousel , The King and I and South Pacific . "The examples they set in creating vital plays, often rich with social thought, provided

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4278-511: Was adapted as a 1965 film , which won the Academy Award for Best Picture . Hammerstein was one of the most important "book writers" in Broadway history—he made the story, not the songs or the stars, central to the musical and brought musical theater to full maturity as an art form. According to Stephen Sondheim , "What few people understand is that Oscar's big contribution to the theater was as

4347-468: Was also not certain that the idea had much merit, and the two therefore separated. The adaptation became the first Rodgers and Hammerstein collaboration, titled Oklahoma! , which opened on Broadway in 1943. It furthered the revolution begun by Show Boat , by thoroughly integrating all the aspects of musical theater, with the songs and dances arising out of and further developing the plot and characters. William A. Everett and Paul R. Laird wrote that this

4416-708: Was elected as the eleventh president of the nonprofit organization . He continued his presidency at the Guild until 1960; he was succeeded by Alan Jay Lerner . Hammerstein married his first wife, Myra Finn, in 1917; the couple divorced in 1929. He married his second wife, the Australian-born Dorothy (Blanchard) Jacobson (1899–1987), in 1929. He had three children: William Hammerstein (1918–2001) and Alice Hammerstein Mathias (1922–2015) by his first wife, and James Hammerstein (1931–1999) by his second wife, with whom he also had

4485-536: Was immediately intrigued: "Here, I thought, was one of the most melodramatic and gorgeous bits of Americana that had ever come my way. It was not only the theater — it was the theater plus the glamour of the wandering drifting life, the drama of the river towns, the mystery and terror of the Mississippi itself... I spent a year hunting down every available scrap of show-boat material; reading, interviewing, taking notes and making outlines." In 1925, Ferber traveled to Bath, North Carolina , and spent four days aboard one of

4554-586: Was one of Morgan's last public appearances before her untimely death in 1941. On February 20 and 27, 2011, a two-part version of Show Boat was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in the Classic Serial spot. Based only on Ferber's novel, it was dramatised by Moya O'Shea, produced/directed by Tracey Neale, and starred Lysette Anthony as Kim, Samantha Spiro as Magnolia, Laurel Lefkow as Parthy, Morgan Deare as Cap'n Andy, Ryan McCluskey as Gaylord and Nonso Anozie as Jo, with original music by Neil Brand . Writing for

4623-536: Was one of the most prolific librettists of the 19th century, providing the words for works by Meyerbeer (with whom he had a lasting collaboration), Auber , Bellini , Donizetti , Rossini and Verdi . The French writers' duo Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy wrote many opera and operetta libretti for the likes of Jacques Offenbach , Jules Massenet and Georges Bizet . Arrigo Boito , who wrote libretti for, among others, Giuseppe Verdi and Amilcare Ponchielli , also composed two operas of his own. The libretto

4692-749: Was the German theater impresario Oscar Hammerstein I . His father was from a Jewish family, and his mother was the daughter of British parents. He attended the Church of the Divine Paternity, now the Fourth Universalist Society in the City of New York . Although Hammerstein's father managed the Victoria Theatre and was a producer of vaudeville shows, he was opposed to his son's desire to participate in

4761-489: Was written in verse, and this continued well into the 19th century, although genres of musical theatre with spoken dialogue have typically alternated verse in the musical numbers with spoken prose. Since the late 19th century some opera composers have written music to prose or free verse libretti. Much of the recitatives of George Gershwin 's opera Porgy and Bess , for instance, are merely DuBose and Dorothy Heyward 's play Porgy set to music as written – in prose – with

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