1919 - Music

Music

Ballet: The Three-Cornered Hat 7/22 at London's Alhambra Theatre, with Leonide Massine of the Ballets Russes as the Miller, Tamara Karsavina as the Miller's wife, music by Manuel de Falla, choreography by Massine.

Opera: Die Frau ohne Schatten 10/10 at Vienna's Opernhaus, with Maria Jeritza singing the role of the empress, German soprano Lotte Lehmann, 31, the role of the Dyer's Wife, music by Richard Strauss, libretto by Hugo von Hoffmansthal.

The St. Louis Municipal Opera opens its first season with a performance of the light opera Robin Hood.

Impresario Oscar Hammerstein dies at New York August 1 at age 73; composer Ruggiero Leoncavallo at Montecatini August 9 at age 61, having written 20 operas; coloratura soprano Adelina Patti at Brecknock, Wales, September 27 at age 76.

The Los Angeles Philharmonic gives its first performance October 24 under the direction of conductor Walter Henry Rothwell, whom founder Andrews Clark Jr. has recruited from the St. Paul, Minnesota, Symphony Orchestra. A crowd of 2,400 attends the concert at Trinity Auditorium downtown (see Hollywood Bowl, 1922).

George V knights Scottish music hall favorite Harry Lauder for his recruitment efforts in the Great War. Now 48, Sir Harry lost his only son in the war.

Theatrical designer Erté goes to work for the Folies Bergère at Paris (see everyday life [Poiret], 1913). Now 36, he will continue until 1930 to structure lavish opening tableaux, finale scenes, and costumes for the French theater.

Stage musicals: The Velvet Lady 2/3 at the New Amsterdam Theater, with Jed Prouty, Eddie Dowling, music by Victor Herbert, lyrics by Henry Blossom, 136 perfs.; Monte Cristo, Jr. 2/12 at New York's Winter Garden Theater, with South Dakota-born comedian Charles "Chic" Sale, 33, music by Sigmund Romberg and Jean Schwarz, book and lyrics by Harold Atteridge, 254 perfs.; The Royal Vagagond 2/17 at New York's Cohan and Harris Theatre, with Dorothy Dickson, music by Anselm Goetzl, additional numbers by George M. Cohan, 208 perfs.; The Whirl of Society 3/5 at the Winter Garden Theater, with Al Jolson, George White, Blossom Seeley (who runs up and down the aisles via a runway across the pit that also gives audiences a closer look at the chorus girls), music by Louis A. Hirsch, lyrics by Harold Atteridge, 136 perfs.; (George White's) Scandals 6/2 at the Liberty Theater, with White, "dimple-kneed" Ann Pennington, Portland, Ore.-born ingénue Ona Munson (originally Owena Wolcott), 12, music by Richard Whiting, book and lyrics by White, Arthur Jackson, 128 perfs.; The Ziegfeld Follies 6/16 at the New Amsterdam Theater, with Marilyn Miller, Eddie Cantor, Eddie Dowling, Van and Schenck, music and lyrics by Irving Berlin, Dave Stamper, Gene Buck, songs that include "A Pretty Girl Is Like a Melody" by Berlin whose song will be the Follies theme, 171 perfs.; Happy Days (extravaganza) 8/23 at New York's Hippodrome, with book by R. H. Burnside, 452 perfs.; Who's Hooper? 9/13 at London's Adelphi Theatre, with Ivor Novello, music by Clifford Grey, lyrics by Fred Thompson; The Ziegfeld Midnight Frolic 10/2 at the New Amsterdam Roof, with Fanny Brice, Ohio-born comedian Ted Lewis, 28, Will Rogers, W. C. Fields, Chic Sale, music and lyrics chiefly by Dave Stamper and Gene Buck, songs that include "Rose of Washington Square" by James F. Hanley, lyrics by Ballard MacDonald; Apple Blossoms 10/7 at New York's Globe Theater, with Fred and Adele Astaire, music by Austrian-born violinist Fritz Kreisler, 44, and Hungarian-born composer Victor Jacobi, 35, book and lyrics by William Le Baron, songs that include "I'm in Love," "Who Can Tell," 256 perfs.; The Passing Show (revue) 10/23 at the Winter Garden Theater, with Charles Winninger, James Barton, Reginald Denny, music chiefly by Sigmund Romberg, lyrics chiefly by Harold Atteridge, 280 perfs.; Buddies 10/26 at the Selwyn Theater, with Peggy Wood, Roland Young, music and lyrics by B. C. Hilliam, 259 perfs.; Irene 11/18 at the Vanderbilt Theater, with Edith Day, Virginia City, Nev.-born actor Hobart Cavanaugh, 33, book by James Montgomery, music by Harry Tierney, lyrics by Joseph McCarthy, songs that include "In My Sweet Little Alice Blue Gown," 670 perfs.

Composer-lyricist Manuel Klein of Hippodrome extravaganza fame dies at Yonkers, N.Y., June 1 at age 42; Effie Ellsler at Nutley, N.J., December 12 at age 97.

Popular songs: "Swanee" by composer George Gershwin, lyrics by Irving Caesar (Al Jolson will record the number early next year); "Dardanella" by Felix Bernard, 22, and Johnny Black, lyrics by Fred Fisher; "How 'Ya Gonna Keep 'Em Down on the Farm? (After They've Seen Pa-ree)" by Walter Donaldson, lyrics by Sam M. Lewis and Joe Young; "Oh, What a Pal Was Mary" by Pete Wendling, lyrics by Edgar Leslie and Bert Kalmar; "Cielito Lindo" ("Beautiful Heaven") by Mexican composer Quirino Mendoza y Cortez; "The World Is Waiting for the Sunrise" by English composer Ernest Seitz, lyrics by Eugene Lockhart; "Let the Rest of the World Go By" by Ernest R. Ball, lyrics by J. Keirn Brennan.

The Gibson Mandolin-Guitar Manufacturing Co. at Kalamazoo, Mich., hires mandolinist Lloyd Loar, who will change the appearance of the instruments made by the late Orville Gibson (see 1903). In place of the standard round or oval sound holes, Loar will develop the first U.S.-made f-shaped sound holes. The Gibson company will become Original Acoustic Instruments, Inc., and it will diversify into banjos, ukeleles, and electric guitars.

Georgia-born Chicago pianist Thomas A. (Andrew) Dorsey, 20, writes what he calls the first "gospel" songs, merging blues with religious music. Dorsey is a preacher's son, and although churches reject his creations as being too lively and irreverent he will persevere.

New York's Roseland Ballroom opens December 31 at 1658 Broadway (51st Street), where it will remain (one flight up) until 1956, when it will move to 239 West 52nd Street. Proprietor Louis J. Brecker, 21, opened a Philadelphia Roseland 3 years ago while attending the Wharton School; he has moved to New York to escape Philadelphia's blue laws.