The Gilded Age Orchestra at Rosecliff, March 2025 Part 1

Written By Mark Stickney

Explore the music of the first half of our most recent musical program at Rosecliff with commentary from Gilded Age music expert, Dr. Christopher Brellochs.

Hear excerpts from the program performed by The Gilded Age Orchestra of Newport conducted by Dr. Brellochs.

A special thank you to the Preservation Society of Newport County for hosting the evenings musical program.

The warm marble of Rosecliff mansion echoed with the elegant music of the Gilded Age Orchestra of Newport. For modern audiences, after the two World Wars of the 20th century and ongoing global conflicts, it would be understandable if we sometimes struggle with feelings of cynicism or even nihilisim, but the glorious music from “La Belle Époque” or “The Beautiful Era,” provides a glimpse into a different sense of life – one of optimism. 

“La Belle Époque” began in 1871 at the conclusion of the Franco-Prussian War and lasted until the outbreak of World War I in 1914. It saw artistic, cultural, and scientific innovation, comparative regional peace, and increased economic prosperity.[i]

 

Jacques Offenbach, Photo credit Nadar, c. 1870s

 

Jacques Offenbach (1819-1880) was a French composer who rose to fame composing operettas like "Orpheus in the Underworld" with its famous can-can in the 1850s-1860s during the Second Empire of Napolean III, prior to “La Belle Époque.” Unfortunately, being associated with the Second Empire had consequences since after its fall at the end of the Franco-Prussian War, Offenbach’s operettas were considered the embodiment of everything superficial and worthless in Napoleon III's régime. Fortunately, after less than two years, he was able to return to Paris and reestablish himself as a preeminent composer of “La Belle Époque.” Translated versions of his operettas were popular in the U.S. and in 1876 he toured New York and Philadelphia giving more than 40 concerts.[ii]

 
 

Les Brigands is an operetta by Offenbach that premiered in Paris in 1869 and was first published in 1870, so this is the music that directly preceded “La Belle Époque.” The plot is cheerfully amoral in its presentation of theft as a basic principle of society rather than as an aberration. As the brigand chieftain, notes: "Everybody steals according to their position in society." Well, that doesn’t sound like “The Beautiful Era”-optimism I was talking about – what’s going on! Let’s remember the story for this operetta is really from the Second Empire, not “La Belle Époque.” However, the music very much is the foundation of what was popular in the late 19th century, and Les Brigands, with its substantial plot, artfully connected songs and story, and exotic Spanish rhythms, was soon popular around Europe as well as with a New York City production in 1870–71.[iii]

Excerpt from Les Brigands

Émile Waldteufel, Photo credit Atelier Reutlinger

Émile Waldteufel (1837-1915) is a French composer with one of the most German last names I’ve ever heard which translates to “forest devil.” Waldteufel was more a “musical darling” of the Second Empire than Offenbach, as he was appointed musical director for court dances by Napolean III and the court pianist for his wife, Empress Eugénie. After the defeat of France in the Franco-Prussian War, the Second Empire was dissolved, and Walfteufel’s hometown of Strasbourg became part of Germany for the rest of his life. At this time only a few members of French high society knew of Waldteufel and it wasn’t until the late 1870s that he became well known again.[iv]

 
 

Waldteufel’s Chantilly, Waltz, Op. 171 (1880) is an example of his comeback during “La Belle Époque.” The town of Chantilly, north of Paris, is famous for its castle, its racecourse and stables, its lace, and its whipped cream. Of these, it is the beautiful castle, surrounded by artificial lakes, that is commemorated in Emile Waldteufel’s waltz. It was destroyed in the Revolution but rebuilt in the late 1870s by a nineteenth-century Duke. The venture ultimately bankrupted the Duke, but in July 1879 it was announced that the castle was completely restored, and that the Duke was going to sell his Paris mansion and live permanently at Chantilly. That was the background to this waltz, which was published in Paris at the end of that year. The waltz is distinguished by its imposing brass introduction.[v]

Excerpt from Chantilly, Op. 171

France’s “La Belle Époque” was similar to America’s “Gilded Age.” Both occurred between wars, and both experienced a cultural and economic transformation. The American Melting Pot loved everything French, and a French-American cultural exchange flourished. French composers like Offenbach, Cecile Chaminade, and Camile Saint-Saens toured the U.S., and American composers like Edward MacDowell studied in France.

 

John Philip Sousa, Photo credit Elmer Chickering

 

Even the “American March King,” John Philip Sousa (1854-1932) had a French connection; as part of the World Exposition in 1900 The Sousa Band marched through the streets of Paris. His band toured from 1892 to 1931 (39 years) and performed at 15,623 concerts (approximately 400 concerts per year).[vi]

But Sousa did more than compose marches; he also wrote operetta including The Bride Elect (1897), which included many waltzes reminiscent of Offenbach and Waldteufel. Here is a short summary of the plot.

 
 

The daughter of the widowed queen of Capri, a fictitious kingdom, is to be married to the king of Timberio before she reaches the age of eighteen as part of a treaty between the two kingdoms. Unsurprisingly, the daughter has no interest in marrying the king because she’s in love with his nephew! Now, given this situation, the daughter decides to enlist the help of a band of robbers to kidnap the king and keep him hidden past her eighteenth birthday in order to nullify her obligation to marry him.

Now it just so happens that the leader of the band of robbers was a woman named La Pastorella, who decides to use some cards to tell her own fortune, only to discover she is destined to marry a king! Well how fortunate is that! She just kidnapped one.

Meanwhile since their king was abducted, the kingdom of Tiberio wasted no time and named his nephew as the new monarch, so now the daughter gets to marry the love of her life AND fulfill the original treaty.[vii]

Excerpt from The Bride Elect Waltzes

 
 

George Whitefield Chadwick (1854-1931) was an American composer and member of what was called the “Boston Six” – all late 19th century composers that included Amy Beach; Horatio Parker; John Knowles Paine, who I portrayed in HBO’s The Gilded Age (Season 1, Episode 4); and Edward MacDowell, who studied music in France. Chadwick studied in Germany, but did stay in France for a while and was reportedly taken with French lifestyle and art.

In 1897, Chadwick was appointed Director of New England Conservatory and was crucial in transforming the college into a respectable school of music. He established a variety of performing ensembles, and students were required to take more music theory and history classes.[viii]

 

Burlesque Opera of Tabasco,
Johns Hopkins University: The Lester S. Levy Sheet Music Collection

 

In 1894 he composed the opera “Tabasco,” without the knowledge of the Mcllhenny Company, maker of Tabasco brand pepper sauce since 1868. The company, however, subsequently approved its performance, and the opera went on to tour the U.S. to critical acclaim.

The complete original libretto and score for Tabasco were thought lost, with only partial material surviving from an incomplete 1894 published piano score. However, in 2012 a complete libretto was found and the conductor Paul Mauffray used this libretto and surviving music to reconstruct a performable version of the work.

Setting: Tangier, Morocco, late 1800s

Brother and sister merchants recently acquired a small bottle of red hot sauce, and happen to meet the ruling Pasha’s right-hand man, The Grand Vizier (a blood-thirsty executioner who longs for the bygone days of daily beheadings and nightly hangings) and Hasbeena (once the crown jewel of the Pasha’s harem, now a third-string concubine). Both unhappy with their current lot, the Vizier and Hasbeena plot to overthrow the Pasha. In order to keep the Pasha unaware of their scheming, they must keep him happy, and that means finding him a new French chef who can appease the Pasha’s love of spicy foods.

Unfortunately, the Pasha AKA “The Sultan of Spicy” takes one bite of the lunch prepared by the new chef and declares that if the chef cannot prepare a dish spicy enough to appease his tastes by dinner, he will be beheaded.

Come dinner time the sister runs to the aid of the new chef, who she’s fallen in love with, with the small bottle of sauce. A few drops are applied to the Pasha’s dinner, he tastes it, and proclaims it is the best thing he has ever put in his mouth. Reading the label on the bottle, he declares the chef the Peer of Tabasco!

But there is a new problem—the Pasha is consuming Tabasco so quickly that the bottle will be gone within a few meals. The brother and sister merchants now each have lovers and the quartet of lovers dream of escaping to exotic lands like Spain, Ireland, France, and ... Kentucky.

They eventually strike a deal with the Pasha to sail to the exotic land of Louisiana to bring back all the Tabasco the Pasha could ever desire. The Pasha agrees and they all live happily ever after![ix]

Excerpt from the Overture from Burlesque Opera “Tabasco”

Mark Stickney
Next

“To Rhode Island, with Love” Part 2.