Description

Victor Herbert is one of the giants of American culture. As a musician, conductor, and, above all, composer, he touched every corner of American musical life at the turn of the century, writing scores of songs, marches, concerti, and other works. But his most enduring legacy is on a different kind of stage, as one of the grandfathers of the modern musical theater.

Now, Victor Herbert has the biography he deserves. Neil Gould draws on his own experience as a director, producer, and scholar to craft the first comprehensive portrait in fifty years of the Irish immigrant whose extraordinary talents defined the sounds of a generation and made contemporary American music possible.

Mining a wealth of sources--many for the first time--Gould provides a fascinating portrait of Herbert and his world. Born in Dublin in 1859, Herbert arrived in the United States in 1886. From his first job in the orchestra pit of the Metropolitan Opera, Herbert went on to perform in countless festivals and concerts, and conduct the Pittsburgh Orchestra. In 1894, he composed his first operetta, Prince Ananias, and by the time of his death in 1924, h'd composed forty-two more many of them, such as Naughty Marietta, spectacular Broadway hits. Along the way, he also wrote two operas, stage music for the Ziegfeld Follies, and the first full score for a motion picture, The Fall of a Nation.

Gould brilliantly blends the musical and the theatrical, classical and popular, the public and the private, in this book. He not only gives a revealing portrait of Herbert the artist, entrepreneur, and visionary, but also recreates the vibrant world of the Herbert's Broadway. Gould takes us inside the music itself--with detailed guides to each major work and recreations of great performances. He also makes strong connections between Herbert's breakthrough compositions, such as the operetta Mlle. Modiste, and the later contributions of Rudolf Friml, Sigmund Romberg, Jerome Kern and other giants of the musical theater.

As exuberant as Herbert himself, this book is also a chronicle of American popular culture during one of its most creative periods. For anyone enraptured by the sound of the American musical, this book is delightfully required reading.

Features

• The first modern biography of any kind of one of the most influential artists in the history of American music and musical theaternullone of the links between the 19th century and the modern stage--from European styles through Herbert to Jerome Kern, George Gershwin, and Richard Rodgers.
• Herbert's operettas regularly revived as concert pieces.
• Draws on an unprecedented array of sources in a big, bold, lively portrait of a showman, an artist, and his times combines solid musical and theatrical scholarship with a rich cultural backdrop.
• Gould leads major Victor Herbert revivals and festivals across the country ties to all light opera, operetta, and musical theater organizations.

Reviews

" . . . Captures not only [Herbert's] genius, but the spirit of a country from which Herbert's brilliancenulland the American musical--sprang."-Judith Sebesta, New England Theatre Journal

"Victor Herbert: A Theatrical Life by Neil Gould delves into the life of the Irish composer and his tremendous impact on the American musical theater."-Publishers Weekly

"Victor Herbert: A Theatrical Life is an impressive achievement. The first biography of the composer in more than fifty years, Neil Gould makes skillful use of interviews, archives and unpublished memoirs to trace Herbert's life from his birth in Dublin, through his early years in Germany, to a major career in the United States."-Joan Peyser, author of Bernstein: A Biography

"Not only much needed, but a joy to read and a fascinating journey into the life of a remarkable man. Thorough, accurate, and readable, it is a must for anyone interested in the rich history of the American musical theater."-Thomas S. Hischak, co-author of The Oxford Companion to the American Theatre

"A great trinity of towering masters, a direct line from 1894 to the present . . . Victor Herbert, Jerome Kern and Richard Rodgers."-Gerald Bordman, author of American Musical Theater: A Chronicle

Product Details

512 pages; 16 b/w illus.; 6 1/8 x 9 1/4; ISBN13: 978-0-8232-2872-0ISBN10: 0-8232-2872-X

About the Author(s)