Victor Herbert - the Biography of America's Greatest Composer of Romantic Music

VICTOR HERBERT Victor Herbert in His Studio. Note the high desk at which he wrote. ILLUSTRATIONS Victor Herbert in his studio. Note the high desk at which he wrote Frontispiece FACING PAGE Herbert as a concert cellist 24 Herbert at school in Germany 24 Caricature of Victor Herbert by Boardman Robinson . 25 Mrs. Victor Herbert a few years after her arrival in New York 40 Victor Herbert, Mrs. Herbert and their children, Ella and Cliff ord, at Camp Joyland, Lake Placid . , 41 Victor Herbert as leader of Gilmores Band ... 88 Victor Herbert, in his cello virtuoso days, witri a group of friends. Louis Schmidt is at the extreme right . 89 Anton Seidl with Mrs. Seidl 104 A snapshot of Victor Herbert in the Adirondacks. His arm is around his son Clifford ...... 105 Alice Nielsen in The Fortune Teller .... 136 Alice Nielsen in a scene from The Singing Girl , 136 Emma Trentini and Orville Harrold in a scene from Naughty Marietta 137 Fritzi Scheff in Mile. Modiste 152 Mary Garden in Louise 153 Rehearsing Madeleine at the Metropolitan. Victor Herbert and Frances Alda are seated . . . . 184 Archie Gunns conception of Victor Herbert . . . 185 Page from the manuscript of A Suite of Serenades, Victor Herberts contribution to Paul Whitemans concert of symphonic jazz 200 Autographed title page of Herberts Suite Roman tique. The quotation is the love theme from Hero and Leander 201 VICTOR HERBERT VICTOR HERBERT ONE autumn night in the eighties a young Irishman of twenty-seven, who had passed most of his life in Germany, took his place in the orchestra pit of the Metropolitan Opera House to play the cello. His name was Victor Herbert. He had just arrived in New York, and from his obscure seat he looked around curiously at the mass of faces glowing weirdly in the vast, dim auditorium. He felt a symbolic force in the crowding immensity of the place, in the numerous dazzling points of light that leaped back from the precious stones on the hands and breasts of the women who sat in the two great curving tiers of boxes. What future was he to have in this land The conductor emerged from the depths beneath the stage to his eminence on the podium. Applause rolled over the heads of the musicians below him. He raised his baton and the opera began. Twenty-five years later, the same immigrant heard from the stage of the same theater the performance of an opera he himself had written. Similar rolls of applause came from the audience, but this time not to CO VICTOR HERBERT pass over his head in the pit. The acclaim was for him, a tribute to his artistry. Thus, in the romantic fashion, may be outlined the beginning and the climax of the career of the most popular composer of light opera to be developed in the American theatre. And of one of the most beloved figures who ever made the rounds of Broadway. Dear old Victor spoken with affectionate, wistful recollection, sums up the sentiment of those who knew him It is a recollection that seems more enduring than the seven-year-old lump of stone that seals his tomb in New Yorks Woodlawn Cemetery. While the greatest wish of Herberts life was to be known as a composer of grand opera, and he did write and see produced two such works, that desire was akin to the craving which inspires a comedian to dream of Hamlet. His sphere was the operetta, and he will always be remembered by his legacy of captivating melodies. His character was in true accord with the spirit of his major works. He was happy, deep-laughing, witty, appreciative of both cabbage and caviar, a good friend, a Rabelaisian story-teller. He was one of the last survivors of the citys real Bohemia, a member of Jimmy Hunekers circle, and a man who ardently loved the good things of life and worked with zest to earn them. Apart from his music, Herbert had two great inter VICTOR HERBERT ests in life good living and the cause of Irish independ ence...