Naughty Marietta

Naughty Marietta (1910), an operetta by Rida Johnson Young (book, lyrics), Victor Herbert (music). [New York Theatre, 136 perf.] Marietta (Emma Trentini) is an independent young lady of noble origin who has fled to America to escape an unwanted marriage. Coming to Louisiana disguised as a peasant, she meets Captain Dick Warrington (Orville Harrold) who leads his rangers in seeking out the villainous pirate, Bras Priqué. The mysterious pirate is actually the lieutenant governor's son Etienne Grandet (Edward Martindel), who has cast aside his quadroon mistress Adah (Marie Duchene) and turns his attentions on Marietta. To win her hand, Etienne reveals his pirate identity and threatens to have her sent back home. But Marietta insists she will marry only the man who can finish a snatch of song she has sung since childhood. When Dick does just that in “Ah, Sweet Mystery of Life,” Etienne is captured and Dick ends up with Marietta. Notable songs: Italian Street Song; Tramp, Tramp, Tramp; I'm Falling in Love with Someone; 'Neath the Southern Moon. As in the two other major American musical successes of its season, Madame Sherry and The Pink Lady, this operetta employed its best melody as a sort of motif throughout the evening, although it was not fully sung until just before the finale. The American setting might be seen to have given the musical a certain, special pertinence, but was, after all, set in a distant, romantic time when New Orleans was under foreign rule. The score is generally acknowledged as Herbert's best. It is still revived on occasion and has entered the repertory of the New York City Opera and other companies.