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Dream City and The Magic Knight, with book and lyrics by Edgar Smith and music by Victor Herbert was first produced at Weber's Music Hall, New York, on 25 December 1906.
Dream City is set in "the immediate future according to current real estate advertisements." J. Billington Holmes, a fast talking promoter, convinces Wilhelm Dinglebender that his farm at Malaria Center, Long Island, will make the perfect site for an elaborate housing development. In a dream Dinglebender visualizes the fabulous new town and attends a performance at its new opera house.
The opera is The Magic Knight, a burlesque of Wagner's Lohengrin.
Dramatis Personæ
Dream City
|
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| J. BILKINGTON HOLMES (A Real Estate "boomer" with the plans of an ideal city) | Otis Harlan | ||||||
| SETH HUBBS (Village Hackman and the oracle of Malaria Center) | Will T. Hodge |
| HENRI D'ABSINTHE (An Artist in search of "Atmosphere") | Maurice Farkoa |
|
HENRY PECK (A City flat-dweller, spending the week-end with his family in the country) |
W. L. Romaine |
| WILLIE PECK (His restless offspring) | Lores Grimm |
| OLD MAN PLATT (A relic) | Major Johnson |
|
JOE SNEDIKER HANK SCUDDER HEN CONKLIN |
} } } |
(Village "Romeos") |
{ { { |
W. D. Stevenson Ernest Wood W. J. McCormack |
| BIG BILL HANKINS (A Farm Hand) | Will Lodella | ||
| TUFFIE (An incubator chicken) | David Abrams | ||
| NANCY (Dinglebender's daughter and the belle of the Malaria Center) | Cecilia Loftus | ||
| MARIA DINGLEBENDER (His wife, with energy enough for two, and a "bossy" disposition) | Lillian Lee | ||
|
|||
| MRS. HENRY PECK (With alleged society connections in the Metropolis) | Cora Tracy | ||
|
MABEL MAUDE GLADYS |
} } } |
(Her daughters) |
{ { { |
Billy Norton Lois Ewell Lillian De Lee |
| SARAH SMITH (A Villager) | Ella Tate |
The Magic Knight
| ELSA (A typical grand operatic maiden in the usual distressing predicament) | Lillian Blauvelt |
| ORTRUD (Her contralto aunt, given to dabbling in the art of magic) | Cora Tracy |
| FREDERICK (Her hen-pecked uncle) | Otis Harlan |
| THE KING (A base monarch) | Frank Belcher |
| LOHENGRIN (A professional rescuer of distressed maidens) | Maurice Farkoa |
| THE HERALD (A mediaeval news announcer) | W. L. Romaine |
|
THE SWAN GODFREY |
} } |
(An item in a foul conspiracy) | Lores Grimm |
|
LASTNITE TUNITE TUMARONITE |
} } } |
(Three Knights) |
{ { { |
Billy Norton Lois Ewell Lillian De Lee |
ACT I - The Dinglebender Farm at Malaria Center, Long Island.
- No. 1 - Chorus - "Oh, the heat! And the 'skeet! There is naught here to delight us. We're afraid, in the shade, that the cows will come and bite us.."
- No. 2 - Shady Lane Sextette - "Peachy and pearly, sweet city girlie, if you have no other beau, may I be your Romeo? ..."
- No. 3 - Duett - Hubbs and Amanda - "He was a rooster, chesty and haughty, wise to the world, blasé ... She was a bantam, giddy and naughty..."
- No. 4 - Song - Dinglebender and Chorus - "I'm not stuck to be a farmer, for I've loafed hard my life, and all I have ever saved up is a mortgage and a wife..."
- No. 5 - Song - Holmes and Chorus - "Will you step right up and buy a home in Dream-town? Just at present it is nothing but a map..."
- No. 6 - Song - Nancy - "When a little maid suburban, all unused to manners urban, spends a week in New York town..."
- No. 7 - Song - Henri D'Absinthe - "The maiden of my fancy is so divinely fair, the sunbeams love to linger, to nestle in her hair..."
- No. 8 - Finale Act I - "March away, yes, march away; we gaily march with a rum-tiddy tum, tiddy tum, tra-ra. Dream-town gay awakes today..."
ACT II - The Principal Square in Dream City.
- Nos. 9 & 10 - Entr'acte and Chorus - "You may rave over London, Vienna, Paree, but no town in the world equals this..."
- No. 11 - Song - D'Absinthe - "It is nice to make love in most any old clime to a maid by the moon-lit sea..."
- No. 12 - Song - Amanda and Chorus - "Before we got our money and Seth became a dude, he never thought it funny the way I took my food..."
- No. 13 - Song - Nancy and Girls - "The moon am shinin' on de bayou tonight, come out mah lady, stickin' in de cabin ain't treatin' me right..."
- No. 14 - Chorus and Ensemble - "Bound for the opera, here come the quality, dressed in their plumage so fine..."
- No. 15 - Duet and Dance - Nancy and Holmes - "In that olla podrida called Vaudeville, some things could be spared with small loss..."
- No. 16 - Finale Act II - "Pretty little Nancy, you are just my fancy, you're the girl for me..."
ACT III - "The Magic Knight" - an opera performed in the Dream City's opera house.
- No. 1 - Prelude
- No. 2 - Opening Scene - "At the gath'ring here assembled, great composers' hearts have trembled, and librettists have grown prematurely old..."
- No. 3 - Song and Cadenzas - Elsa, King and Ensemble - "A modest operatic maiden I, with downcast eyes of heav'nly blue..."
- No. 4 - Song - Elsa, King and Ensemble - "In strenuous grand op'ra moment like this, when my last hope is pinned to a fairy..."
- No. 5 - Ensemble and Chorus - "A fairy boat upon the tide appears to float with man inside, a noble knight on rescue bent..."
- Nos. 6 & 7 - Song - Lohengrin, Ensemble and Finale - "A knight am I, of noble mien, who owes his birth to magic, a pampered pet and very debonair..."
MIDI files
- External Links
- Vocal Score at the ISMLP
- The Magic Knight at Wikipedia
Page modified 20 November 2016