Sigmund Romberg was born in Szeged, Hungary, on July 29, 1887. His
boyhood and early manhood were spent in Vienna where he studied
engineering and fulfilled his military service with the 19th Hungarian
Infantry stationed in that city. In Vienna, Romberg’s lifelong interest
in and talent for music found a favorable climate. He heard concerts,
haunted the city’s leading music salons, was a devotee of Viennese
operettas at the Theater-an-der-Wien. Vienna’s influence led him to
abandon all thoughts of becoming an engineer. In 1909 he came to the
United States where he led salon orchestras in various restaurants and
published his first popular songs. In 1912 he was engaged as staff
composer for the Shuberts, for whose many and varied Broadway
productions Romberg supplied all the music. Within a three-year period
he wrote the scores for eighteen musicals, one of which was his first
operetta in a European style, _The Blue Paradise_ (1915) for which he
created his first outstanding song hit, “_Auf Wiedersehen_.” Though he
continued writing music for many musical comedies, revues and
extravaganzas—including some starring Al Jolson at the Winter Garden—it
was in the field of the operetta that Romberg achieved significance in
American popular music. His musical roots were so deeply embedded in the
soil of Vienna that only in writing music for operettas in the manner
and procedures of Vienna did he succeed in producing a lyricism that ran
the gamut from sweetness and sentimentality to gaiety, masculine vigor
and charm. His most successful operettas, which are discussed below,
have never lost their capacity to enchant audiences however many times
they are revived.
Romberg began writing music for motion pictures in 1930 with _Viennese
Nights_. Out of one of his many scores for the screen came the poignant
ballad, “When I Grow Too Old to Dream.” His last huge success on
Broadway was achieved not with an operetta but with an American musical
comedy with American backgrounds, settings and characters—and songs in a
pronounced American idiom. It was _Up in Central Park_ in 1945. His last
musical comedy was _The Girl in Pink Tights_ produced on Broadway
posthumously in 1954. Romberg died in New York City on November 9, 1951.
Three years after his death his screen biography, _Deep in My Heart_,
was released, with José Ferrer playing the part of the composer.
_Blossom Time_ was first produced on Broadway on September 29, 1921 and
proved so successful that to meet the demand for tickets a second
company was formed to perform it at a nearby theater. There were also
four national companies running simultaneously. This musical was derived
from the successful German operetta, _Das drei Maederlhaus_, adapted by
Dorothy Donnelly. The central character is the beloved Viennese composer
of the early 19th century, Franz Schubert, and the plot is built around
the composer’s supposed frustrated love for Mitzi, who, in turn, falls
in love with Schubert’s best friend. The composer’s anguish in losing
her makes it impossible for him to finish the symphony he was writing
for her—and it remains forever unfinished. This tragic episode, however,
has no basis in biographical fact and is entirely the figment of a
fertile operetta librettist’s imagination.
Romberg’s most famous songs were all based on Schubert’s own melodies,
and one became a hit of major proportions: “Song of Love” based on the
beautiful main theme from the first movement of the _Unfinished
Symphony_. Other popular selections include “Tell Me Daisy,” “Lonely
Hearts,” “Serenade” and “Three Little Maids”—all possessed of that
charm, grace and _Gemuetlichkeit_ which we always associate with the
city of Vienna and its popular music.
_The Desert Song_, produced on November 30, 1926, had for its background
the colorful setting of French Morocco. There Margot Bonvalet is in love
with the Governor’s son but is being pursued by the bandit chief, The
Red Shadow. In the end it turns out that the Governor’s son and The Red
Shadow are one and the same person. The principal musical excerpts
include the romantic duet of Margot and The Red Shadow, “Blue Heaven”;
the rapturous love song of The Red Shadow, “One Alone”; and two virile
episodes, “Sabre Song” and “French Marching Song.”
Unlike most Romberg operettas, _Maytime_, presented on August 16, 1917,
did not have a foreign or exotic setting. The action takes place in
Gramercy Park, New York, between 1840 and 1900. However, the tragic
frustrations of the love affair of Ottilie and Richard belong inevitably
in the make-believe world of the operetta. Ottilie is forced to marry a
distant relative. Many years later, Ottilie’s granddaughter and
Richard’s grandson find each other, fall in love, and fulfil the
happiness denied their grandparents. The most important musical number
in this play is the sweet and sentimental waltz, “Will You Remember?”,
which is repeated several times during the course of the action. Other
numbers include “Jump Jim Crow,” “It’s a Windy Day” and “Dancing Will
Keep You Young.”
_The New Moon_—which came to Broadway on September 19, 1928—was
described by its authors (Oscar Hammerstein II, Frank Mandel, and
Laurence Schwab) as a “romantic musical comedy.” Its hero is a
historical character, Robert Mission, an 18th-century French aristocrat
who has come to New Orleans as a political fugitive. In the operetta he
is a bondservant to Monsieur Beaunoir, with whose daughter, Marianne, he
is in love. When the French police arrive to take him back to Paris for
trial, Marianne boards his ship upon which a mutiny erupts on the high
seas. The victorious bondservants now take possession of a small island
off the coast of Florida where they set up their own government with
Robert as leader, who then takes Marianne as his wife. This opulent
score yields one of Romberg’s most beautiful love songs, “Lover Come
Back to Me,” but it is significant to point out that its main melody was
expropriated by Romberg from a piano piece by Tchaikovsky. Other
delightful musical excerpts from this tuneful operetta include the
tender ballads “Softly as in a Morning Sunrise,” “One Kiss” and “Wanting
You,” and the stirring male chorus, “Stout-Hearted Men.”
_The Student Prince_, like _Blossom Time_, was based on a successful
German operetta, _Old Heidelberg_, once again adapted for the American
stage by Dorothy Donnelly. Its first performance took place on December
2, 1924. It has become one of the best loved operettas of the American
theater; there is hardly a time when it is not revived somewhere in the
United States. The setting is the romantic German University town of
Heidelberg in 1860. Prince Karl Franz falls in love with Kathie, a
waitress at the local inn. Their romance, however, is doomed to
frustration, since the Prince must renounce her to marry a Princess.
Romberg’s music is a veritable cornucopia of melodic riches, including
as it does the love duet of Kathie and the Prince, “Deep in My Heart,”
the Prince’s love song “Serenade,” and with them, “Golden Days” and a
vibrant male chorus, “Drinking Song.”