The Wedding Day (opera)
The Wedding Day is a comic opera in three acts with music by Julian Edwards and a libretto by Stanislaus Stange. Prior to a production on Broadway, the work premiered for the grand opening of the newly renovated Wieting Opera House in Syracuse, New York, on September 15, 1896.[1][2] It was staged at The Boston Theatre where it began a two-week run on February 7, 1897.[3] Critic Roland Burke Hennessy of The Illustrated American wrote, "I consider The Wedding Day to be by far the best native comic opera we have had in many a year."[4]
The original production moved to Broadway's Casino Theatre where it opened on April 8, 1897, running for a total of 36 performances.[5] The production was directed by Richard Barker and used sets designed by Ernest Albert and costumes by Caroline Siedle.[6] The cast included Lillian Russell as Lucille D' Herblay, Jefferson De Angelis as Polycop, Della Fox as Rose-Marie, Winfield Blake as Sergeant Sabre, and May Cuthbert as Mille Courcey among others.[6]
The Wedding Day was revived by Henry W. Savage's Boston-based Castle Square Opera Company in 1901 who presented performances of the work on tour to Chicago at The Studebaker in May of that year.[7] The Castle Square cast was led by soprano Gertrude Quinlan.[7]
References
- ^ Fields, p. 113
- ^ Beauchamp, p. 392
- ^ Tompkins & Kilby, p. 456
- ^ Roland Burke Hennessy (December 2, 1898). "The Week's Plays and Players". The Illustrated American: 424.
- ^ Letellier, p. 289
- ^ a b Schwartz & Bowbeer, p. 157
- ^ a b E. E. S. (May 1901). William Smythe Babcock Mathews (ed.). "Things Here and There; Castle Square Opera Company in Chicago". Music. XX (1): 135.
Bibliography
- Beauchamp, William Martin (1908). Past and Present of Syracuse and Onondaga County, New York: From Prehistoric Times to the Beginning of 1908. S. J. Clarke Publishing Company.
- Fields, Armond (2008). Lillian Russell: A Biography of "America's Beauty". McFarland & Company. ISBN 978-0-7864-3868-6.
- Letellier, Robert Ignatius (2015). Operetta: A Sourcebook. Vol. II. Cambridge Scholars Publishing. ISBN 9781443885089.
- Schwartz, Donald R.; Bowbeer, Anne A. (1997). Lillian Russell: A Bio-Bibliography. Bloomsbury Academic. ISBN 9780313277641.
- Tompkins, Eugene; Kilby, Quincy (1908). The History of the Boston Theatre, 1854–1901. Houghton Mifflin.
External links
- Julian Edwards; Stanislaus Stange (1897). The Wedding Day (score). The John Church Company.
- The Wedding Day at the Internet Broadway Database
