Sigmund Romberg (July 29, 1887 – November 9, 1951)[1] was a Hungarian-born American composer. He is best known for hismusicals andoperettas, particularlyThe Student Prince (1924),The Desert Song (1926) andThe New Moon (1928).
Early in his career, Romberg was employed by theShubert brothers to write music for their musicals andrevues, including several vehicles forAl Jolson. For the Shuberts, he also adapted several European operettas for American audiences, including the successfulMaytime (1917) andBlossom Time (1921). His three hit operettas of the mid-1920s, named above, are in the style of Viennese operetta, but his other works from that time mostly employ the style of American musicals of their eras. He also composed film scores.
Romberg was born in Hungary as Siegmund Rosenberg to a Jewish[2][3] family, Adam and Clara Rosenberg,[4] in Gross-Kanizsa (Hungarian:Nagykanizsa) during theAustro-Hungariankaiserlich und königlich (Imperial and Royal) monarchy period. In 1889 Romberg and his family moved toBelišće, which was then in Hungary,[5] where he attended a primary school. Influenced by his father, Romberg learned to play the violin at six, and piano at eight years of age. He enrolled atOsijekgymnasium in 1897, where he was a member of the high school orchestra.[4] He went to Vienna to study engineering, but he also took composition lessons while living there. In June 1909,he boarded theSSOceanic as a second-class cabin passenger, sailing from the Port of Southampton, England,[citation needed] to the Port of New York.[6] After a brief stint working in a pencil factory in New York,[citation needed] he was employed as a pianist in cafés and restaurants.[3]
He eventually founded his own orchestra and published a few songs, which, despite their limited success, brought him to the attention of theShubert brothers, who in 1914 hired him to write music for theirBroadway theatre shows. That year he wrote his first successful Broadwayrevue,The Whirl of the World. He then contributed songs to several American musical adaptations of Viennese operettas, including the successfulThe Blue Paradise (1915). Even more successful was the musicalMaytime, in 1917. Both involved love across generations and included nostalgic waltzes, along with more modern American dance music.[7] At the same time, Romberg contributed songs to the Shuberts' popular revuesThe Passing Show of 1916 andThe Passing Show of 1918 and to two vehicles forAl Jolson:Robinson Crusoe, Jr. (1916), an extravaganza burlesque on the familiar story, andSinbad (1918), an Arabian Nights-themed musical. Romberg wrote another Jolson vehicle in 1921,Bombo.[8] He wrote the music for the musical comedyPoor Little Ritz Girl, which also had songs byRichard Rodgers.[9] He also wrote the music forLove Birds (1921).
Romberg's adaptation of melodies byFranz Schubert forBlossom Time (1921, produced in the UK asLilac Time) was a great success.[10] He subsequently wrote his best-known operettas,The Student Prince (1924),The Desert Song (1926) andThe New Moon (1928), which are in a style similar to the Viennese operettas ofFranz Lehár.[11] He also wrotePrincess Flavia (1925), an operetta based onThe Prisoner of Zenda. His other works,My Maryland (1927), a successful romance;Rosalie (1928), together withGeorge Gershwin; andMay Wine (1935), with lyrics byOscar Hammerstein II, about a blackmail plot; andUp in Central Park (1945), are closer to the Americanmusical in style.[12] In 1948, he wrote a new score for "My Romance" after the show had folded in try-outs. Romberg also wrote a number offilm scores and adapted his own work for film.[13]
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. becauseSony Music Entertainment, which is a parent company of 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 andJeanette MacDonald, who appeared in an MGM adaptation ofThe New Moon in 1940, regularly recorded and performed his music. There have also been periodic revivals of the operettas.
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, inPaterson, New Jersey.[14] They had no children. Harris was born March 8, 1898, and died April 15, 1967, in New York City.
Romberg died in 1951, aged 64, of astroke at hisRitz Towers Hotel suite in New York City and was interred in theFerncliff Cemetery inHartsdale, New York.
Romberg was the subject of the 1954Stanley Donen-directed filmDeep in My Heart, in which he was portrayed byJosé Ferrer. The film was an adaptation ofElliott Arnold 's 1949 biography of Romberg.[17]
His operettaThe New Moon was the basis for two film adaptations, both titledNew Moon; the1930 version starredLawrence Tibbett andGrace Moore in the main roles, and the1940 version starredJeanette MacDonald andNelson Eddy.
"Softly, as in a Morning Sunrise" and "Lover, Come Back to Me" fromThe New Moon arejazz standards and have been performed by many jazz performers.
Romberg starred inAn Evening with Romberg onNBC June 12, 1945 – August 31, 1948, mostly Tuesdays at 10:30 pm as a summer replacement series forHildegarde'sRaleigh Room (1945) and forThe Red Skelton Show (1947–1948). The program featured three vocalists (Anne Jamison, Reinhold Schmidt,Robert Merrill), a 58-piece orchestra, andFrank Gallop as host/announcer.[18] Music genres included "operatic arias, short symphonic works and overtures to popular songs, light classics, dance music and even a bit of outright jazz."[19]
Since 1970, Belišće organizes musical evenings[20] in Romberg's honor; similar events are held in Osijek since 1995.[4] He was named as one of the meritorious and notable citizens of Osijek.[4] Romberg was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1970.[21]
When Romberg lived there, Belišće was in Hungary
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