William Furst

William Wallace Furst (March 25, 1852 – July 11, 1917) was an American composer of musical theatre pieces and a music director, best remembered for supplying incidental music to theatrical productions on Broadway.

Biography

Furst was born in Baltimore, Maryland. He studied music in Baltimore, and was a church organist at the age of 14.

Career

Furst's comic opera ''Electric Light'' was produced and conducted by him in 1878, and for the five seasons following he received engagements as conductor of opera. By the 1880s, he was composing theatrical music for productions starring Herbert Beerbohm Tree, Maude Adams, Otis Skinner, William Faversham, Viola Allen and Mrs. Leslie Carter. He composed the music for five Shakespeare productions by Margaret Anglin at the Berkeley Stadium in California, as well as her production of ''Electra''."Veteran Composer Wm. Furst Is Dead"
''The New York Times'', July 12, 1917 One of his earliest operettas was ''My Geraldine'' (1880).Albert, Karl
"William Furst" operetta listing
2005

In the late 1880s and early 1890s, Furst was the orchestra director at the Tivoli Theatre in
San Francisco, California. He composed his only opera, ''Theodora'', for the Tivoli. In 1892, he composed the successful operetta ''The Isle of Champagne''. In 1893, he published "The Girl I Left Behind Me" and moved to New York City, becoming the music director at the now-demolished Empire Theater. The same year, he composed the music (along with Charles Alfred Byrne and Louis Harrison) for the musical ''Miss Nicotine'' with Lillian Russell and Marie Dressler Another such Empire piece was ''The Little Trooper'', starring Della Fox (1894) followed by ''The Little Minister'' (1897). In 1898, he composed another such piece for the Empire, ''A Normandy Wedding'' (an adaptation of the French ''Papa Gougon''), which received an enthusiastic reception in New York at the Herald Square Theatre.

By 1900, Furst also had fairly steady work as a composer/arranger of incidental music to accompany theatrical productions. He produced music for, or was music director for numerous plays, including a steady stream of dramas produced by David Belasco and Charles Frohman. Two plays by Belasco which had Furst's musical accompaniments, ''Madame Butterfly'' and '' The Girl of the Golden West'', were made into operas by Giacomo Puccini who attended their New York productions. Musicologist Allan W. Atlas has shown that Puccini modeled some music heard in his opera La fanciulla del West on Furst's music. His last theatrical composition was music for ''Joan the Woman'', starring Geraldine Farrar.

Death

Furst died in 1917 at his home in Freeport, Long Island, New York at the age of 66. An enthusiastic gardener, Furst tripped in his garden, injuring his foot, which led to a brain clot. He was survived by his widow Charlotte and his daughter, Mrs. Lillian Martin.

Works

Musicals and operettas

This list may not be complete.

*1880 ''My Geraldine''
*1892 ''The Isle of Champagne''
*1893 ''Princess Nicotine''
*1894 ''The Little Trooper''

*1895 ''Fleur-De-Lis''
*1897 ''The Little Minister''
*1898 ''A Normandy Wedding''
*1909 ''The White Sister''

Plays with music by Furst

This list may not be complete.

*1888 ''She''
*1891 ''Miss Helyett''
*1895 '' The Heart of Maryland''
*1898 ''Christian''
*1899 ''Sherlock Holmes''
*1899 ''Barbara Frietchie''
*1900 ''A Royal Family''
*1900 ''Adventures of François''
*1900 ''Richard Carvel''
*1900 ''Lost River''
*1900 ''Madame Butterfly''
*1901 ''Brother Officers''
*1901 ''Colorado''
*1901 ''Du Barry''
*1901 ''Quality Street''

*1902 ''Iris''
*1902 ''The Darling of the Gods''
*1904 '' The Music Master''
*1905 ''Adrea''
*1905 '' The Girl of the Golden West''
*1906 ''Pippa Passes''
*1906 ''The Rose of the Rancho''
*1907 ''The Christian Pilgrim''
*1908 ''The World and His Wife''
*1908 ''The Winterfeast''
*1911 ''The Return of Peter Grimm''
*1913 ''Evangeline''

Furst as conductor

Furst served as conductor/music director of many of the works that he composed. In addition, he is known to have conducted the following musicals and operettas:
*1883 ''Green-Room Fun!''
*1893 ''An Artist's Model''
*1900 ''The Rose of Persia''

Film music

*1916 ''The Green Swamp''Information derived fro
https://www.imdb.com

*1916 ''Let Katie Do It''
*1917 ''Joan the Woman''

Legacy

Much of the music composed by William Furst remains unpublished. Since he wrote "for hire," many of his works remained with David Belasco. They now form a part of th
David Belasco Collection of Incidental Music and Musicals
in th
Music Division
o

His work fo
''Madame Butterfly''
an
''The Girl of the Golden West''
have been cataloged separately.

Notes

External links

* ttps://jscholarship.library.jhu.edu/bitstream/handle/1774.2/20452/170.163.000.webimage.JPEG?sequence=9 "Intermezzo Gavin" from ''The Little Minister'' (1897)

{{DEFAULTSORT:Furst, William
1852 births
1917 deaths
American musical theatre composers
American male composers
19th-century American composers
19th-century American male musicians
20th-century American composers
20th-century American male musicians
Musicians from Baltimore
Accidental deaths in New York (state)
Accidental deaths from falls