Restorationist

Currently working on two Victor Herbert Operettas

music by Victor Herbert; lyrics by James O'Dea

The Globe Theater (Now The Lunt-Fontaine Theater) Opening: Oct 28, 1912   Closing: May 17, 1913 Total Performances:232

Lady of the Slipper, The, the operetta composer Victor Herbert's version of the Cinderella story. Premièred in New York in 1912, the show is not generally counted among the composer's great successes. Nevertheless, a combination of his talent and a sumptuous production by Charles Dillingham ensured a run of 232 performances.

Act 1  

Fond of the Ladies.......................................Atzel, Sophia, Irma, Clara, Ludovica, Maida, Gretchen and Chorus                                Meow! Meow! Meow!.................................... Cinderella and Mouser                                                                                               Love Me Like a Real, Real Man.......................Cinderella, Punks and Spooks                                                                                     All Hallowe'en..............................................Cinderella and Kiddies    

Act 2                                                                                                                                                                                       At the Bal Masque..........................................Dancing Girls                                                                                                     Princess of Far Away.......................................Cinderella, The Crown Prince Maximilian and Chorus                                                Them Was the Childhood Days.........................Punks and Spooks                                                     Youth...........................................................Premiere Danseuse and Corps de Ballet                                                                 Bagdad (Lyrics By Anne Caldwell)............................Punks and Chorus                                                                                                  (A) Little Girl at Home....................................The Crown Prince Maximilian and Cinderella                                                           Punch Bowl Glide...........................................Spooks                                                                                                                    The Drums of the Nations...............................The drums of the Crown Prince, the Drums of Leipzic, of Napoleon, of Britain, of Northa America, of Young America and of Dixie    

Act 3                                                                                                                                                                                      The Lady of the Slipper...................................Captain Ladislaw and Chorus                                                                        Cinderella's Dream.......................................  Cinderella                                                                                                              Put Your Best Foot Forward, Little Girl..............The Crown Prince Maximilian, Court Ladies and Pages                                                 And They Lived Happily Ever Afterwards.......................................     

Larry is also currently working on restoring the complete score to Victor Herbert's Babes In Toyland.

Some Questions and Answers

1) How did you become involved in this project?

John McGlinn and I had been playing with the show since 1992, after I worked on a production for the Houston Grand Opera.  I lent John my scores and pushed him to look into Victor Herbert's music.  When this current project began in 2001, it was John's project, and he asked me to work on the project as an supervisor for the Herbert shows, while Russell would do the same, as well as orchestrating missing items, on the Kern shows.

2) The original version was presented in 1903. Did you ever see a revival stage version of Babes In Toyland before you got involved in the restoration?

Houston Grand Opera, 1990-91, which had too many cooks.  It was a rather unpleasant experience, but through it I met John DeMain, who's one of the best conductors around.

3) How close or how far afield was the stage version (If you did see one)?

Too many alterations in the plot to suit me, and too many new lyrics. We had some wonderful performers, but Houston Grand Opera thought so little of it that it's never mentioned in their press and never revived. The original idea, to provide opera companies with an equivalent to THE NUTCRACKER, was a good one.

4) There were other version of Babes In Toyland that used a "new adaptation" (like Disney's 1961 film version, 1978 Manhattan Light Opera, 1979 Felt Forum and the 1986 TV version) how close or how afar were these version compared to the original 1903 version?

None of them.  Most revivals owe more to the Laurel and Hardy film.  The problem is that the original book of 1903, while a good plot, is a pretty bad piece of dramaturgy.  I don't know why American musical theatre at that time hadn't learned more from Gilbert & Sullivan and
European operetta, whose books are far better.

5) Was there any surviving orchestrations?

Except for one number written in 1905, and two interpolated non-Herbert numbers in 1903, there are full scores for everything.  Some are not original, but there are surviving secondary texts, like published stock arrangements and things in the Victor Herbert Concert Orchestra to provide possible answers.

6) There were recordings  of the by The Victor Herbert Orchestra on the Smithsonian label and a recording by the Victor Light Opera Company were these useful in the restoration?

Only in knowing what Herbert did as a conductor.  There is a funny toy doll cadenza in the number "In the Toymaker's Workshop" that McGlinn used on the recording.

7) In one of my source books there are 19 songs listed that appeared in the show. Is this correct amount? Were there any cut songs?

There is no sourcebook anywhere that gives accurate information on the show.  There are too many productions from 1929 to the present which have interpolated, or rewritten, music and a lot of these things have been added to the list.

8) How does someone decide what is the correct instruments and how many were used in 1903?

The scores tell you a lot:  6 reeds, 7 brass (one trumpet/cornet offstage), harp, at least two percussion and strings.  Herbert's 1904 show IT HAPPENED IN NORDLAND used "Beatrice Barefacts" which also appeared in the 1904 tour of BABES IN TOYLAND.  In the files of IT HAPPENED IN NORDLAND at the Library of Congress, there's an instrumental list, and my memory is that the strings were 8 violins, 2 violas, 2 celli, and two basses.  I can't imagine the BABES IN TOYLAND band was any bigger, so that's a total orchestra of around 30 players.


9) It premiered at the Majestic Theater in NYC. Is this the same Majestic Theater we know today?

Nope.  The Majestic Theatre was built at Columbus Circle, at 59th Street, in 1902.  Its first show was THE WIZARD OF OZ, by the same team behind BABES IN TOYLAND.

 

He has also restored the score to Joe Moross and John Latouche's The Golden Apple

Larry had this to say about his work:

About five years ago, I mentioned to Susanna Moross Tarjan, the composer's daughter that the last engraved vocal score she paid to have done had some errors.  Early in 2003, she called me and asked me to edit a new one.  I went through her father's ms piano-vocal, had it entered into computer, checked the lyrics against the published libretto and the recording, and went through the new score, perhaps too quickly, with the original conductor's score.  Now that I'm finally correcting the orchestra parts at Tams-Witmark, I'm finding a million errors I let slip past me, so this venture next month will guarantee as much of a corrected vocal score as possible without having Jerome Moross around to answer several big questions.
 

Larry also worked on the monumental restoration of Show Boat. He contributed the orchestrations for the songs used in the 1936 film version.

Some Questions and Answers

1) How did you get involved with the restoration of the film songs for Show Boat?

I had worked with John McGlinn on his first recording, which was "Songs of New York" for the Book-of-the-Month Club.  I had met John through Bill Tynes' New Amsterdam Theatre company.  When he called me about the recording, he said that I was the only orchestrator he knew and would I help with it.  Once the work began, he contacted Russell Warner and brought him in, and that's how I met Russell who's become one of my dearest friends.

 2) There were no extant orchestrations for the film songs. How did you go about recreating the orchestrations?

I listened to a cassette tape of the soundtrack, while I made notes all over a copy of the published sheet music.  This went to a music copyist, Christine Ambrose as I recall, who copied out a full routine of the number.  John and the singers rehearsed from that while I scored the piece.  Because of the lack of depth in the sound of the soundtrack, I think I missed some of what was going on the middle texture.

3) Did you have to guess what instruments and how many were used for the orchestrations?

We figured that for most of the score, the film used the original Russell Bennett orchestrations, but I heard things in "I Have the Room Above Her" like celesta and harp, which were not in the original, so I used a slightly larger orchestra for those three numbers
 

4) What was the critical view of your restorations?

I've never had any comments.  That would imply for me that no one thinks they stray too far from the sound of the original 1936 film.  I know that my score for "I Have the Room Above" was the basis for Bill Brohn's orchestration in the Harold Prince revival.

5) Many people consider the 3CD release of the "complete"  recording of Show Boat is one the best recordings of a musical. What are your feelings about the recording?

I think it's a great recording, and it's the best thing McGlinn ever recorded.