The Fortune Teller

Fortune Teller, The (1898), a comic opera by Harry B. Smith (book, lyrics), Victor Herbert (music). [ Wallack's Theatre, 40 perf.] Irma (Alice Nielsen), an heiress studying ballet in Budapest, is in love with the handsome hussar, Ladislas (Frank Rushworth), but is being pressed to marry Count Berezowski (Joseph Herbert). She is able to discourage the Count by having the fiery gypsy fortune teller Musette (also Nielsen) take her place for a while. This creates problems for Musette and her gypsy lover Sandor (Eugene Cowles), but matters are eventually resolved happily. Notable songs: Always Do as People Say You Should; Gypsy Love Song; Only in the Play; Romany Life. Written as a vehicle for Nielsen, the musical had a short Broadway run mainly because it had been booked for an entire season on the road before it opened. The score was Herbert's finest up to that time and established him as the leading American composer of operetta. Revivals were frequent until the early 1930s.