Henry Plant's Playlist: The Evolution of French Operetta in America

Produced by University of Tampa faculty from the disciplines of History and Music, this film is part of a larger project on the history of popular entertainment. This unique collaboration between the Henry B. Plant Museum, professional scholars, and performing arts students combines archival research with historically informed performance to recover forgotten artistic works and to examine their significance in Gilded Age America.




SYNOPSIS

In 1867, the New York premiere of Jacques Offenbach’s The Grand Duchess of Gerolstein began the American craze for operetta, meaning light opera that combined songs, dances, and spoken dialogue. The Grand Duchess remained wildly popular in the 1880s, when Edmond Audran scored back-to-back successes with Olivette and The Mascot. Shipping and railroad entrepreneur Henry B. Plant named each of the three steamships he commissioned for one of these famous French operettas, and touring companies continued to perform all three works to packed houses until at least the end of the century.



A scathing satire of European politics, Offenbach’s The Grand Duchess found a receptive audience in the United States. The character of General Boum provided a potent language to attack White House scandals and to express the grievances of white southerners during the period of Congressional Reconstruction (1866-1877). Although many of the conventions of French operetta established by Offenbach remained intact in the last decades of the century, the works of Audran reveal changes that herald the invention of American musical theater. A composer of the Romantic period, Offenbach employed chromaticism – the altering of pitches by half steps – to convey heightened emotions. In contrast, Audran composed memorable, singable melodies that audiences carried with them when they left the theater.



Henry Plant’s Playlist: The Evolution of French Operetta in America recreates songs from The Grand Duchess, Olivette, and The Mascotte, drawing inspiration from actual performances by the Wilbur Opera Company. The popular touring company staged both of Edmond Audran’s comic operas at the Casino of the Tampa Bay Hotel in 1897 and 1898. The film offers the only known recording of “What, She Your Wife,” from Olivette, and the only known English-language recordings of two songs from The Mascotte.

Watch the film Gems from Olivette: The Sexual Politics of French Operetta to learn how the sexually charged plot and lyrics of Audran’s Olivette became part of a culture war in Great Britain and the United States.