RMMLA: 2005 Coeur d'Alene Convention Program RMMLA: Conference Abstract Display


Staging France on Broadway during the 1920s: Rudolf Friml’s The Vagabond King and The Three Musketeers

To put it simply, Americans were obsessed with French culture during the 1920s. Two Broadway operettas, both with music by Rudolf Friml, capitalized on this phenomenon: The Vagabond King (1925) and The Three Musketeers (1928). The two demonstrate a sophisticated approach to the Broadway musical, where a literary reference, either a writer (Villon) or a work (The Three Musketeers), is the focal point of the production. This paper will contextualize these two operettas within the realm of the Broadway musical in the 1920s as well as in the reception history of French “art” music and culture in the United States.

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