The Student Prince is all about (privileged young men) rejoicing while they're young. "Gaudeamus igitur?" Nothing there about learning! Here's Mario Lanza singing it in the sound track. Your Latin's not up to it? Translation here.
Sigmund Romberg (born 1887 in Austria-Hungary, educated in Vienna, was a violinist and organist by 1909 when he headed for New York. He worked in a pencil factory for seven dollars a week, finding jobs as a pianist in cafes. In 1912 (only 25) he formed his own European salon and light music orchestra, and "started the practice, then rare, of playing music for dancing." He was being noticed by Broadway producers. More here.
By 1917, (now 31) Romberg had composed 275 numbers for seventeen musicals and revues. That year, he had his first great success with Maytime - (coming up in our course next week!) A few operettas, and five years later, came The Student Prince, 1924. (In 1954, at last, came the film.)
Romberg was still only 37 when he teamed with Oscar Hammerstein II - for The Desert Song in 1926, and New Moon in 1928. Rosalie followed in 1928, (it was co-written with George Gershwin, and with lyrics by Ira Gershwin and P.G. Wodehouse). According to this bio, "Romberg continued to compose music for operettas after 1930, however none met with favor, for the vogue for operettas or Broadway had been eclipsed by musical comedy." In 1945 at the end of another war, he premiered a final Broadway show, written with Victor Herbert [remember Naughty Marietta, 1935?]
The Student Prince
Student Prince - like Marietta - is another interwar romance all about youth vs crusty old age and the crustier European aristocratic class system, another American love story about far away Europe. The composer is again European; European composers - Victor Herbert, Rudolf Friml, and Sigmund Romberg - were leading operetta to the musical. According to this commentary, they "brought a form of operetta to the United States that was, in every sense, the generic source for musical comedy; it was sentimental and melodious and established a tradition of the play based on musical numbers and songs. Romberg’s works, such as The Student Prince (1924) and The Desert Song (1926), were also made into successful motion pictures."
The lovelorn aristocrat here is prince (Karl) of a mythical European kingdom who (like Marietta - and the real king in Gondoliers!) had been pledged in infancy to marry an unknown fellow-aristocrat. The book and lyrics (these operettas always had a book) are by Dorothy Donnelly, an actress and singer who'd turned to being a playwright and authored an amazing array of very successful songs. It is based on Wilhelm Meyer-Förster's play Old Heidelberg.
It glamorized the life of old Heidelberg, with an emphasis on the free and good life for young unattached men (and challenges for a young aristocratic prince.) "Drink! Drink! Drink!" and the hilarity of alcoholic overindulgence went down, so to speak, well in 1924, with United States under Prohibition. As in all operettas where the lead was pledged as an infant, Karl of course falls in love with someone else, and someone "beneath" his status. If this were G&S, it would turn out that Kathy, the innkeeper's daughter is actually the princess pledged as an infant to Karl (as explained by the nurse who got them mixed up). But it isn't.
The man behind the voice
And the new world of motion pictures strongly influenced the presentation of these works that we now know. MGM features in the story of the film of Student Prince, In popular recall, it was Mario Lanza's story. "During production, original star Mario Lanza left the project before principal photography, necessitating his last-minute replacement by the lesser-known Purdom. Because of the contractual agreement between Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Lanza, songs that Lanza had recorded were dubbed over Purdom's voice." Thus for non-singer Edmund Purdom, as the Guardian wrote, "the best known of his films, The Student Prince (1954), is remembered more for the star who wasn't in it."
Why did Lanza leave the film? Various versions of this drama are recounted - a disagreement over recordings, the star's alcohol and weight problems... but the result was a film with all songs dubbed to the voice of the star who didn't appear.
Mario Lanza died, at 38, 5 years after that film. For his massive popular following, it remains a tragedy.
Go here for a recording of all those Student Prince songs , with the film clips with Purdom, and the man behind the voice hovering in the background.
Lyn, 4/9/24
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