Friml's "calling"

Synopsis

Imagine a crisp, blue Northern sky, a Canadian Mountie in a bright red tunic, and, what else—an elaborately coiffed operatic soprano singing in the middle of the woods. Yes, it was on today’s date in 1924, at the Imperial Theater in New York, that “The Indian Love Call” made its debut as part of a musical entitled “Rose-Marie,” with tunes provided by an American composer of Bohemian birth named Rudolf Friml.

This one-time Dvorak pupil was born in Prague in 1879. He scored such a hit when he debuted his own Piano Concerto at Carnegie Hall in 1904 that he decided to make America his home. His early years as an American composer were pretty rough, but by 1912, “The Firefly,” his first musical on Broadway, was a great success.

Friml followed this with a string of increasingly popular New York shows. “Rose-Marie” from 1924 and “The Vagabond King” from 1925 proved to be the most lucrative, but by the mid-1930s Friml’s old-world musical style was judged too old-fashioned for the Broadway of George Gershwin and Cole Porter.

Ironically, it was during the 30s that Nelson Eddy and Jeannette MacDonald films based on Friml musicals broke box office records. These campy films are now treasured precisely for their sweet, if rather affected, “period” flavor. Before retirement, Friml worked for the film industry and died in Hollywood in 1972, at the age of 92.

Music Played in Today's Program

Rudolf Friml (1879 – 1972) Indian Love Call, from Rose Marie Nelson Eddy and Jeanette MacDonald, vocalists Pro Arte 491

On This Day

Births

• 1661 - German composer and organist Georg Böhm, in Hohenkirchen (near Ohrdruf), Thuringia;

• 1862 - Dutch composer Alphons Diepenbrock, in Amsterdam;

• 1917 - Brazilian composer and guitarist Laurindo Almeida, in São Paulo;

• 1953 - American composer John Zorn, in New York City;

Deaths

• 1875 - Depressed by the failure of his commercial ventures, violinist and conductor Ureli Corelli Hill, age 73, commits suicide by swallowing morphine in Patterson, New Jersey; Hill had played in the pit orchestra for the first performances of Italian opera in New York City staged by Manuel Garcia in 1825; He conducted the first American performance of Handel's "Messiah" with orchestral accompaniment in 1831; In 1842, he was one of the founding members of the New York Philharmonic, served as its first president, conducted portions of its first concert, and performed with the orchestra until 1873, when he retired due to his age;

• 1996 - American composer Otto Luening, age 96, in New York;

Premieres

• 1924 - Rudolf Friml: operetta, "Rose Marie," to rave reviews, in New York;

• 1960 - Walton: Symphony No. 2 at the Edinburgh Festival by the Royal Liverpool Orchestra conducted by John Pritchard;

• 1966 - Nino Rota: ballet, "La Strada" (The Road) (after his score for the Fellini film), at La Scala in Milan;

• 1972 - Penderecki: Cello Concerto, at the Edinburgh Festival in Scotland;

• 1975 - Kokkonen: opera "The Last Temptations" in Helsinki;

• 1980 - Peter Maxwell Davies: opera "The Lighthouse," in Edinburgh;

• 1992 - Reimann: opera "Das Schloss" (The Castle), after the novel by Franz Kafka, in Berlin at the Deutsche Oper;

Others

• 1773 - The Empress Maria Therese is entertained by Haydn's chamber orchestra at the country estate of Prince Nicholas of Esterhazy. It is possible, but not certain, that Haydn's Symphony No. 48 was performed on this occasion (The symphony known today by the nickname "Maria Therese").