Romberg–Desert Song, Gems

By
In A Walkthrough Shows, Songs and More
  0

Oh, Kay! opened on Broadway on November 8, 1926 and ran for 256 performances. Slightly later in November (on the 30th), The Desert Song opened on Broadway and ran for 471 performances. Oh, Kay! was a sugary concoction, and The Desert Song was an operetta.

As we look back with some sort of historical perspective, we realize that the musical comedies that may have been cute and amusing in 1917 had never matured; and by 1926, people were bored with the silly plots and went to these shows to see the dancing and listen to the singing. Furthermore, hindering Oh, Kay! was the fact that the main song was crushed into the wrong spot in the show (Act II) and lost almost all of its dramatic energy.

Operetta had also lost most of its punch by 1926; however, the Riff rebellion in North Africa was pulled from the headlines. According to Gerald Bordman, “From 1921 to 1926 a Berber chieftain named Abd-el Drim amazed the world with his battles against the Spanish and French in the Riff revolt.” It was not a throw back; it was current news (or reasonably close). Combine the fact that the Red Shadow, the fictional leader of the Riffs, could win the heart of the heroine, a European woman, and we can see how the show’s libretto could captivate the audience.

If we add in a superb score from Sigmund Romberg as a follow-up to his 1924 success with The Student Prince, you can see how the show could run for almost 500 performances. With regard to this type of operetta, we normally are only able to present you with a limited number of songs that were recorded later in the studio or in revivals. However, in this case, we found almost all of the songs. Many come from the 1929 movie, starring Carlotta King and John Boles.

The soundtrack and the video quality of the remaining movie footage is poor, but it does give us some indication of the range of the score. We also have later recordings that capture the magic of the music at a time when technology could preserve the performances forever.

We are going to start our examination of the music with the restored Victor Light Opera Company recording of Gems from The Desert Song (December 16, 1926, singers unknown). “The Riff Song” starts and goes to 0:37; “The Desert Song” then plays until 1:19; “One Flower” goes to 3:14; and then “One Alone” takes us to the end of the clip.