1926 - Music

Music

Opera: Judith (drama with music) 2/13 at Monte Carlo, with music by Arthur Honegger; Missouri-born soprano Marian Talley, 19, makes her Metropolitan Opera debut 2/17 singing in the 1851 Verdi opera Rigoletto; Lauritz Melchior makes his Metropolitan Opera debut singing the title role in the 1845 Wagner opera Tannhaüser and will be Met regular until 1950; Turandot 4/25 at Milan's Teatro alla Scala, with music by the late Giacomo Puccini; Italian bass Ezio (originally Fortunio) Pinza, 34, makes his Metropolitan Opera debut 11/1 as Pontifex Maximus in the 1807 Spontini opera La Vestale.

Ballet: Martha Graham makes her first solo appearance 4/18 at New York's 48th Street Theater. Now 31, Graham studied at Los Angeles with Ruth St. Denis, now 49, and Ted Shawn, now 35; she performed as lead dancer in the ballet Xochitl in 1920, joined the Greenwich Village Follies in 1923, will form her own dance troupe, and will improvise a highly individual choreography. Graham will continue dancing until 1970; The Miraculous Mandarin 11/27 at Cologne, with music by Béla Bartók.

First performances: Symphony No. 7 in C major by Jean Sibelius 4/3 at Philadelphia's Orchestra Hall; Symphony No. 1 by Soviet composer Dmitri Shostakovich, 19, 5/12 at Moscow (the student's diploma piece); Ballet Mécanique by New Jersey-born composer George Antheil, 26, 6/19 at Paris (dedicated to modern technology, the work is scored for instruments that include 16 player pianos and an airplane engine); Portsmouth Point Overture by William Walton 6/22 at Zürich's Tonhalle; Concerto for Harpsichord, Flute, Oboe, Clarinet, Violin, and Cello by Manuel de Falla 11/5 at Barcelona with harpsichordist Wanda Landowska, now 47.

Broadway musicals: The Girl Friend 3/17 at the Vanderbilt Theater, with music by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Lorenz Hart, songs that include "The Blue Room," "The Simple Life," "Why Do I," 301 perfs.; The Garrick Gaieties 5/10 at the Garrick Theater, with Sterling Holloway, Romney Brent, music by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Lorenz Hart, songs that include "Mountain Greenery," 174 perfs.; George White's Scandals 6/14 at the Apollo Theater, with Ann Pennington introducing the Black Bottom dance step that will rival the Charleston, costumes by Erté, songs that include "The Birth of the Blues" by Ray Henderson, lyrics by B. G. DeSylva and Lew Brown, 424 perfs.; Ziegfeld's Revue "No Foolin'" 6/24 at the Globe Theater, with Claire Luce, Moran and Mack, James Barton, New Orleans-born ingénue Peggy Fears, 23, music by Rudolf Friml, lyrics by Gene Buck, Irving Caesar, and James Hanley, 108 perfs.; Countess Maritza 9/18 at the Shubert Theater, with Yvonne D'Arle, Florence Edney, book and lyrics by Harry B. Smith, music by Emmerich Kálmán, 318 perfs.; Honeymoon Lane 9/20 at the Knickerbocker Theater, with Eddie Dowling, Pauline Mason, Kate Smith, music by James F. Hanley, lyrics by Dowling, songs that include "The Little White House (At the End of Honeymoon Lane)," 317 perfs.; Criss Cross 10/12 at the Globe Theater, with Fred Stone, music by Jerome Kern, book and lyrics by Anne Caldwell and Otto Harbach, 206 perfs.; Oh, Kay 11/8 at the Imperial Theater, with Gertrude Lawrence, music by George Gershwin, songs that include "Do, Do, Do" and "Someone to Watch over Me" with lyrics by Ira Gershwin, "Heaven on Earth" and the title song with lyrics by Ira Gershwin and Howard Dietz, 256 perfs.; Gay Paree (revue) 11/9 at the Winter Garden Theater, with Jack Haley, Charles "Chic" Sale, music and lyrics by Alberta Nichols and Mann Holiner, book by Harold Atteridge, 175 perfs.; Twinkle, Twinkle 11/16 at the Liberty Theater, with comedian Joe E. Brown, Ona Munson, now 20, music by Harry Archer, 167 perfs.; The Desert Song 11/30 at the Casino Theater, with Vivienne Segal, Robert Halliday, music by Sigmund Romberg, lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II and Otto Harbach, songs that include "Blue Heaven" and "One Alone," 471 perfs.; Peggy-Ann 12/27 at the Vanderbilt Theater, with Helen Ford, music by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Lorenz Hart, songs that include "Where's that Rainbow?" 333 perfs.; Betsy 12/28 at the New Amsterdam Theater, with Al Shean, Belle Baker, music by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Lorenz Hart, songs that include "Blue Skies" by Irving Berlin (who eloped in January with New York society girl Ellin Mackay, 22, daughter of Postal Telegraph president Clarence Mackay), 39 perfs.

Playwright-lyricist George V. Hobart dies at Cumberland, Md., January 31 at age 59.

Josephine Baker opens her own Paris nightclub at age 20, having risen to fame in La Revue Nigre and starred at the Folies Bergère in a G-string ornamented with bananas. The U.S. émigrée darling of European café society will begin a professional singing career in 1930, be naturalized as a French citizen in 1937, and continue performing until shortly before her death in 1974.

Egyptian singer (Ibrahim) Umm Kulthum (originally Ibrahim Oum Koulsoum or Ibrahim Um Kalthum), 22, gives her first successful Cairo concert, launching a career that will make her known as the "mother of Middle Eastern music." She began by performing with her father at weddings and other special events in villages and towns of the eastern delta, has been influenced by the poet Ahmad Rami, and will sing more than 250 of his songs (see 1934).

Popular songs: "Muskrat Ramble" by New Orleans jazz cornetist Edward "Kid" Ory (lyrics will be added in 1937); Jelly Roll Morton and his Red Hot Peppers record "Fat Meat and Greens," "King Porter Stomp," "Sweetheart of Mine," "Midnight Mama," and a piano roll of "Dead Man Blues"; "Baby Face" by Benny Davis and Harry Akst; "What Can I Say After I've Said I'm Sorry?" by Walter Donaldson and bandleader Abe Lyman; "Charmaine" by Hungarian-born U.S. composer Erno Rapee, 35, lyrics by Lew Pollack; "'Gimme' a Little Kiss, Will 'Ya' Huh?" by Roy Turk, Jack Smith, and Maceo Pinkard; "Bye Bye Blackbird" by Ray Henderson, lyrics by Mort Dixon; "If I Could Be with You One Hour Tonight" by Henry Creamer and Jimmy Johnson; "In a Little Spanish Town" by Mabel Wayne, lyrics by Sam M. Lewis and Joe Young; "When the Red, Red Robin Comes Bob, Bob, Bobbin' Along" by U.S. composer-lyricist Harry MacGregor Woods, 30; "If You See My Savior, Tell Him That You Saw Me" by gospel pioneer Thomas A. Dorsey. Bessie Smith records "Baby Doll."