The Desert Song

The Desert Song was a notable 1926 Broadway operetta with music by Sigmund Romberg and book and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II and Otto Harbach, respectively. It opened at the Casino Theatre November 30 and ran for 465 performances http://www.musicaltheatreguide.com/composers/romberg/desert_song.htm. The leading man was Scottish baritone Richard Halliday and the heroine Vivienne Segal. To celebrate the centenary of Romberg?s birth (1987), the New York City Opera staged a lavish production with Richard White and Linda Michele. The Desert Song is still frequently performed and has been made into a motion picture four times: in 1929, 1939, 1943, and (the best-known version) in 1953 with Kathryn Grayson and Gordon MacRae. When it was adapted for live television in 1955 (with Gale Sherwood and Nelson Eddy, and Salvatore Baccalone imported from the Metropolitan opera to play Ali Ben Ali) one of the writers brought in to modernize some unplayable dialogue was the young Neil Simon http://www.dandugan.com/maytime/dsrtsong.htm.

External link

• Guide to operetta:The Desert Song
• "The Desert Song" lyrics