''Song of Norway'' is an operetta written in 1944 by Robert Wright and George Forrest, adapted from the music of

Edvard Grieg Edvard Hagerup Grieg ( , ; 15 June 18434 September 1907) was a Norwegian composer and pianist. He is widely considered one of the foremost Romantic era composers, and his music is part of the standard classical repertoire worldwide. His use of ...

and the book by Milton Lazarus and Homer Curran. A very loose film adaptation with major changes to both the book and music was released in 1970.

Stage production

''Song of Norway'' was originally developed and presented in Los Angeles by Edwin Lester's

Los Angeles Civic Light Opera The Los Angeles Civic Light Opera (LACLO) was an American theatre/opera company in Los Angeles, California. Founded under the motto "Light Opera in the Grand Opera manner" in 1938 by impresario Edwin Lester, the organization presented fifty seaso ...

in 1944, with essentially the same cast as seen later on Broadway. It was also performed in San Francisco. The show opened at the

Imperial Theatre The Imperial Theatre is a Broadway theater at 249 West 45th Street ( George Abbott Way) in the Theater District of Midtown Manhattan in New York City. Opened in 1923, the Imperial Theatre was designed by Herbert J. Krapp and was constructed ...

in New York on August 21, 1944, and ran for 860 performances. Charles K. Freeman directed while George Balanchine was responsible for the choreography. The sets, costumes, and lighting design was by

Lemuel Ayers Lemuel Ayers (January 22, 1915, New York City, New York - August 14, 1955, New York City) was an American costume designer, scenic designer, lighting designer, and producer who had a prolific career on Broadway from 1939 until his death from cance ...

. while Lawrence Brooks starred as

. The original Broadway cast featured

Irra Petina Irra Petina (April 18, 1908 – January 19, 2000) was an actress and singer as well as a leading contralto with the Metropolitan Opera in New York City. She was called the "floperetta queen" by critic Ken Mandelbaum. Born in St. Petersburg, Russ ...

as a fictional opera singer Louisa Giovanni and

Kent Edwards Kent Edwards (born — died August 7, 1993) was an American musical theatre actor and nightclub singer of the 1940s who is best remembered for portraying Einar in the original production of '' Song of Norway'' at the Los Angeles Civic Light Opera, ...

as Elnar. The show featured dances, both ballet and Norwegian folk dances, performed by the

Ballet Russe de Monte-Carlo The company Ballets Russes de Monte-Carlo (with a plural name) was formed in 1932 after the death of Sergei Diaghilev and the demise of Ballets Russes. Its director was Wassily de Basil (usually referred to as Colonel W. de Basil), and its ...

Maria Tallchief Elizabeth Marie Tallchief ( Osage family name: , Osage script: ; January 24, 1925 – April 11, 2013) was an American ballerina. She was considered America's first major prima ballerina. She was the first Native American (Osage Nation) to ...

, one of the featured dancers, married Balanchine during the run of the show. It ran in London for 526 performances at the Palace Theatre, the first Broadway show to cross the Atlantic after the end of the Second World War.

Story line

The show is set in and around Norway in

Troldhaugen Troldhaugen is the former home of Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg and his wife Nina Grieg. Troldhaugen is located in Bergen, Norway and consists of the Edvard Grieg Museum, Grieg's villa, the hut where he composed music, and his and his wife's ...

and

Bergen Bergen (), historically Bjørgvin, is a city and municipality in Vestland county on the west coast of Norway. , its population is roughly 285,900. Bergen is the second-largest city in Norway. The municipality covers and is on the peninsula o ...

; as well as

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...

and Rome in and after 1860. It follows the fictionalized lives of three childhood friends:

(played in New York by Lawrence Brooks), Nina Hagerup ( Helena Bliss) and

Rikard Nordraak Rikard Nordraak (12 June 1842 – 20 March 1866) was a Norwegian composer. He is best known as the composer of the Norwegian national anthem, "Ja, vi elsker dette landet". Biography Rikard Nordraak was born and grew up in Oslo, Norway. His family ...

(Robert Shafer). The play tells of the early struggles of Edvard Grieg and his attempts to develop an authentic Norwegian national music. Grieg dreams of being a great composer and these dreams are shared by his friend Nordraak and Grieg's sweetheart, Nina. Grieg is lured to Italy by the great prima donna Louisa Giovanni, but he finds he cannot create amid all the glitter and excitement and so returns to Norway and his beloved Nina to write his music. The melody of the Norwegian National Anthem, ''Ja, vi elsker dette landet'' was actually written by Rikard Nordraak to lyrics written by the Norwegian national poet,

Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson Bjørnstjerne Martinius Bjørnson ( , ; 8 December 1832 – 26 April 1910) was a Norwegian writer who received the 1903 Nobel Prize in Literature "as a tribute to his noble, magnificent and versatile poetry, which has always been distinguishe ...

. Although Nordraak was in fact the composer who wrote the national anthem, he was portrayed as a poet in the show because it was believed "two composers would be confusing".

Music

Songs include "Prelude & Legend" (based on Grieg's Piano Concerto in A minor), "Freddy and His Fiddle" (based on ''Norwegian Dance No.2''), "Now" (based on Violin Sonata No. 2, and ''Waltz'' from '' Lyric Pieces''), "Strange Music" (based on '' Wedding Day at Troldhaugen''), "Midsummer's Eve" (based on ''One Balmy Summer Eve'' from ''Five Poems, Op.26'', and ''Scherzo in E'' from '' Lyric Pieces''), and "I Love You" (''Ich Liebe Dich'', from ''Melodies of the Heart, Op.5''). The original Broadway cast recording was released by Decca Records on 6 78-rpm 12 inch discs. Irra Petina was under contract to a competing record label (Columbia), so her part in the "original cast" was sung by

Kitty Carlisle Kitty Carlisle Hart (born Catherine Conn; September 3, 1910 – April 17, 2007) was an American actress, singer, and spokeswoman for the arts. She was the leading lady of the Marx Brothers movie '' A Night at the Opera'' (1935) and was a regular ...

, who never actually played the part on Broadway. Decca later released a 33 rpm single disc LP, with some edits to fit the single-disc medium. In 2004, Decca finally released the full original album on CD. Columbia Records made a recording in 1959 of the Jones Beach production (which opened in June 1958) with Brenda Lewis and

John Reardon John Henry Reardon (born July 30, 1975) is a Canadian actor and former university football player. Prior to 2015, Reardon starred as Blake Laviolette on the CBC Television series ''Arctic Air'' and had a recurring role as Greg Cameron on the S ...

, which was released on CD by Masterworks Broadway.Suskin, Steve
"The 1959 Jones Beach Revival of Song of Norway and London's Most Happy Fella"
playbill.com, September 5, 2010

References

External links

*
Song of Norway on Floormic.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Song Of Norway Operettas English-language operettas 1944 musicals Broadway musicals Arrangements of classical compositions

Stage production

Story line

Music

See also

References

External links