Good morning, all! Today is the 150th birthday of Victor Herbert, America's great Irish-American composer, and one of the creators of our musical theatre heritage. While some of his short pieces remain in the concert repertoire, larger works like the wonderful cello concertos and the tone poem "Hero and Leander" get only sporadic performances. Like Sir Arthur Sullivan, he was born in Ireland, trained in Germany, and moved to a large metropolis to achieve fame. In Herbert's case, it was a ticket to New York to play cello - like Jacques Offenbach he was a virtuoso cellist - in the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra. He was conductor for several years of the Pittsburgh Symphony, a Victor recording artist with the Victor Herbert Orchestra, and a mostly-forgotten musical theatre composer who wrote for all forms of turn-of-the-century musical theatre from opera to revue:
MADELEINE and NATOMA (opera)
THE MAGIC KNIGHT (parody opera)
EILEEN, NAUGHTY MARIETTA, THE MADCAP DUCHESS, SWEETHEARTS (romantic operetta)
THE RED MILL, MLLE MODISTE. THE LADY OF THE SLIPPER, IT HAPPENED IN NORDLAND (musical comedy)
BABES IN TOYLAND, WONDERLAND (extravaganza)
I think he was, unlike Arthur Sullivan, looking for a WS Gilbert who never arrived, but he worked with the best of the Broadway set, who turn worked with other greats from Oscar Hammerstein II to Jerome Kern. While not all of his shows would play well today and the quality of their scores can be inconsistent, second-rate Herbert is often better than some of the first-rate folk writing today. Take 5 minutes out of your tme today and listen to something Victor Herbert wrote, from the sentimental nostalgia of "Toyland" to the piquant quaintness of the "March of the Toys," from the grandiose flights of "The Italian Street Song" to the Vaudeville knockabout of "The Streets of New York."
My favorite Victor Herbert number is "Barney O'Flynn" from BABES IN TOYLAND, an "Irish" song with a great swing and yearning subtext, but I'm partial to his two "Mignonette" songs, one cut from BABES and another in THE RED MILL, a very funny musical for two comedians. Happy birthday, Victor!