thumb|Sheet music cover for "[[Lover, Come Back to Me" from The New Moon (1928)]]

The New Moon is an operetta with music by Sigmund Romberg, lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II and book by Oscar Hammerstein II, Frank Mandel, and Laurence Schwab. The show was the third in a string of Broadway hits for Romberg (after The Student Prince (1924) and The Desert Song (1926)) written in the style of Viennese operetta. Set around the time of the French Revolution, the story centers on a young French aristocrat in disguise, who has fled his country and falls in love with the daughter of a prominent New Orleans planter.

It premiered in Philadelphia in 1927 and played on Broadway in 1928. It spawned a number of revivals and two film adaptations, and it remains popular with light opera companies. The piece turned out to be "Broadway's last hit operetta",

Performance history

The New Moon debuted in Philadelphia on December 22, 1927 at the Chestnut Street Opera House. The tryout was a failure, and the show was extensively revised before another tryout in Cleveland in August 1928 and then moving to New York City. Al Goodman conducted in both Philadelphia and New York.

The operetta opened on Broadway at the Imperial Theatre on September 19, 1928, ran for 519 performances, and closed at the Casino Theatre on December 14, 1929. The production used set designs by Donald Oenslager. The work was produced in London's West End at the Drury Lane Theatre in 1929. Although the piece received international productions and stock revivals lasting into the 1950s, it subsequently disappeared from the repertoire for a few decades. One commentator wrote, "What has kept The New Moon from being as familiar as Naughty Marietta or The Student Prince is perhaps its chronological place at the end of operetta's reign over the musical stage. and was telecast by PBS in 1989. The Light Opera of Manhattan staged the work several times in the 1980s.

City Center Encores! presented a semi-staged revival at New York City Center in March 2003. The Encores production was presented during the run-up to the Iraq War and part of the audience responded with loud applause and cheers to the line "One can be loyal to one's country and yet forswear its leader". and in 1967 by Barbra Streisand, peaking at No. 2 on the Easy Listening chart.

Earl Wrightson and Frances Greer starred in Al Goodman's recording for RCA Victor (LK-1011). Decca made an album in 1953 with Lee Sweetland and Jane Wilson covering six selections from the score, which has been reissued on CD paired with The Desert Song. Gordon MacRae recorded a 10-inch LP for Capitol Records (Capitol H-219) in 1950 with Lucille Norman. It was repackaged as a split release in 1956 on one side of a 12-inch album with Rudolf Friml's The Vagabond King on the reverse, also with Lucille Norman (Capitol T-219). That release was reissued on CD in 2011 by Vintage Music.

Reader's Digest included the operetta in the 1963 collection, A Treasury of Great Operettas, starring Jeanette Scovotti and Peter Palmer and conducted by Lehman Engel. As part of a new series of stereo recordings of classic operettas, Capitol had MacRae and Dorothy Kirsten record three studio cast albums in 1962 and 1963. Their selections from The New Moon (Capitol SW-1966) are available on the EMI CD Music of Sigmund Romberg, along with selections from The Student Prince (Capitol SW-1841), and The Desert Song (Capitol SW-1842).

The Encores! cast recorded the score in 2004, using the original orchestrations, for Ghostlight Records. A reviewer wrote in Playbill that the recording "is eminently enjoyable. ... The New Moon is vibrant, full-bodied and – yes – stouthearted."

References

  • IBDB listing for the original Broadway production
  • Information about the 1940 film at the Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy site
  • NY Times review of the 1986 City Opera production