Naughty Marietta (operetta)
Encyclopedia
Naughty Marietta is an operetta
Operetta
Operetta is a genre of light opera, light in terms both of music and subject matter. It is also closely related, in English-language works, to forms of musical theatre.-Origins:...

 in two acts, with libretto
Libretto
A libretto is the text used in an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata, or musical. The term "libretto" is also sometimes used to refer to the text of major liturgical works, such as mass, requiem, and sacred cantata, or even the story line of a...

 by Rida Johnson Young
Rida Johnson Young
Rida Johnson Young was an American playwright, songwriter and librettist. In her career, Young wrote over thirty plays and musicals, and over 500 songs. She was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1970...

 and music by Victor Herbert
Victor Herbert
Victor August Herbert was an Irish-born, German-raised American composer, cellist and conductor. Although Herbert enjoyed important careers as a cello soloist and conductor, he is best known for composing many successful operettas that premiered on Broadway from the 1890s to World War I...

. Set in New Orleans in 1780, it tells how Captain Richard Warrington is commissioned to unmask and capture a notorious French pirate calling himself "Bras Priqué" – and how he is helped and hindered by a high-spirited runaway, Contessa Marietta. The score includes many well-known songs, including "Ah! Sweet Mystery of life".

Naughty Marietta had its first performance on October 24, 1910, in Syracuse, New York
Syracuse, New York
Syracuse is a city in and the county seat of Onondaga County, New York, United States, the largest U.S. city with the name "Syracuse", and the fifth most populous city in the state. At the 2010 census, the city population was 145,170, and its metropolitan area had a population of 742,603...

, and opened on Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...

 on November 7, 1910, playing for 136 performances at the New York Theatre
Olympia Theatre (New York)
The Olympia Theatre , also known as Hammerstein's Olympia, was a theatre complex built by impresario Oscar Hammerstein I in Longacre Square , New York City, opening in 1895. It consisted of a theatre, a music hall, a concert hall, and a roof garden...

. It enjoyed revivals in 1929 at Jolson's 59th Street Theatre and in 1931 at Erlanger's Theatre. The operetta became Victor Herbert's greatest success.

A film version of Naughty Marietta was released by MGM in 1935 starring Jeanette MacDonald
Jeanette MacDonald
Jeanette MacDonald was an American singer and actress best remembered for her musical films of the 1930s with Maurice Chevalier and Nelson Eddy...

 and Nelson Eddy
Nelson Eddy
Nelson Ackerman Eddy was an American singer and actor who appeared in 19 musical films during the 1930s and 1940s, as well as in opera and on the concert stage, radio, television, and in nightclubs. A classically trained baritone, he is best remembered for the eight films in which he costarred...

. A television version
Naughty Marietta (television)
Naughty Marietta is a television version of the operetta "Naughty Marietta". The music for the operetta was composed by Victor Herbert. The book and the lyrics were written by Rida Johnson Young....

 of the operetta was broadcast live in the United States on January 15, 1955, starring Patrice Munsel
Patrice Munsel
Patrice Munsel is an American coloratura soprano, the youngest singer who ever starred at the Metropolitan Opera, nicknamed "Princess Pat"....

 and Alfred Drake
Alfred Drake
Alfred Drake was an American actor and singer.-Biography:Born as Alfred Capurro in New York City, the son of parents emigrated from Recco, Genoa, Drake began his Broadway career while still a student at Brooklyn College...

.

Act One

In eighteenth century New Orleans, the townspeople go about their daily business in the Place d'Armes ("Clear Away!") Étienne Grandet, the son of the colony's acting governor, has just returned from a trip to France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

, and the young ladies warn him that the pirate Bras Priqué has been attacking ships bound for New Orleans; the town fountain is supposedly haunted by the ghost of a woman he killed. Étienne, unknown to all but his father and his quadroon
Quadroon
Quadroon, and the associated words octoroon and quintroon are terms that, historically, were applied to define the ancestry of people of mixed-race, generally of African and Caucasian ancestry, but also, within Australia, to those of Aboriginal and Caucasian ancestry...

 slave mistress Adah, is really Bras Priqué. He gives his father a share of the profits from his crimes, and his father keeps his identity secret.

A band of American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 woodsmen, farmers, and Indians, led by Captain Dick Warrington and his lieutenant, Sir Harry Blake, "Tramp, Tramp, Tramp" into town. They vow to capture Bras Priqué and seek the governor's signature on a warrant for his arrest. They also hope to find wives among the casquette girls, who should arrive in New Orleans any day. These French girls have been granted dowries
Dowry
A dowry is the money, goods, or estate that a woman brings forth to the marriage. It contrasts with bride price, which is paid to the bride's parents, and dower, which is property settled on the bride herself by the groom at the time of marriage. The same culture may simultaneously practice both...

 by the King of France and sent to the New Orleans to marry the colonists. Lieutenant Governor Grandet, Étienne's father, refuses to sign the warrant. He knows Étienne has imprisoned the real governor on a Caribbean
Caribbean
The Caribbean is a crescent-shaped group of islands more than 2,000 miles long separating the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, to the west and south, from the Atlantic Ocean, to the east and north...

 island. Étienne seeks to establish Louisiana
Louisiana
Louisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state in the U.S. with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties...

 as a dictatorship under his own command, separate from both France and the burgeoning United States of America.

The Lieutenant Governor oversees the girls' arrival, and the men excitedly introduce themselves ("Taisez-Vous"). A plain-looking girl, Lizette, is ignored by all the men except the boastful Simon O'Hara, Captain Dick's Yiddish servant. After everyone leaves the square, the fragmented song of the "ghost" comes from the fountain ("Ah, Sweet Mystery of Life"). It is not a ghost singing, but an Italian girl who introduces herself as "Naughty Marietta". She was one of the casquette girls, but she ran away from the ship at Mozambique
Mozambique
Mozambique, officially the Republic of Mozambique , is a country in southeastern Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi and Zambia to the northwest, Zimbabwe to the west and Swaziland and South Africa to the southwest...

 and came to New Orleans on her own. Captain Dick, who met her in Mozambique, sees her by the fountain. He agrees to help her hide, but explains that "It Never, Never Can Be Love" between them. He and the Italian puppeteer, Rudolfo, agree that she can disguise herself as Rudolfo's son and work at his marionette
Marionette
A marionette is a puppet controlled from above using wires or strings depending on regional variations. A marionette's puppeteer is called a manipulator. Marionettes are operated with the puppeteer hidden or revealed to an audience by using a vertical or horizontal control bar in different forms...

 theatre. Marietta tells Dick that it has been foretold that she will love the man who can complete the melody she sang at the fountain, which came to her in a dream. She asks him to try to complete it. He refuses, but finds himself whistling it soon afterwards.

Though Lizette ignores Simon, he tries to impress her ("If I Were Anyone Else But Me"). Adah feels that Étienne does not love her anymore and tries to see her future in cards ("'Neath A Southern Moon"). Marietta, disguised as Rudolfo's son, performs an "Italian Street Song" for the townsfolk. The Lieutenant Governor announces that a dispatch has come from the King of France offering 10,000 francs
French franc
The franc was a currency of France. Along with the Spanish peseta, it was also a de facto currency used in Andorra . Between 1360 and 1641, it was the name of coins worth 1 livre tournois and it remained in common parlance as a term for this amount of money...

 for the return of the Contessa d'Altena who exchanged places with her maid and travelled to the colonies as a casquette girl. The Contessa always sings a fragment of a certain tune, and the townspeople recognize it as the ghost's song. Sir Harry Blake, Captain Dick's lieutenant, arrives in the square and accidentally betrays Marietta, noting that she is really a casquette girl disguised as a boy. Étienne insists that Marietta reveal her identity, but she declares that though she is not a boy, she is not the Contessa. Governor Grandet's indecisiveness prevents a fight between Étienne's guards and Dick's men, and Marietta runs off with Rudolfo.

Act Two

Rudolfo teaches Marietta to work the marionettes ("Dance of the Marionettes"), and Étienne asks her to attend the quadroon ball with him, believing that she is the contessa and hoping to marry her ("You Marry a Marionette"). Dick has warned Marietta that the ball is dangerous for a young girl, but she ignores him because she believes that Dick has been flirting with Adah. She agrees to go to the ball, but not as Étienne's partner.

The ball is representative of everything excessive and decadent in New Orleans ("New Orleans, Jeuness Dorée"). The attendees are gaily drinking, gambling, and womanizing ("The Loves of New Orleans"). Lizette is at the ball, still looking for a husband ("The Sweet By-and-By"). Simon has been appointed whipping boy
Whipping boy
A whipping boy was a young boy who was assigned to a young prince and was punished when the prince misbehaved or fell behind in his schooling. Whipping boys were established in the English court during the monarchies of the 15th century and 16th centuries...

 to the Governor's family and has decided to find a better-looking girl than Lizette: he will complete the Contessa's song, and once she is found, she will marry him. Marietta is shocked by the obvious immorality of the ball and asks Étienne to take her home. When Captain Dick arrives, she assumes he intends to see Adah. Though he tells her he has come to protect her, she declares she will "Live for Today" and dance with Étienne. Lizette attempts to spark Simon's jealousy by flirting with the Governor, but Simon ignores her. Étienne proposes to Marietta; a marriage to a contessa would legitimize his plan for a Louisiana republic under his control. She asks what he will do with Adah, and he says he will auction her. Marietta leaves him and finds Dick, who realizes he may be in love with her ("I'm Falling in Love With Someone").

Étienne auctions Adah at the ball, and Dick buys her so she will not be unhappy with an old and ugly master. Marietta jealously agrees to marry Étienne, announcing that she is the lost Contessa d'Altena. The quadroon girls and Marietta leave to prepare for the wedding. Adah remains with Dick, and he sets her free. She gratefully tells him that if he tears Étienne's right sleeve he will reveal Étienne's real identity: Bras Priqué.

Simon revels in the glory of his new job ("It's Pretty Soft for Simon"). Dick tears off Étienne's sleeve and denounces him as the notorious pirate. However, he cannot legally arrest Étienne because Simon, as the family whipping boy, is obligated to take any punishment destined for Grandet family members. The guards carry Simon off and Lizette brokenheartedly follows. Adah tells Marietta about Étienne's true identity, and so she refuses to marry him. The Governor threatens to send her to a convent
Convent
A convent is either a community of priests, religious brothers, religious sisters, or nuns, or the building used by the community, particularly in the Roman Catholic Church and in the Anglican Communion...

 and locks her in a room. She hears a voice outside completing her song, "Ah, Sweet Mystery of Life". It is Dick, and they embrace through the window. Étienne discovers them, but Captain Dick's infantry appears before he can take action. They have freed Simon and have come to arrest Étienne and the rest of the pirates. Étienne relinquishes his claim on Marietta, as Dick and Marietta join together in "Ah, Sweet Mystery of Life". Dick and his men allow the pirates to escape without harm.

Recordings

RCA Victor issued a highlights recording of Naughty Marietta using studio singers and Al Goodman
Al Goodman
Al Goodman was a conductor, songwriter, stage composer, musical director, arranger, and pianist....

's orchestra. The six highlights were issued on Lp by RCA Victor in 1951 but have been unavailable in any format since 1960. Columbia Records
Columbia Records
Columbia Records is an American record label, owned by Japan's Sony Music Entertainment, operating under the Columbia Music Group with Aware Records. It was founded in 1888, evolving from an earlier enterprise, the American Graphophone Company — successor to the Volta Graphophone Company...

 made an album with Nelson Eddy
Nelson Eddy
Nelson Ackerman Eddy was an American singer and actor who appeared in 19 musical films during the 1930s and 1940s, as well as in opera and on the concert stage, radio, television, and in nightclubs. A classically trained baritone, he is best remembered for the eight films in which he costarred...

 and Nadine Connor in 1948, covering eight highlights. This version has not been issued on CD.

A Capitol Records
Capitol Records
Capitol Records is a major United States based record label, formerly located in Los Angeles, but operating in New York City as part of Capitol Music Group. Its former headquarters building, the Capitol Tower, is a major landmark near the corner of Hollywood and Vine...

 album starring Gordon MacRae
Gordon MacRae
Gordon MacRae was an American actor and singer, best known for his appearances in the film versions of two Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals, Oklahoma! and Carousel and films with Doris Day like Starlift.-Early life:Born Albert Gordon MacRae in East Orange, New Jersey, MacRae graduated from...

 was issued as part of a series of recordings based on MacRae's popular Railroad Hour program, which featured potted operettas and musicals. The first release was a 10-inch Lp, which was later reissued on one side of a 12-inch Lp with The Red Mill
The Red Mill
The Red Mill is an operetta written by Victor Herbert, with a libretto by Henry Blossom. It premiered on Broadway on September 24, 1906 at the Knickerbocker Theatre and ran for 274 performances, starring comedians Fred Stone and David Montgomery. It was revived on October 16, 1945, opening at the...

on the reverse. This version was issued on CD in 2008 along with selections from The Red Mill and Sweethearts.

A stereo recording was made by Reader's Digest
Reader's Digest
Reader's Digest is a general interest family magazine, published ten times annually. Formerly based in Chappaqua, New York, its headquarters is now in New York City. It was founded in 1922, by DeWitt Wallace and Lila Bell Wallace...

 for their 1963 album Treasury of Great Operettas. Each of the 18 operettas in the set is condensed to fill one Lp side. These selections were included on Digest's 1993 3-CD set, also called A Treasury of Great Operettas.

Musical numbers

Act I
  • Overture
  • 1. Clear Away! – Opening Chorus
  • 2. Mysterious Melody - Fanchon
  • 3. Tramp, Tramp, Tramp – Captain Dick and Followers
  • 4. Taisez-Vous – Casquette Girls and Men
  • 5. Naughty Marietta – Marietta
  • 6. It Never, Never Can Be Love – Marietta and Captain Dick
  • 7. If I Were Anybody Else But Me – Lizette and Simon
  • 8. 'Neath the Southern Moon – Adah
  • 9. Italian Street Song
    Italian Street Song
    "Italian Street Song" is a popular song written by Victor Herbert and Rida Johnson Young in 1910.The song was written for and introduced in the operetta Naughty Marietta, which originally opened in Syracuse, New York on October 24, 1910....

     – Marietta and Chorus
  • 10. Finale

Act II
  • 11. Dance of The Marionettes – Marietta And Rudolfo
  • 12. You Marry a Marionette – Etienne
  • 13. Intermezzo: Dance – Marietta
  • 14. The Dream Melody (Ah! Sweet Mystery of Life)
  • 15. New Orleans Jeunesse Doree – Chorus of Men
  • 16. Loves of New Orleans – Ensemble
  • 17. The Sweet By and By – Lizette
  • 18. Prelude to live for Today - Orchestra
  • 19. Live For To-Day – Marietta, Adah, Captain Dick and Etienne
  • 20. I'm Falling In Love With Some One – Captain Dick
  • 21. It's Pretty Soft for Simon – Simon
  • 22. Finale

Both the musical and its title song are lampooned by the song "Naughty, Naughty Nancy" in the 1959 musical Little Mary Sunshine
Little Mary Sunshine
Little Mary Sunshine is a musical that parodies old-fashioned operettas and musicals. The book, music, and lyrics are by Rick Besoyan. The musical should not be confused with the 1916 silent film of the same name ....

.

Roles and original cast

  • Captain Richard Warrington – Orville Harrold
    Orville Harrold
    Orville Harrold was an American operatic tenor and musical theatre actor. He began his career in 1906 as a performer in operettas in New York City, and was also seen during his early career in cabaret, musical theatre, and vaudeville performances...

  • Lieutenant Governor Grandet – William Frederic
  • Etienne Grandet, Son of Lieut. Governor – Edward Martindel
    Edward Martindel
    Edward Martindel was an American stage and film actor. He appeared on Broadway and in 89 films between 1915 and 1946....

  • Sir Harry Blake, An Irish Adventurer – Raymond Bloomer
    Raymond Bloomer
    Raymond Bloomer , was an American actor. He appeared in 22 films between 1913 and 1927.-Filmography:-External links:...

  • Simon O'hara, Capt. Dick's Servant – Harry Cooper
  • Rudolfo, Keeper of Marionette Theatre – James S. Murray
  • Florenze, Sec'y to Lieut. Governor – Howard Morgan
  • Lizette, A Casquette Girl – Kate Elinore
  • Adah, A Quadroon – Maria Hellene
  • The Voodoo Queen – Viola Ellis
  • Nanette – Louise Aichel
  • Felice – Blanche Lipton
  • Fanchon – Vera De Rosa
  • Graziella – Sylvia Loti
  • Franchesca – Bessie Rlcardo
  • Night Watchman – Eugene Roder
  • 1st Pirate – W. Mack
  • 2nd Pirate – F. Bonner
  • Indian – H. Reynolds
  • East Indian – Bert Leslie
  • Marietta D'Altena – Emma Trentini
    Emma Trentini
    Emma Trentini was an Italian soprano opera singer who came to the United States in December 1906.-Early life:She was from Mantova, Italy . Her parents were poor and could not afford to give her money to attain an operatic career. At the age of 12 she was welcomed into the church choir of Mantova...


External links

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