The Student Prince
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The Student Prince is an operetta written by Sigmund Romberg (music) and Dorothy Donnelly (books and lyrics). The Student Prince was the most successful of Romberg's works, running for 608 performances. It opened on December 2, 1924 at Jolson's 59th Street Theatre on Broadway. It was revived twice on Broadway in the 1930s and the 1940s.
The plot centres on the prince of Karlsberg, who is about to attend Heidelberg University. Even after his attempts to keep secret his royal upbringing fail, the Prince gains friends and the love of the innkeeper's daughter, Kathie. However, his idyllic world comes to an end with the news of his father's death and his ascent to the Karlsberg throne. Ultimately, the new King faces the political reality that he must wed another, but the audience knows his true love will always be Kathie.
Frequently revived, The Student Prince, has elements of melodrama, but has a definite lack of swashbuckling common to Romberg's other works. The plot is mostly faithful to its source, "Alt Heidelberg" by Wilhelm Meyer-Foerster.
The operetta contains some of the most beautiful, yet gruelling, tenor arias in the operetta repertoire. Mario Lanza made many of the songs famous with his singing on the soundtrack of the 1954 MGM film The Student Prince. 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" — became closely associated with the tenor. Although Lanza's voice was heard in the film, he did not play the Prince on screen. That role went to British actor Edmund Purdom, who lip-synched to the tenor's recordings.
Songs
- "Golden Days"
- "Drinking Song" ("Drink! Drink! Drink!")
- "In Heidelberg Fair"
- "Deep in My Heart"
- "Serenade"