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Biography
Sigmund Romberg (July 29, 1887 & ndash; November 9, 1951) was a Hungarian-born American composer , best known for his operetta s.
Biography
Romberg was born as Siegmund Rosenberg to a Jew ish family in Gross-Kanizsa (Hungarian: Nagykanizsa ) during the Austria-Hungary|Austro-Hungarian kaiserlich und königlich ( Imperial and Royal ) monarchy period. He went to Vienna to study engineering, but he also took composition lessons while living there. He moved to the United States in 1909 and, after a brief stint working in a pencil factory, was employed as a pianist in cafés. He eventually founded his own orchestra and published a few songs, which, despite their limited success, brought him to the attention of the Shubert family|Shubert brothers , who in 1914 hired him to write music for their Broadway theatre shows. That year he wrote his first successful Broadway revue , The Whirl of the World .
Romberg's adaptation of melodies by Franz Schubert for Das Dreimäderlhaus|Blossom Time (1921, produced in the UK as Lilac Time ) was a great success. He subsequently wrote his best-known operettas, The Student Prince (1924), The Desert Song (1926) and The New Moon (1928), which are in a style similar to the Viennese operettas of Franz Lehár . He also wrote Rosalie (musical)|Rosalie (1928) together with George Gershwin . His later works, such as Up in Central Park (1945), are closer to the American musical theatre|musical in style, but they were less successful. Romberg also wrote a number of film score s and adapted his own work for film.
Columbia Records asked Romberg to conduct orchestral arrangements of his music (which he had played in concerts) for a series of recordings from 1945 to 1950 that were issued both on 78-rpm and 33-1/3 rpm discs. These performances are now prized by record collectors. Naxos Records digitally remastered the recordings and issued them in the U.K. (They cannot be released in the U.S. because Sony BMG, which acquired Columbia Records, holds the copyright for their American release.) Much of Romberg's music, including extensive excerpts from his operettas, was released on LP during the 1950s and 1960s, especially by Columbia, Capitol, and RCA Victor. Nelson Eddy and Jeanette MacDonald , who appeared in an MGM adaptation of The New Moon in 1940, regularly recorded and performed his music. There have also been periodic revivals of the operettas.
Romberg died in 1951, aged 64, of a stroke at his Ritz Towers Hotel suite in New York City and was interred in the Ferncliff Cemetery in Hartsdale, New York .
Romberg married twice. Little is known about his first wife, Eugenia, who appears on a 1920 federal census form as being Austrian. His second wife was Lillian Harris whom he married on March 28, 1925, in Paterson, New Jersey. They never had any children. Lillian Harris was born March 8, 1898, and died April 15, 1967, in New York City.
Media
Romberg was the subject of the 1954 Stanley Donen -directed film Deep in My Heart (1954 film)|Deep in My Heart , in which he was portrayed by José Ferrer .
His operetta The New Moon was the basis for two film adaptations, both titled New Moon ; the New Moon (1930 film)|1930 version starred Lawrence Tibbett and Grace Moore in the main roles, and the New Moon (1940 film)|1940 version starred Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy .
" Softly, as in a Morning Sunrise " and " Lover, Come Back to Me " from The New Moon are still jazz-blues/soft-jazz classics; the first was performed by many jazz performers, the second is best known by Billie Holiday . Citation needed|date=December 2009
References
reflist
Sources
Kurt Gänzl|Gänzl, Kurt . The Encyclopedia of Musical Theatre (3 Volumes). New York: Schirmer Books, 2001.
Richard Traubner|Traubner, Richard . Operetta: A Theatrical History . Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Company, 1983.
Bordman, Gerald. American Operetta . New York: Oxford University Press, 1981.
Kevin Clarke (music historian)|Clarke, Kevin . "Im Himmel spielt auch schon die Jazzband". Emmerich Kálmán und die transatlantische Operette 1928–1932 . Hamburg: von Bockel Verlag, 2007 (examines the connection between Kálmán's jazz-operettas of the 1920s and Romberg's scores; in German)
External links
IBDB name|id=8686|name=Sigmund Romberg
IMDb name|id=0739146|name=Sigmund Romberg
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pdf? res=F10E13F63A5A127B93C2A8178AD95F458585F9 Sigmund Romberg, Composer, Dies, 64: Victim of Stroke in His Suite at Ritz Towers Obituary published in The New York Times on November 10, 1951
http://musicaltheatreguide.com/composers/romberg/romberg.html List of Romberg's stage works
http://operetta-research-center.org/main.php? task=5& cat=4& sub_cat=15& id=00086 Historical reviews and a biography/worklist by Kurt Gänzl
http://www.naxos.com/person/Sigmund_Romberg_25436/25436.htm Sigmund Romberg profile at Naxos Records
IMSLP|id=Romberg, Sigmund
Sigmund Romberg Persondata| NAME = Romberg, Sigmund | ALTERNATIVE NAMES = | SHORT DESCRIPTION =Hungarian-born American operetta composer | DATE OF BIRTH = July 29, 1887 | PLACE OF BIRTH =Groß-Kanizsa ( Nagykanizsa ) | DATE OF DEATH = November 9, 1951 | PLACE OF DEATH =New York City DEFAULTSORT:Romberg, Sigmund Category:Opera composers Category:American musical theatre composers Category:Hungarian musical theatre composers Category:Songwriters Hall of Fame inductees Category:Hungarian emigrants to the United States Category:Jewish American classical composers Category:Burials at Ferncliff Cemetery Category:1887 births Category:1951 deaths Category:Deaths from cerebral hemorrhage
