Naughty Marietta–More Music From Act One

We have started out this post with a beautiful image of streetcars in New Orleans. This has nothing to do with 1750 New Orleans; but it is pretty.

In the last post, we listened to songs that told us about the gentle opening of the flower-city, New Orleans, as day breaks and the city awakens; the arrival of Captain Warrington and his troops; the teasing of the casquette girls as the marriage auction begins; the two sides of Marietta, good and horrid; and the tongue-in-cheek duet, where Marietta and Dick agree to just be friends. Let’s see how that arrangement works out.

In this post, we are going to cover Simon’s comedy song, “If I Were Anybody Else But Me,” Adah’s sultry song of southern seduction, “Neath the Southern Moon,” the effervescent coloratura adventure called “Italian Street Song” and the Finale for Act I. As a lucky strike extra, we are going to provide a song not found in Naughty Marietta but interpolated from Prince Ananais, an 1894 Herbert operetta.

While Simon did not play a key role in the operetta, he provided some comic relief from the struggles that the main characters were experiencing. In this next song, “If I Were Anybody Else But Me,” he explains to Lizette, a casquette girl, how he could become a fearsome pirate, once Bras Pique is captured. Lizette’s response says it all: “Who would have thought it, in a little man like you.”

Next, Etienne returns from an adventure as Bras Pique, and Adah, his slave and mistress, is concerned that Etienne no longer loves her. In fact the first part of the song is Adah’s question to Fortune, asking if her lover still loves her. She turns away from her own question and decides to live in ignorance. Then she starts to sing the lyric starting with “Neath the Southern moon,” and the song changes into a song of southern love, warm and tender, filled with the smells of perfumed air. If it is sung too slowly, it becomes a dirge, into which we can  bury her lost love for Etienne. It does not help if the orchestration features low base and cello accompaniment and if the mezzo-soprano, such as Joanna Simon in this clip (sister of Carly Simon), chooses to emphasize the dramatic lower register of her voice.

In the 1935 movie adaptation, new words were written for Nelson Eddy to sing to Jeanette MacDonald, which called for a faster tempo and a brighter quality to the voice. Remember that the music was re-keyed into the bass clef, and it still sounds more bright and alive because it has been set at the upper range of his voice. In the clip we are going to provide, you will hear Nelson sing the opening verse from the Broadway show with still pictures on the screen; then, as we move to live action, he will sing the movie version; at the end, as we revert to still pictures, he sings the last notes of the musical version. This clip demonstrates how beautiful and seductive the song can be if sung in an appropriate style and arrangement.

In the totally nonsensical plotting that only operetta could design, Marietta wears baggy clothes and tries to pass herself off as the young son of Rudolfo, the owner of the Marionette Theatre. The lyric centers the “Italian Street Song” in Napoli, and it is lovely but is unrelated to the plot. Here is Gianni Rolandi performing the song in 1978 as part of the NYC Opera broadcast. Through no fault of her own, she must try to overcome a big impediment–an orchestra that is determined to drown her out.

Now, let’s hear this same song again, this time sung by Jeanette MacDonald in the 1935 movie adaptation. First, she had a brilliant sounding coloratura sound, and she was allowed to show if off by careful control of the other voices and the orchestra. The tempo is about the same and so are the orchestral parts. But we come away from her version with a brand new appreciation of the power of the music. Jeanette’s version permits the audience to fall in love with the music; and we do. Be patient with this clip; it starts with a solo with still photos; then it turns to the movie and starts with dialogue; in short it takes a while before we stop the flirtation between Nelson and Jeanette and get to the song. But once we do, zing, zing, zing.

This brings us to another comparison; around half way through the song, Jeanette sings “Ah” and holds this note steadily above the female chorus, madly zinging away. In the Rodgers and Hart Broadway hit of 1937, called Babes in Arms, the team wrote a song called “Johnny One-Note,” in which they provided a brief moment for the singer to sing “Ah” above the swinging sounds of the orchestra. Here is John McGlinn, leading the Boston Pops Orchestra, with the vocal by the great Kim Criswell.

Back we go to Naughty Marietta, and we come to the Finale Act I. In this energetic but confusing Finale, the only thing that is clear is the beauty of Herbert’s orchestrations.

But we promised you a lucky strike extra. This song was included in Act I of the 1978 broadcast. It was never in Naughty Marietta, but John Mauceri interpolated a duet, called “This Brave New Land,” from Prince Ananais into this performance. According to the notes from the upload of the broadcast, the lyrics are most likely provided by the adapter of this production, Frederick S. Roffman. As Herbert’s orchestration was probably not available, Hershy Kay provided a new orchestration. Alan Titus sings Etienne and Joanna Simon sings Adah.

We will start listening to Act II next Tuesday. See you all then.