Theatre Register
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The Fortune Teller

Shows · The Fortune Teller

The musical, which did much to establish Herbert as America’s preeminent composer of operetta, makes use of the popular theme of mistaken identity. Hungarian heiress Irma loves a dashing Hussar, but is promised in marriage to a wealthy count. To avoid this unwanted union, Irma gets gypsy fortune teller Musette (both roles being played by Alice Nielsen) to substitute for her.

Opened
1898
Performances
40
Type
Musical
Era
Origins
Music: Victor HerbertLyrics: Harry B. SmithBook: Harry B. Smith

Productions3 on Broadway

1898 Wallack’s Theatre Original. September 26, 1898 · Julian Mitchell 40 performances
1919 Theatre Republic Revival. February 27, 1919 68 performances
1929 Jolsons 59th Street Theatre Revival. November 4, 1929 · Milton Aborn 16 performances

Every Broadway staging held in broadway-data, sourced to IBDB. West End runs are not yet held.

Licensing not confirmed

Rights We have not been able to confirm the publisher.

Read from the licensor's own pages and catalogues. Rights move, and an empty row means we have not confirmed a publisher, not that the show cannot be licensed.

In the literature11 passages

Boley, May Fortune Teller, The, 6 book:broadway-musicals-show-by-show-green-stanley-green-kay-5th-ed-rev-and-updated-by#p353

The Fortune Teller (1898), and The Singing Girl (1899) all featured roles tailored for soprano Alice Nielsen. book:historical-dictionary-of-the-broadway-musical-volume-22-william-a-everett-paul-r#p189

Among the most successful American works of the time were Reginald De Koven’s Robin Hood (1891) and Victor Herbert’s The Fortune Teller (1898). book:historical-dictionary-of-the-broadway-musical-volume-22-william-a-everett-paul-r#p297

Their more memorable creations, however, premiered by other companies, appeared in the following decade; and they include Robin I load ( 1891 ), El Capitan (1896), and The Fortune Teller(1 898). book:showtime-a-history-of-the-broadway-musical-theatre-larry-stempel#p141

Fortune Teller proved enormously successful though it played only forty performances in New York. It had premiered in Toronto, then came to New York, where it played five weeks at Wallack's Theater. book:showtime-a-history-of-the-broadway-musical-theatre-larry-stempel#p148

Victor Herbert (1859–1924), who also wrote for the Bostonians (and for other English opera companies), was by far the most successful and skilled American comic opera composer of the late nineteenth century. Most of his best known works – characterised by dramatic and memorable melodies and skilful orchestrations – are… book:cambridge-companion-to-the-musical-cambridge-companions-to-music-the-the-cambrid#p46

Passages naming this show, found by keyword across 178 books. Where this show turns up in the literature, not curated trivia about it.

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