SERENADE (FROM THE STUDENT PRINCE)
MARIO LANZA
SONGWRITERS: SIGMUND ROMBERG
& DOROTHY DONELLY
COUNTRY: ITALY
FROM THE BROADWAY
OPERETTA:"THE STUDENT PRINCE" (1924)
ALBUM: STUDENT PRINCE
LABEL: RCA VICTOR RED SEAL
GENRE: OPERETTA
YEAR: 1954
The
Student Prince is na operetta in four acts with music by Sigmund Romberg and book and lyrics by Dorothy
Donnelly. It is based on Wilhelm
Meyer-Förster's play Old
Heidelberg. The piece has elements of melodrama but lacks the swashbuckling style common to Romberg's other works. The plot is mostly faithful to
its source.
It opened
on December 2, 1924, at Jolson's 59th Street Theatre on Broadway.
The show was the
most successful of Romberg's works, running for 608 performances, the
longest-running Broadway show of the 1920s. It was
staged by J. C. Huffman.
Even the classic Show Boat,
the most enduring musical of the 1920s, did not play as long – it ran for 572
performances. "Drinking
Song", with its rousing chorus of "Drink! Drink! Drink!"
was especially popular with theatergoers in 1924, as the United States was in
the midst of Prohibition. The operetta contains the
challenging tenor aria "The
Serenade" ("Overhead the moon is beaming").
Ernst
Lubitsch made a silent film also based on Förster's work, titled The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg,
starring Ramón Novarro and Norma Shearer.
Its orchestral score did not use any of Romberg's score, although it did
include Gaudeamus Igitur.
The operetta was revived twice on Broadway – once in 1931 and again in 1943. Mario Lanza's
performance on the soundtrack of the 1954 MGM film The Student Prince, renewed the popularity
of many of the songs. 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",
as well as "Serenade" – became closely associated with Lanza,
although the role was played on screen by British actor Edmund Purdom,
who mimed to Lanza's recordings. The operetta was revived in the 1970s and
1980s by the Light Opera of Manhattan and in 1988 by New
York City Opera. The operetta has been performed
each summer at the Heidelberg Castle Festival since 1974
Overhead, the moon is beaming
White as blossoms on the bough
Nothing is heard but the song of a bird
Filling
all the air with dreaming
Would my heart but still it's beating
Only you can tell it how, beloved
From your window give me greeting
Hear my eternal vow
Soft in the trees lies the echo of my longing
While all around you my dreams of rapture throng My
soul, my joy, my hope, my fear
Your heart must tell you that I am near
List from above while I pour out my love
For you know through my life you are love'd
Oh, hear my longing cry, oh, love me or I die
Overhead, the moon is beaming
White as blossoms on the bough
Nothing is heard but the song of a bird
Filling all the air with dreaming
Would my heart but still it's beating
Only you can tell it how, beloved
From your window give me greeting
I swear my eternal love
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