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"The Student Prince"
This article is about the operetta by Sigmund Romberg. For other uses, see Student Prince


The Student Prince is an operetta with music by Sigmund Romberg and book and lyrics by Dorothy Donnelly. It is based on Wilhelm Meyer-Förster's play Alt Heidelberg. The show was the most successful of Romberg's works, running for 608 performances. It opened on December 2, 1924, at Jolson's 59th Street Theatre on Broadway. Ernst Lubitsch made a famous silent film of the operetta titled The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg and starring Ramon Novarro and Norma Shearer. The stage work was revived twice on Broadway - once in the 1930s and again the 1940s.

The Student Prince has elements of melodrama but has a definite lack of the swashbuckling common to Romberg's other works. The plot is mostly faithful to its "Alt Heidelberg" source.

The operetta contains some of the most beautiful, yet gruelling, tenor arias in the operetta repertoire. Mario Lanza made many of the songs famous all over again with his singing on the soundtrack of the 1954 MGM film The Student Prince. Composer Nicholas Brodszky and lyricist Paul Francis Webster wrote three new songs for the film. Two of these songs — "I'll Walk With God" and "Beloved" — became closely associated with the tenor. Although Lanza's voice was heard in the film, he did not play the Prince on screen. That role went to British actor Edmund Purdom, who lip-synched to the tenor's recordings.

Synopsis

The prince of Karlsberg attempts unsuccessfully to hide his identity at his new school. He soon makes friends and falls in love with his innkeeper's daughter, Kathie. But when Prince Karl's grandfather (the king) dies, he must return to Karlsberg and take up the role of the new king. Ultimately, the new King faces the reality that he must marry royalty, but his true love will always be Kathie.

Principal Songs

  • "Golden Days" (sung in the stage version by Prince Karl and his tutor, Dr. Engel; sung in the 1954 film by the Prince only)
  • "Drinking Song" (Drink! Drink! Drink!)
  • "In Heidelberg Fair"
  • "Deep in My Heart, Dear"
  • "Just We Two" (in the stage version this is sung by two secondary characters; in the 1954 film, it is sung by Prince Karl and Kathie)
  • "To The Inn We're Marching"
  • "Come Boys, Let's All Be Gay Boys"
  • "Serenade" (Overhead the Moon is Beaming)
  • "Thoughts Will Come Back To Me"

Cultural impact

  • "Drink! Drink! Drink!" was used as background music in a recent series of Aquafina commercials.
  • "Drink! Drink! Drink!" was also used as background music for Minute Maid orange juice TV commercials of the late 1960s and early 1970s.

Trivia

In the play Alt Heidelberg, on which the operetta is based, and in the 1927 silent film, the Prince's tutor is named Dr. Juttner. This was changed to Dr. Engel in the stage operetta, but in the 1954 film, the doctor's name was changed back to Juttner.

"Serenade" was arranged as a Euphonium Solo with Concert Band Accompaniment as well as a solo with Piano Accompaniment by David Werden in 2005.

External links

Student Prince may refer to:
  • The Student Prince, an operetta by Sigmund Romberg and Dorothy Donnelly
  • The Student Prince (film), a 1954 MGM film
  • The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg, a 1927 silent film

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Operetta is a genre of light opera, light in terms both of music and subject matter. It is closely related both to opera and also to other forms of lighter musical theatre, and in many cases, it is difficult to assign a musical theatre work to a particular genre.
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Sigmund Romberg, born Romberg Zsigmond (July 29, 1887, Nagykanizsa − November 9, 1951, New York, New York) was an American composer best known for his operettas.
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Wilhelm Meyer-Förster a.k.a. Samar Gregorow (12 June 1862 in Hannover; - 17 March 1934 in Heringsdorf) was a German novelist and playwright.

Biography

The son of a bookseller, he first studied law, then the history of art.
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December 2 is the 1st day of the year (2nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 0 days remaining.

Events

  • 1409 - The University of Leipzig opens.

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20th century - 21st century
1890s  1900s  1910s  - 1920s -  1930s  1940s  1950s
1921 1922 1923 - 1924 - 1925 1926 1927

Year 1924 (MCMXXIV
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Broadway theatre[1] is the most well known form of professional theatre to the American general public and most lucrative for the performers, technicians and others involved in putting on the shows.
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Ernst Lubitsch

Birth name Ernst Lubitsch
Born January 28 1892(1892--)
Berlin, Germany
Died November 30 1947 (aged -45)

Spouse(s) Helene Kraus (1922 - 1930)
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silent film is a motion picture with no synchronized recorded sound, especially spoken dialogue.

The idea of combining motion pictures with recorded sound is nearly as old as the motion picture itself, but because of the technical challenges involved, most films were silent
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All Movie Guide profile
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The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg a.k.a. The Student Prince, and Old Heidelberg, is a Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer 1927 silent film based on a novel by Wilhelm Meyer-Förster.
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Ramón Novarro

Photo by Carl Van Vechten

Birth name José Ramón Gil Samaniego
Born January 6 1899(1899--)
Durango, Durango, Mexico
Died
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Norma Shearer

Norma Shearer in a sitting portrait.
Birth name Edith Norma Shearer
Born July 10 1902(1902--)
Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Died May 12 1983 (aged 82)
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Centuries: 19th century - 20th century - 21st century

1900s 1910s 1920s - 1930s - 1940s 1950s 1960s
1930 1931 1932 1933 1934
1935 1936 1937 1938 1939

- -
- The 1930s
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Centuries: 19th century - 20th century - 21st century

1910s 1920s 1930s - 1940s - 1950s 1960s 1970s
1940 1941 1942 1943 1944
1945 1946 1947 1948 1949

- -
- The 1940s decade ran from 1940 to 1949.
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melodrama" comes from the Greek word for song "melody", combined with "drama". Music is used to increase the emotional response or to suggest characters. There is a tidy structure or formula to melodrama: a villain poses a threat, the hero escapes the threat (or rescues the
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This article or section may contain original research or unverified claims.
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This article has been tagged since September 2007.

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tenor is a singer with a voice range from approximately C3 (one octave below middle C) to A4 (above middle C) in choral music, or up to "tenor C" (C5, one octave above middle C) or higher in operatic music (see voice type).
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aria (Italian for air; plural: arie or arias in common usage) in music was originally any expressive melody, usually, but not always, performed by a singer.
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Mario Lanza (31 January 1921 – 7 October 1959) was an American tenor and Hollywood movie star who enjoyed success in the late 1940s and 1950s. His voice was considered by many to rival that of Enrico Caruso, whom Lanza portrayed in the 1951 film The Great Caruso.
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19th century - 20th century - 21st century
1920s  1930s  1940s  - 1950s -  1960s  1970s  1980s
1951 1952 1953 - 1954 - 1955 1956 1957

Year 1954 (MCMLIV
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IMDb profile
The Student Prince was a popular 1954 Cinemascope color film musical strangely starring, as the credits read, "the singing voice of Mario Lanza". Lanza had become embroiled in a bitter dispute with MGM during production and the studio dismissed him.
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Nicholas Brodzsky (April 20, 1905-December 24, 1958) was a composer of popular songs. He was born in Odessa (now in Ukraine), and died in Hollywood, California.

Brodzsky composed for musical films including Love Me or Leave Me (1955) and The Student Prince (1954).
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Paul Francis Webster (December 20, 1907 – March 18, 1984) was an American lyricist.

Biography

He was born in New York City, the son of Myron Lawrence Webster and Blanche Pauline Stonehill Webster.
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Edmund Purdom

Edmund Purdom and Bella Darvi in The Egyptian

Born November 19 1924 (1924--) (age 84)
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Aquafina is a popular brand of bottled water. It was first distributed in Wichita, Kansas in 1994, and was distributed across the United States, Canada, Turkey and Vietnam by 1997.
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The euphonium is a conical-bore, baritone-voiced brass instrument. It derives its name from the Greek word euphonos, meaning "beautiful-sounding" or "sweet-voiced" (eu means "well" or "good" and phonium means "voice").
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