1923 | Music
Music
Opera: El Retablo de Maese Pedro 3/23 at Seville's Teatro S. Fernando with music by Manuel de Falla, libretto from Don Quixote by Cervantes; Belfagor 4/26 at Milan's Teatro alla Scala, with music by Ottorino Respighi; The Perfect Fool 5/14 at London's Covent Garden, with music by Gustav Holst.
Ballet: Façade 6/12 at London's Aeolian Hall, with Edith Sitwell reading her poetry, music by English composer William Walton, 21 (see 1931); Les Noces (The Wedding) 6/14 at the Théâtre Gaiété-Lyrique, Paris, with Felicia Dubrovska, music and lyrics by Igor Stravinsky, choreography by Bronislava Nijinska; La Création du Monde 10/25 at the Théâtre des Champs Elysées, Paris, with Jean Borlin, 30, music by Darius Milhaud, choreography by Borlin, scenery, costumes, and curtain by Fernand Léger.
First performances: Symphony No. 6 by Jean Sibelius 2/19 at Helsinki; Symphony No. 1 in E minor (Nordic) by Wahoo, Neb.-born composer Howard (Harold) Hanson, 26, 5/30 at Rome; The Black Maskers suite by Brooklyn, N.Y.-born composer Roger (Huntington) Sessions, 26, 6/23 at Smith College, Northampton, Massachusetts. Sessions has written the incidental music for a performance of the play by Leonid Andreyev; Dance Suite (Tancsuit) for Orchestra by Béla Bartók 11/19 at Budapest.
Stage musicals: Wildflower at New York's Casino Theater, with Edith Day, Guy Robertson, music by Herbert P. Stothart and Vincent Youmans, book and lyrics by Otto Harbach and New York-born lyricist Oscar Hammerstein II, 27, 477 perfs.; André Charlot's revue Rats 2/21 at London's Vaudeville Theatre, with London-born comedienne Gertrude Lawrence (originally Gertrud Alexandra Dagmar Lawrence Klasen), 24, music by Philip Braham, book and lyrics by Ronald Jeans; The Passing Show (revue) 6/14 at New York's Winter Garden Theater, with New York-born vaudeville entertainer George Albert "Georgie" Jessel, 25, music by Sigmund Romberg and Jean Schwartz, book and lyrics by Harold Atteridge, 118 perfs.; George White's Scandals 6/18 at New York's Globe Theater, with music by George Gershwin, lyrics by E. Ray Goetz, B. G. DeSylva, Portland, Ore.-born songwriter Ballard MacDonald, 40, 168 perfs.; Helen of Troy, N. Y. 6/19 at New York's 5-year-old Selwyn Theater, with Helen Ford, music and lyrics by Bert Kalmar and Harry Ruby, book by George S. Kaufman and Marc Connelly for a show mounted by California-born producer Rufus LeMaire, 27, 191 perfs.; Little Jesse James 8/15 at New York's Longacre Theater (to Little Theater, 1/28/1925), with John Boles, Syracuse-born dancer Claire Luce, 19 (who was born on a train passing through Syracuse), Bainbridge, Ga.-born ingénue Miriam Hopkins, 20, music by Iowa-born composer Harry Archer, 37, book and lyrics by Hannibal, Mo.-born writer Harlan Thompson, 33, 385 perfs.; Artists and Models 8/20 at the Shubert Theater, with Frank Fay, seminude showgirls, music by Jean Schwartz, book and lyrics by Harold Atteridge, 312 perfs.; André Charlot's revue London Calling 9/4 at the Duke of York's Theatre, London, with Noël Coward, Gertrude Lawrence, London-born comedienne-dancer Jessie Matthews, 16, music and lyrics mostly by Coward, songs that include "You Were Meant for Me" by Eubie Blake, lyrics by Noble Sissle; The Greenwich Village Follies (revue) 9/20 at the Winter Garden Theater, with Allegheny, Pa.-born dancer Martha Graham, 29, music by Louis A. Hirsch and Con Conrad, lyrics by Irving Caesar and John Murray Anderson, 140 perfs.; The Music Box Revue 9/22 at the Music Box Theater, with Tennessee-born soprano Grace Moore, 21, music and lyrics by Irving Berlin, 273 perfs.; Battling Butler 10/8 at the Selwyn Theater, with St. Paul, Minn.-born actor William Kent, 37, Charles Ruggles, music by Walter Rosemont, book adapted by Ballard MacDonald, 288 perfs.; The Ziegfeld Follies 10/20 at the New Amsterdam Theater, with Fanny Brice, Paul Whiteman and his Orchestra, music by Dave Stamper, Rudolf Friml, Victor Herbert, and others, songs that include "Little Old New York" by Victor Herbert, lyrics by Gene Buck, 233 perfs.; Runnin' Wild (revue) 10/29 at the Colonial Theater, with an all-black cast, title song by A. Harrington Gibbs, lyrics by Joe Grey and Leo Wood, "Charleston" by Cecil Mack (Richard C. McPherson), 40, and Jimmy Johnson, 29, whose song launches a national dance craze, 213 perfs.; Stepping Stones 11/6 at New York's Globe Theater, with Fred Stone, Jack Whiting, music by Jerome Kern, book by Anne Caldwell and R. H. Burnside, lyrics by Caldwell, 281 perfs.; Topics of 1923 (revue) 11/20 at the Broadhurst Theater, with Fay Marbe, Harry McNaughton, music by Jean Schwartz and Alfred Goodman, lyrics by Harold Atteridge, 143 perfs.; Mary Jane McKane 12/25 at the new Imperial Theater at 239 West 45th Street, with New York-born ingénue Kitty Kelly, 21, music by Herbert P. Stothart and Vincent Youmans, book by William Cary Duncan and Oscar Hammerstein II, 151 perfs.; Kid Boots 12/31 at the Earl Carroll Theater, with Eddie Cantor, Mary Eaton, Robert Barrat, book by Chicago-born writer William Anthony McGuire, 42, music by Harry Tierney, lyrics by Joseph McCarthy, songs that include "Polly Put the Kettle On," 479 perfs.; The Song and Dance Man 12/31 at the George M. Cohan Theater, with Cohan, Robert Cummings, music and lyrics by Cohan, songs that include "Born and Bred in Brooklyn," 96 perfs.
Popular songs: "Yes, We Have No Bananas" by Frank Silver and Irving Conn; "Nobody's Sweetheart" by Gus Kahn, Ernie Erdman, Billie Meyers, Elmer Schwebel; "Who's Sorry Now?" by Ted Snyder, lyrics by Bert Kalmar, Harry Ruby; "I Cried for You" by Gus Arnheim and Abe Lyman, lyrics by Arthur Freed; "Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out" by Jimmy Cox; "Barney Google" and "You Gotta See Mamma Ev'ry Night, Or You Can't See Mamma At All" by Con Conrad and New York songwriter Billy Rose (originally William Samuel Rosenberg), 23; "Mexicali Rose" by Jack B. Tenny, lyrics by Helen Stone; "It Ain't Gonna Rain No Mo"' by Wendell Woods Hall, 27, who has adapted an old folk song; "Down Hearted Blues" by Memphis-born blues singer Alberta Hunter, 24, lyrics by Lovie Austin (Philadelphia blues singer Bessie Smith, 23, records the song, which has sales of 2 million copies); blues singer Gertrude "Ma" Rainey (née Pridgett), 37, cuts her first recordings, including some songs whose lyrics she has written herself, others with lyrics by the Rev. Thomas A. Dorsey, and begins to gain a following among Northern blacks (she and her husband, Will "Pa" Rainey, have toured the South with minstrel troupes for nearly 20 years); jazz pianist Jelly Roll Morton and his Red Hot Peppers record "Grandpa's Spells," "Kansas City Stomp," "New Orleans Joys," "The Pearls," and "Wolverine Blues."
Dance marathons become a U.S. craze. A Cleveland girl dances for more than 50 hours, wearing out five male partners and losing 24 pounds (from 113 pounds to 89) while her ankles swell to twice their original size. Baltimore police stop a marathon after 53 hours.