The Rest of Act Two of Naughty Marietta

We are including an image of a bed and breakfast hotel in New Orleans, called “La Belle Esplanade.” It takes its name from the name of the street. In the 19th century, Esplanade was an important portage route of trade between Bayou St. John, which linked to Lake Pontchartrain, and the Mississippi River. Many 19th century mansions still line the street that once functioned as a “millionaire’s row” for the Louisiana Creole section of the city, similar to that of St. Charles Avenue in uptown New Orleans.

Back to some music. We continue with the cynical but enchanting song, “Live for Today,” originally sung by Captain Dick and Etienne on the male side and Marietta and Adah on the female side, along with a full chorus. Again, we need to rely on the NYC Opera broadcast.

We now get to one of the songs that has transcended the show and is sung by tenors the world over. We will start with a recording from 1911 by the great Irish tenor, John McCormack; “I’m Falling in Love with Someone.”

Because we have the six minute clip from the 1935 movie, along with a studio version at the start, filled with still photos, we are going to provide you with this clip of Nelson Eddy singing to Jeanette MacDonald. For those of you who have never seen this movie, this is one of the great moments on film for two reasons. One, Eddy was able to take the two jumps at the end of the song without hesitation, a feat that is very hard to do. So, we need to honor his memory by listening to the song for artistic reasons. In addition, this was the first time the two singers had been paired together, and they fell madly in love with one another. Jeanette is not acting in this scene; she is listening and reacting with her whole heart. God Bless them both.

And now we go from one great hit to another, as we get to the Finale Act Two, “Ah, Sweet Mystery of Life (at Last I’ve Found You).” We will start with the NYC Opera version, as it has the original orchestrations for tenor, soprano and chorus. The dialogue shows that the date has been reset to 1803, when the Louisiana Purchase was made.

We have listened to versions of this song by Richard Crooks and Jan Peerce; this time we have an audio clip of Mario Lanza singing the song.

Of course, no post of this song would be complete without a clip from the movie version; so here is the ending of the 1935 movie, as Nelson and Jeanette literally ride off into the sunset together.

Next week? At this point we don’t have a clue. So, let’s wait and see.