The Firefly (operetta)
Encyclopedia
The Firefly is the first operetta
written by composer Rudolf Friml
, with a libretto by Otto Harbach
. The story concerns a young girl, who is a street singer. She disguises herself and serves as a cabin boy on a ship to Bermuda, where she falls in love. Complications arise, and eventually, she becomes a grand opera diva.
After tryouts at the Empire Theatre in Syracuse, New York
beginning in October 1912, the operetta premiered on Broadway
on December 2, 1912 at the Lyric Theatre
, transferring after Christmas to the Casino Theatre. It was warmly received and ran for an encouraging 120 performances. A 1937 MGM film version
starred Jeanette MacDonald
. The piece became one of the more frequently revived Friml works but was not given a complete recording until 2006.
was the operetta, and its most famous composer was Irish
-born Victor Herbert
. It was announced in 1912 that Italian-born operetta diva Emma Trentini
would be starring on Broadway in a new operetta by Herbert with lyricist
Otto Harbach
entitled The Firefly. Shortly before the writing of the operetta, Trentini appeared in a special performance of Herbert's Naughty Marietta
conducted by Herbert himself. When Trentini refused to sing "Italian Street Song" for the encore
, an enraged Herbert stormed out of the orchestra pit
refusing any further work with Trentini. Arthur Hammerstein
, the operetta's sponsor, frantically began to search for another composer. Not finding anyone who could compose as well as Herbert, Hammerstein settled on the almost unknown Friml because of his classical training. After a month of work, Friml produced the score for what would be his first theatrical success. The Firefly was followed by 32 more Friml operettas, but it remained one of his most popular.
After tryouts at the Empire Theatre in Syracuse, New York
beginning on October 14, 1912, The Firefly opened at the Lyric Theatre on December 2, 1912 to a warm reception by both the audience and the critics. The production moved to the Casino Theatre on December 30, where it ran until March 15, 1913. All told the production ran for 120 performances. Directed by Frederick G. Latham and conducted by Gaetano Merola
, the operetta starred Trentini as Nina, Craig Campbell
as Jack Travers, Irene Cassini as Antonio Columbo, Vera De Rosa as Sybil Vandare, Sammy Lee (choreographer)|Sammy Lee as Pietro, Audrey Maple as Geraldine Vandare, Ruby Norton as Suzette, Katherine Stewart as Mrs. Oglesby Vandare, Melville Stewart as John Thurston, Henry Vogel as Herr Franz, and George Williams as Correlli.
The 1937 MGM film version
of the show, starring Jeanette MacDonald
, added the song "The Donkey Serenade". After the film's release, this song has usually been added to revivals. In 1943 at the Los Angeles Civic Light Opera
, Francia White
starred as Nina. One of the more frequently revived Friml works, the first complete recording of the operetta was made by the Ohio Light Opera
and released by Albany Records
in 2006.
At a Hudson River
pier in New York City
around 1909, snobby Geraldine Van Dare appears, quarreling with her fiancé, Jack Travers. Her uncle's yacht is preparing to sail for Bermuda. Geraldine accuses Jack of flirting with a little Italian street singer. They board, and the young woman in question, Nina Corelli, arrives and recognizes her old friend Suzette, Geraldine's maid. Nina did wink at Jack, but it wasn't serious: "Love Is Like A Firefly". She wants to escape from her drunken guardian, and learning that Bermuda is farther away than Coney Island
, she begs Suzette to take her along, but in vain. Nina runs home and puts on her brother's clothes. Back at the ship, she tells Suzette her new identity: Antonio Columbo, a known pickpocket ("Giannina Mia"). Musician Franz, boarding the yacht, decides that he needs this voice for his choir. He asks that this "boy" be allowed to accompany them. As the gangplank is raised, Nina runs aboard.
Act II
"Antonio" is popular in Bermuda at the Van Dares' estate, but the boy reminds sulky Geraldine of the street singer. Meanwhile, Nina has now really fallen in love with Jack, who has offered her a job as a valet. John Thurston, Jack's uncle, comforts Geraldine. The police are seeking a thief, Antonio Columbo, regarding a robbery on the island, and so Nina reveals her true identity. Franz adopts Nina, and the two leave together.
Act III
Three years later, Jack's romance with Geraldine has subsided. Just as Franz arrives at the Van Dare's home in New York, with Nina, Jack visits on a courtesy call. Under Franz's skillful teaching, Nina has now become the great prima donna "Giannina". Jack realises that he loves her, and Nina reveals that she has always loved him.
Act II
Act III
Operetta
Operetta is a genre of light opera, light in terms both of music and subject matter. It is also closely related, in English-language works, to forms of musical theatre.-Origins:...
written by composer Rudolf Friml
Rudolf Friml
Rudolf Friml was a composer of operettas, musicals, songs and piano pieces, as well as a pianist. After musical training and a brief performing career in his native Prague, Friml moved to the United States, where he became a composer...
, with a libretto by Otto Harbach
Otto Harbach
Otto Abels Harbach, born Otto Abels Hauerbach was an American lyricist and librettist of about 50 musical comedies...
. The story concerns a young girl, who is a street singer. She disguises herself and serves as a cabin boy on a ship to Bermuda, where she falls in love. Complications arise, and eventually, she becomes a grand opera diva.
After tryouts at the Empire Theatre in Syracuse, New York
Syracuse, New York
Syracuse is a city in and the county seat of Onondaga County, New York, United States, the largest U.S. city with the name "Syracuse", and the fifth most populous city in the state. At the 2010 census, the city population was 145,170, and its metropolitan area had a population of 742,603...
beginning in October 1912, the operetta premiered on Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
on December 2, 1912 at the Lyric Theatre
Lyric Theatre (New York)
The Lyric Theatre was a prominent Broadway theatre built in 1903 in Manhattan, New York City in the 42nd Street Theatre District. It had two entrances, one at 213 West 42nd Street and another at 214-26 West 43rd Street and was one of the few New York houses that had two formal entrances. In 1934,...
, transferring after Christmas to the Casino Theatre. It was warmly received and ran for an encouraging 120 performances. A 1937 MGM film version
The Firefly (film)
The Firefly is a 1937 musical film starring Jeanette MacDonald, Allan Jones. The film is an adaptation of the operetta of the same name by composer Rudolf Friml and librettist Otto A. Harbach that premiered on Broadway in 1919...
starred Jeanette MacDonald
Jeanette MacDonald
Jeanette MacDonald was an American singer and actress best remembered for her musical films of the 1930s with Maurice Chevalier and Nelson Eddy...
. The piece became one of the more frequently revived Friml works but was not given a complete recording until 2006.
Background and productions
One of the most popular theatrical forms in the early decades of the 20th century in AmericaUnited States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
was the operetta, and its most famous composer was Irish
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
-born Victor Herbert
Victor Herbert
Victor August Herbert was an Irish-born, German-raised American composer, cellist and conductor. Although Herbert enjoyed important careers as a cello soloist and conductor, he is best known for composing many successful operettas that premiered on Broadway from the 1890s to World War I...
. It was announced in 1912 that Italian-born operetta diva Emma Trentini
Emma Trentini
Emma Trentini was an Italian soprano opera singer who came to the United States in December 1906.-Early life:She was from Mantova, Italy . Her parents were poor and could not afford to give her money to attain an operatic career. At the age of 12 she was welcomed into the church choir of Mantova...
would be starring on Broadway in a new operetta by Herbert with lyricist
Lyricist
A lyricist is a songwriter who specializes in lyrics. A singer who writes the lyrics to songs is a singer-lyricist. This differentiates from a singer-composer, who composes the song's melody.-Collaboration:...
Otto Harbach
Otto Harbach
Otto Abels Harbach, born Otto Abels Hauerbach was an American lyricist and librettist of about 50 musical comedies...
entitled The Firefly. Shortly before the writing of the operetta, Trentini appeared in a special performance of Herbert's Naughty Marietta
Naughty Marietta (operetta)
Naughty Marietta is an operetta in two acts, with libretto by Rida Johnson Young and music by Victor Herbert. Set in New Orleans in 1780, it tells how Captain Richard Warrington is commissioned to unmask and capture a notorious French pirate calling himself "Bras Priqué" – and how he is helped and...
conducted by Herbert himself. When Trentini refused to sing "Italian Street Song" for the encore
Encore (concert)
An encore is an additional performance added to the end of a concert, from the French "encore", which means "again", "some more"; multiple encores are not uncommon. Encores originated spontaneously, when audiences would continue to applaud and demand additional performance from the artist after the...
, an enraged Herbert stormed out of the orchestra pit
Orchestra pit
An orchestra pit is the area in a theater in which musicians perform. Orchestral pits are utilized in forms of theatre that require music or in cases when incidental music is required...
refusing any further work with Trentini. Arthur Hammerstein
Arthur Hammerstein
Arthur Hammerstein , was the son of Oscar Hammerstein I and uncle of Oscar Hammerstein II, was an opera producer and one of the writers of the song "Because of You," a major hit for Tony Bennett in 1951. Hammerstein wrote the song in 1940. It was used in the film I Was an American Spy...
, the operetta's sponsor, frantically began to search for another composer. Not finding anyone who could compose as well as Herbert, Hammerstein settled on the almost unknown Friml because of his classical training. After a month of work, Friml produced the score for what would be his first theatrical success. The Firefly was followed by 32 more Friml operettas, but it remained one of his most popular.
After tryouts at the Empire Theatre in Syracuse, New York
Syracuse, New York
Syracuse is a city in and the county seat of Onondaga County, New York, United States, the largest U.S. city with the name "Syracuse", and the fifth most populous city in the state. At the 2010 census, the city population was 145,170, and its metropolitan area had a population of 742,603...
beginning on October 14, 1912, The Firefly opened at the Lyric Theatre on December 2, 1912 to a warm reception by both the audience and the critics. The production moved to the Casino Theatre on December 30, where it ran until March 15, 1913. All told the production ran for 120 performances. Directed by Frederick G. Latham and conducted by Gaetano Merola
Gaetano Merola
Gaetano Merola was an Italian conductor and founder of the San Francisco Opera.-Biography:Merola was born in Naples, the son of a Neapolitan court violinist and studied piano and conducting at the Naples conservatory...
, the operetta starred Trentini as Nina, Craig Campbell
Craig Campbell (tenor)
Robert Craig Campbell was a Canadian tenor who performed in operettas across Canada and the United States. Campbell recorded with the Columbia, Davega, Perfect and Pathé labels...
as Jack Travers, Irene Cassini as Antonio Columbo, Vera De Rosa as Sybil Vandare, Sammy Lee (choreographer)|Sammy Lee as Pietro, Audrey Maple as Geraldine Vandare, Ruby Norton as Suzette, Katherine Stewart as Mrs. Oglesby Vandare, Melville Stewart as John Thurston, Henry Vogel as Herr Franz, and George Williams as Correlli.
The 1937 MGM film version
The Firefly (film)
The Firefly is a 1937 musical film starring Jeanette MacDonald, Allan Jones. The film is an adaptation of the operetta of the same name by composer Rudolf Friml and librettist Otto A. Harbach that premiered on Broadway in 1919...
of the show, starring Jeanette MacDonald
Jeanette MacDonald
Jeanette MacDonald was an American singer and actress best remembered for her musical films of the 1930s with Maurice Chevalier and Nelson Eddy...
, added the song "The Donkey Serenade". After the film's release, this song has usually been added to revivals. In 1943 at the Los Angeles Civic Light Opera
Los Angeles Civic Light Opera
The Los Angeles Civic Light Opera was an American theatre/opera company in Los Angeles, California. Founded under the motto "Light Opera in the Grand Opera manner" in 1938 by impresario Edwin Lester, the organization presented fifty seasons of theatre before closing due to financial reasons in...
, Francia White
Francia White
Francia White was an American soprano who had an active career in concerts, operas, operettas, radio, television, and film during the late 1920s through the 1940s. She began her career as a vaudeville performer in her late teens and then began singing in more serious classical music repertoire...
starred as Nina. One of the more frequently revived Friml works, the first complete recording of the operetta was made by the Ohio Light Opera
Ohio Light Opera
The Ohio Light Opera is a professional opera company based in Wooster, Ohio that performs the light opera repertory, including Gilbert and Sullivan, American, British and continental operettas, and other musical theatre works, especially of the late 19th and early 20th centuries...
and released by Albany Records
Albany Records
Albany Records is an American classical music record label focusing particularly on contemporary classical music. It was established by Peter Kermani in 1987, and is based in Albany, New York.-External links:**...
in 2006.
Synopsis
Act IAt a Hudson River
Hudson River
The Hudson is a river that flows from north to south through eastern New York. The highest official source is at Lake Tear of the Clouds, on the slopes of Mount Marcy in the Adirondack Mountains. The river itself officially begins in Henderson Lake in Newcomb, New York...
pier in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
around 1909, snobby Geraldine Van Dare appears, quarreling with her fiancé, Jack Travers. Her uncle's yacht is preparing to sail for Bermuda. Geraldine accuses Jack of flirting with a little Italian street singer. They board, and the young woman in question, Nina Corelli, arrives and recognizes her old friend Suzette, Geraldine's maid. Nina did wink at Jack, but it wasn't serious: "Love Is Like A Firefly". She wants to escape from her drunken guardian, and learning that Bermuda is farther away than Coney Island
Coney Island
Coney Island is a peninsula and beach on the Atlantic Ocean in southern Brooklyn, New York, United States. The site was formerly an outer barrier island, but became partially connected to the mainland by landfill....
, she begs Suzette to take her along, but in vain. Nina runs home and puts on her brother's clothes. Back at the ship, she tells Suzette her new identity: Antonio Columbo, a known pickpocket ("Giannina Mia"). Musician Franz, boarding the yacht, decides that he needs this voice for his choir. He asks that this "boy" be allowed to accompany them. As the gangplank is raised, Nina runs aboard.
Act II
"Antonio" is popular in Bermuda at the Van Dares' estate, but the boy reminds sulky Geraldine of the street singer. Meanwhile, Nina has now really fallen in love with Jack, who has offered her a job as a valet. John Thurston, Jack's uncle, comforts Geraldine. The police are seeking a thief, Antonio Columbo, regarding a robbery on the island, and so Nina reveals her true identity. Franz adopts Nina, and the two leave together.
Act III
Three years later, Jack's romance with Geraldine has subsided. Just as Franz arrives at the Van Dare's home in New York, with Nina, Jack visits on a courtesy call. Under Franz's skillful teaching, Nina has now become the great prima donna "Giannina". Jack realises that he loves her, and Nina reveals that she has always loved him.
Musical numbers
Act I- A Trip to Bermuda – Sybil Van Dare, Suzette, Pietro and Chorus
- He Says Yes, She Says No! – Geraldine Van Dare, Jack Travers and Chorus
- Call Me Uncle – John Thurston, Sybil and Chorus
- Love Is Like a Firefly – Nina
- Something – Suzette and Jenkins
- Giannina (Mia) – Nina
Act II
- (In) Sapphire Seas – Sybil and Ensemble
- Tommy Atkins (On a Dress-Parade) (I Want to be a Jolly Soldier) – Nina and Ensemble
- Sympathy – Geraldine and John
- A Woman's Smile – Jack
- De Trop – Jenkins, Pietro, Suzette and Chorus
- We're Going to Make a Man of You – Nina, Herr Franz, Jack, John and Jenkins
- The Beautiful Ship from Toyland – Franz and Male Chorus
- When a Maid Comes Knocking at Your Heart – Nina, Jack and Franz
Act III
- An American Beauty Rose – John and Ensemble
- The Latest Thing from Paris – Pietro and Suzette
- Kiss Me and 'Tis Day (The Dawn of Love) – Nina
External links
- The Firefly at the IBDB database
- The Firefly vocal score
- The Firefly at the Guide to Musical Theatre