The Student Prince (operetta)
"The Student Prince" is a celebrated operetta by Hungarian American composer Sigmund Romberg, which premiered on December 2, 1924, at the 59th Street Theater in New York. The operetta, co-created with librettist Dorothy Donnelly, is based on Wilhelm Meyer-Förster's German play "Alt Heidelberg" and explores themes of love and duty through the story of Karl Franz, a prince who disguises himself as a student at Heidelberg University. While there, he falls in love with Kathie, the daughter of an innkeeper, although he is already betrothed to Princess Margaret. The operetta features over twenty musical numbers, including vocal and instrumental pieces, and integrates ballet elements choreographed by Max Scheck.
"The Student Prince" is significant for its blend of romantic themes with sociopolitical undercurrents, marking a departure from purely escapist entertainment of the time. Its successful reception helped pave the way for more socially conscious works in American musical theater during the late 1920s and 1930s. The production faced initial challenges from its producers regarding its style and ending but ultimately became a hit, influencing subsequent musical theater and film soundtracks. The operetta has since been adapted into various film versions, further solidifying its cultural impact and legacy in American music history.
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The Student Prince (operetta)
Identification: Operetta about the romance between a prince and a barmaid in the old German city of Heidelberg
Authors: Music by Sigmund Romberg; lyrics and book by Dorothy Donnelly
Date: 1924
The Student Prince was one of the most popular American operettas of Hungarian American composer Sigmund Romberg, influenced by the works of Viennese composer Johann Strauss II, among others. It foreshadowed socially conscious American musical stage works emerging in the 1920s and 1930s.
The Student Prince was the result of a collaboration between Romberg and the librettist Dorothy Donnelly. It was based on the German play Alt Heidelberg by Wilhelm Meyer-Förster, which was inspired by actual events in 1863. Although Romberg’s music was grounded in the past, the subject matter anticipated future plays and musicals. The sociopolitical themes explored in The Student Prince and Romberg’s next operetta, The Desert Song (1926), for example, probably foreshadowed Jerome Kern’s breakthrough musical Show Boat (1927).
Karl Franz, the prince of a fictitious German kingdom, is sent to Heidelberg University disguised as an ordinary student. While there, he makes friends with other students and falls in love with Kathie, an innkeeper’s daughter. However, Karl Franz is already promised to Princess Margaret. In the end, Karl Franz becomes king and fulfills his royal duty by marrying Margaret, although he expresses his undying love for Kathie in song.
The work encompasses over twenty musical numbers divided into four acts, comprising both vocal and instrumental sections, along with ballets staged by choreographer Max Scheck in the original production. The Shubert brothers, producers with whom Romberg signed the play’s first contract, objected to the old-fashioned style and unhappy ending of the operetta. It was only after serious disagreements, also involving Donnelly’s book and lyrics, that the premiere of The Student Prince took place on December 2, 1924, at the 59th Street Theater in New York.
The Student Prince was a hit. It was first committed to silent film in 1927; other versions were filmed in the era of talking pictures. Selections from the music were originally published in New York by Harms, Inc. in 1924, and in 1932, Warner Bros. Publications released a complete score containing all of the operetta’s musical numbers. Romberg’s surviving manuscript sources, including orchestral scores not available in published form, are filed at the University of California at Berkeley and in the Library of Congress.
Impact
The Student Prince was one of the first American operettas to establish a culture of social realism that had been lacking from the escapist Viennese works influencing Romberg’s compositional style. The blurred line between opera, operetta, and the works of the Broadway stage influenced the development of motion picture soundtracks, with Romberg’s work influencing film composers from Erich Korngold to Osvaldo Golijov.
Bibliography
Bordman, Gerald M. “The Flowering of Traditional American Operetta: Friml and Romberg.” In American Operetta From “H.M.S. Pinafore” to “Sweeney Todd.” New York: Oxford University Press, 1981.
Everett, William A. “Young Love in Old Heidelberg: The Student Prince.” In Sigmund Romberg. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2007.
Traubner, Richard. Operetta: A Theatrical History. Rev. ed. New York: Routledge, 2003.