Forgotten Musicals
I love musical theatre whether modern musicals, traditional musicals, operettas or light opera, or the various works that cross over between them. Many wonderful works however have become neglected over the years, so I am going to try and resurrect interest in some of them. I’m going to start with The Ball at the Savoy, (Ball im Savoy), a jazz operetta in three acts by Paul Abraham to a libretto by Alfred Grünwald and Fritz Löhner-Beda.
It premiered in 1932 in Berlin, unfortunately the Nazis came to power five weeks later, and because composer and librettists were all Jewish, the show was forced to close down. It was revived on 9 September 1933 at the New German Theatre in Prague under music director George Szell. The English-language premiere was on 8 September 1933 at the Drury Lane Theatre, London, under the title Ball at the Savoy, with the libretto adapted by Oscar Hammerstein.
It was the last major success for Paul Abraham a Hungarian composer born in 1892. He wrote his first operetta, Der Gatte des Fräuleins, in 1928. With his third, Viktoria und ihr Husar he achieved a resounding success. Through this work, and the next two operettas from 1931 and 1933 Die Blume von Hawaii (The Flower of Hawaii) and Ball im Savoy he became renowned worldwide. He also wrote numerous film scores.
The Nazi seizure of power in 1933 forced Abraham to leave Germany and later emigrated to New York City. After a mental breakdown he was in February 1946 committed to the Bellevue Hospital in Manhattan. In May 1956 he returned to live in Hamburg, Germany, where he received treatment at the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf. He died four years later, aged 67.
There is a film of Ball im Savoy filmed in Hungary in 1935 starring the beautiful Hungarian soprano Gitta Alpár. She was born in Budapest, the daughter of a Jewish cantor.
In 1931, Alpár married actor Gustav Fröhlich, with whom she had a child, Julika. Her first films were made in Germany. The marriage was dissolved in 1935 because Alpár was Jewish and the marriage was illegal in Nazi Germany. Alpár appeared on "Hitler's hit list", along with Charlie Chaplin and others.
Alpár left Germany in 1933, first for Austria and Hungary, then England and eventually the United States, where she continued her singing and film career. She died in Los Angeles, California in 1991.
Here is Alpár singing the most famous song from Ball im Savoy - La Bella Tangolita
Ich küss'genau so gut, wie Tangolita, wenn nur die Liebe in mir erwacht!
Ich kann genau so gut, wie Tangolita mein Herz dir schenken für eine Nacht!
(I kiss even so well, as Tangolita, if only love in me took flight
I can even so well, as Tangolita, my heart give to you for just one night)
[media=https://youtu.be/i9mfA60x-FM?si=B_k8ReV4yx9JHIzR]
It premiered in 1932 in Berlin, unfortunately the Nazis came to power five weeks later, and because composer and librettists were all Jewish, the show was forced to close down. It was revived on 9 September 1933 at the New German Theatre in Prague under music director George Szell. The English-language premiere was on 8 September 1933 at the Drury Lane Theatre, London, under the title Ball at the Savoy, with the libretto adapted by Oscar Hammerstein.
It was the last major success for Paul Abraham a Hungarian composer born in 1892. He wrote his first operetta, Der Gatte des Fräuleins, in 1928. With his third, Viktoria und ihr Husar he achieved a resounding success. Through this work, and the next two operettas from 1931 and 1933 Die Blume von Hawaii (The Flower of Hawaii) and Ball im Savoy he became renowned worldwide. He also wrote numerous film scores.
The Nazi seizure of power in 1933 forced Abraham to leave Germany and later emigrated to New York City. After a mental breakdown he was in February 1946 committed to the Bellevue Hospital in Manhattan. In May 1956 he returned to live in Hamburg, Germany, where he received treatment at the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf. He died four years later, aged 67.
There is a film of Ball im Savoy filmed in Hungary in 1935 starring the beautiful Hungarian soprano Gitta Alpár. She was born in Budapest, the daughter of a Jewish cantor.
In 1931, Alpár married actor Gustav Fröhlich, with whom she had a child, Julika. Her first films were made in Germany. The marriage was dissolved in 1935 because Alpár was Jewish and the marriage was illegal in Nazi Germany. Alpár appeared on "Hitler's hit list", along with Charlie Chaplin and others.
Alpár left Germany in 1933, first for Austria and Hungary, then England and eventually the United States, where she continued her singing and film career. She died in Los Angeles, California in 1991.
Here is Alpár singing the most famous song from Ball im Savoy - La Bella Tangolita
Ich küss'genau so gut, wie Tangolita, wenn nur die Liebe in mir erwacht!
Ich kann genau so gut, wie Tangolita mein Herz dir schenken für eine Nacht!
(I kiss even so well, as Tangolita, if only love in me took flight
I can even so well, as Tangolita, my heart give to you for just one night)
[media=https://youtu.be/i9mfA60x-FM?si=B_k8ReV4yx9JHIzR]
