Search - Sigmund Romberg, Dorothy Kirsten, Robert Rounseville :: The Student Prince (1952 Studio Cast)

When we think about 1920s Broadway musicals now, what comes to mind are frothy Gershwin tunes and a little something called Show Boat perhaps. But the 1920s were also the golden age of the operetta on the Great White Way, and most of them were written by Mitteleuropean men such as the Hungarian-born Sigmund Romberg. So don't expect wild swing in Romberg's The Student Prince (which opened in 1924 as The Student Prince of Heidelberg). The music has more in common with The Merry Widow than with jazz-age follies. This 1952 recording (the first of the complete score) stars City Opera's Robert Rounseville in the title role and the Metropolitan Opera's Dorothy Kirsten as his love interest, a waitress named Kathie. Romberg's ambitious score has a lovely sweep and displays plenty of romantic panache (check out the Finale of Act 2 for a brilliant example of Romberg's melodic skills). --Elisabeth Vincentelli