Today is Victor Herbert’s 157th birthday.
Around 1995 - I believe I was working at the time on the City Center Encores! production of PAL JOEY - a conductor who stopped calling me about work when his career took off and his budget could afford a "name" orchestrator like Ralph Burns or Jonathan Tunick, asked me to orchestrate two numbers for a young Japanese lyric soprano. I do remember that the soprano lived on the Upper West Side and the band for my two charts had around 15 players. I do not remember now where the recording studio was, but I think the orchestration turned out quite nicely.
I also remember that the soprano had the stereotyped pronunciation difficulty with her Rs and Ls, and she called me Rally. Really.
So, here’s a number from Irish-born American composer Victor Herbert’s 1911 musical comedy,THE ENCHANTRESS. This wonderful comedy number owes its current popularity to the late great Beverly Sills.
https://soundcloud.com/user5614139/art-is-calling-for-me