The New Moon 1989 restored

This is a production of Sigmund Romberg’s “The New Moon” as performed by the NYC Opera in 1989. This was the third of his three best known successful operettas. The story concerns a French nobleman with revolutionary tendencies who indentures himself to a plantation owner in New Orleans. He is hiding from the French authorities, but is eventually found out and put aboard the ship “The New Moon” for return back to France. He fill in love with the plantation owner’s daughter who ends up in the same ship. A mutiny and the French Revolution intervene. The work is full of Romberg’s lyrical music. It includes commentary by Beverly Sills.
The sound is mono, but the video was properly deinterlaced and refocused to give the clearest picture.

[@luvsdvds]

I remember seeing this operetta at the City Opera at Lincoln Center. My best friend and I used to have subscriptions to the opera and got to see Richard White in "Desert Song" "The New Moon" and some others. Listening to these wonderful music in person is truly a delight! Our sons were still around 8 or 9 years old and they love the opera to this day. Richard White was always very kind with the kids and would sign the programs for them and even take some time to chat with them about the performance and the story. 🎵🎶

[@naly202]

I wanted to comment that that guy playing Robert looks a lot like Gaston from Beauty and the Beast (1991). it was a wild guess, but i had to check on imdb. and guess what! IT IS HIM !!!! the singer is Richard White.

[@juditharnett3356]

Fantastic! Thank you. I had no idea. They certainly made the cartoon character in "Beauty and the Beast" look just like him.

[@mtl5370]

And kudos to Robert Johanson and Ms Sills and our much missed City Opera

[@maggie92374]

This is my all time favorite version of this beautiful operetta! Thank you very much for sharing it with us!

[@clementj1]

You are welcome. If there are master tapes of this production, a better version could be released. I was lucky to capture a good copy.

[@juditharnett3356]

I've looked for a copy of this production many times over the years, and I'm so happy to have found it. I copied it onto VHS when it was originally on PBS, but the copy went missing years ago.

[@Tenortalker]

This is such a treat - The New Moon in a fine production.

[@juliecrockford6595]

Thank you so much for this! I watched this over and over again as a little girl (taped off the tv) and it is so special to have it back!

[@ballaratboy1]

Thank you for sharing this. It's not often we can find a professional production of the lovely operetta.

[@nica2947]

I have got to get the stage version on DVD!!! I remember this playing on PBS in 1989ish. How I got hooked! :)

[@juditharnett3356]

Me, too. Especially the way they did "Softly, As In A Morning Sunrise". I love Eddy and MacDonald, but the movie downplayed its most beautiful song.

[@queenmedesa]

@@juditharnett3356 he has a great voice

[@mtl5370]

Mr. Cousisns looks like Robert Shaw as Quint in JAWS. His rendition of Softly is heart stopping.

[@Paladin1873]

That was truly excellent. I recognized some of the songs but I was unaware this operetta existed even though I've seen "The Student Prince" and am familiar with "The Desert Song".

[@EricMontreal22]

You did a gorgeous job of restoring this--thanks so much! Now if someone would only restore the video of the same year's broadcast, again with Richard White, of Show Boat.

[@bradleymonroe6443]

Everyone knows Richard White not only for this but also for the voice of Gaston in Beauty and the Beauty.

[@EricMontreal22]

@@bradleymonroe6443 I'd say far more people know White due to Gaston than for this ;)

[@queenmedesa]

@@bradleymonroe6443 and the beast

[@muzicalzrlife6024]

I’ve been offered the role of Alexander recently and by the look of his first few scenes, I definitely will enjoy playing the role.

[@richardduployen6429]

This is a treat of a production with the proper orchestrations. I'll look for more N. Y. C. productions. I think I would have cut some of the reprises. I hope you will be allowed "Try her out at Dances" & when Alexander impersonates a Judge which were included when I played Alexander in London. That was in about 1988 in a concert version. I'm still acting & singing.

[@ronronizetti2534]

THANK You! So good to see treasures both saved and shared!!

[@AvitalShtap]

Whaaat!! hahaha, I listened to the operetta as an album on iTunes. Seeing the stylized 1928 poster, I had imagined large crowds of 1910s/1920s folk entering the Great War when I listened to this. How absolutely different my imagination was!!! Too funny.

[@Brad4Ellis]

You bring up something important in the history of operetta, which was composed mostly by Europeans, and had plots usually revolving around a princess from fictional Eastern European nation, or a princess from an Arabian dynasty, or a princess from a Native American tribe, etc. The escapism found in operetta was unable to endure the harsh realities of World War I, and didn’t survive long after. New Broadway composers, mostly born in America, whose styles were shaped by swing, ragtime, and jazz (as well as klezmer and 2nd Avenue Yiddish theater) offered a new kind of escapism that appealed to the New York and American audience.

[@kevinhough5018]

Brilliant cast and beautifully staged whith superb singing. They dont write them like that nowadays. Gorgeous melodies.

[@janishannes9221]

I'm so delighted to find this! After it aired I tried to find Copy and couldn't. Thank you!

[@peterharrison9623]

Wonderful

[@alvessusan49]

Thank you for this. Such beautiful music.

[@poetfrost]

I love this as much is the time when they showed it in pbs so many years ago and I never thought to see it again.

[@virginiasteffens4908]

I loved this version of the New Moon! It had a very wonderful cast from the New York City Opera! The cars was Leigh Monroe and Richard White as the lovers and John Billingley!

[@queenmedesa]

Thanks for posting this wonderful show!

[@busterj11776]

Great work, thanks for posting

[@barbarabenz9162]

I taped this when it was first presented on PBS in 1988 and watched it at least ten times after! Thank you so much for this gift of the remastered production!! I’m going to renew old, wonderfilled memories!! My hope now is a Richard White The Desert Song-something I never got to experience!

[@clementj1]

It isn't remastered, just carefully processed to bring out the best I could from a home recording of the broadcast. A remastered version would have to be from studio quality tapes of the broadcast. There is an old B&W movie I saw many years ago of "The Desert Song".

[@clementj1]

@@barbarabenz9162 Nelson Eddy had a fine voice, but was a fairly wooden actor. He needed a microphone which was typical of many Hollywood singers. He is in the movie Rosalie which also features Elenor Powell, Ray Bolger, and Frank Morgan. Actually it is a whose who of Hollywood actores such as Edna May Oliver who is a wonderful acerbic queen opposite Morgan's dotty king. My grandfather, Clay Clement, plays the West Point Commandant. He and Morgan were the only 2 cast members from the original Broadway production. Actually, only one song by Romberg from the original production made it into the movie, replaced by Cole Porter numbers. The original play had a lot of comedy scenes between my grandfather and Bolger, but the movie cut most of them and featured Powell with Eddy as a big bucks fantastical musical. Bolger did do some dancing and was good as a scattered cadet. There are no recordings of the original play, and just a few of the Romberg songs are on CD. Cole Porter was more popular than the romantic operetta style songs of Romberg.

[@barbarabenz9162]

Thank you so much for your thoughts!! I didn’t know anything about Rosalie-but changing the stage play in any way to make a movie is one of my biggest gripes! That’s why I hunger so for films of the plays themselves- I loved Eddy’s voice but I found him wooden too-such a disappointment in the roles he was playing-I think that’s why I fell in love with this version of The New Moon-I love Richard White’s voice and stage presence!

[@clementj1]

@@barbarabenz9162 Movies, books, and plays are very different experiences. Sometimes the movie is better than the play or book. When PBS did Brideshead Revisited I thought it was very good. Then I read the book and found the PBS production was just as good as it followed the book so closely. Rosalie is overdone, but very entertaining with Powell and Bolger's dancing, Eddy's singing plus the great talents of other actors lim Morgan. The original had a stiff classical cancer as the princess, according to my father, so the movie with Powell may have been much better. Powell was animated which contrasted with Eddy.

[@juditharnett3356]

I recently added the mp3 Downloader app to my android phone, and found that this contributor has made a copy of this beautifully restored production available there, so I have downloaded it to my phone, and can cast it to my tv any time I like. Thank you!!!

[@user-yn1mf3ls2s]

素晴らしい歌唱力と演技力！久々に感動しました。

[@adriennerobb9668]

What a talent !!!

[@fritzbasset8645]

Well sung and well danced!

[@markhowe363]

This morning something triggered 'stout hearted men' in my brain and I realized I knew almost the entire lyrics. The part I couldn't recall was something like 'you, who have dreams, if you ask, they will be yours' [come true]. So I typed in 'give me some men...' and google took care of the rest. It would have been in the '50s when I heard it and for some reason associated it with the French Foreign Legion in the NoAfrican desert in 'Desert Song'. Now I need to look up that show.

[@jenniferbaxter5870]

Thank you so much for posting this!!! Do you know if there is a DVD available somewhere? I remember watching this as a child with my father. We had recorded it off of tv 📺 onto a VHS. I have so many good memories of this operetta. My father loved “The Desert Song” and we got to see Richard White star in it when it came to town. Thank you again for posting this!!! 💗🙏🥰🤩

[@clementj1]

There is no commercial release of this, but there are sites that sell DVDs of various TV productions, but I do not know if there is a copy of this production..

[@Twentythousandlps]

The original Act Two begins at 1:28:50.

[@Brad4Ellis]

I’m very happy to hear this production again after all these years. I saw it live, but did not hear the PBS broadcast. The way I remember it, the pit Orchestra at New York City opera was first rate. Perhaps not able to compete with the legendary Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, But at any rate, I believe the New York City opera pit sounded MUCH better than the orchestra I’m hearing here, which has terrible intonation issues in the brass and woodwind. I wonder if this was a different ensemble, perhaps, because of a union issue? Does anyone have any insight into this?

[@Twentythousandlps]

The credits at the end state that this is the NYC Opera Orchestra.

[@wlawrencemoore]

Restored? Ridiculous! This production included at least one fake number that certainly wasn't in Romberg's score.

[@clementj1]

The restoration refers to the video and sound, but not to the artistic decisions in the production. A better copy could be created from the master tapes of the production. Romberg's original shows are now only available in partially recreated form. Most musical theater has cuts and added interpolations from other sources. The movie Rosalie discarded all but one of his songs and greatly altered both the story and dialog. This is probably the closest you will ever get to the original show.

[@wlawrencemoore]

@@clementj1 I realized that after I posted. Thank you for such a beautiful job. The closest production to get back to the original 1928 show was the cncert performances by City Center Encores! which resulted in the most complete recording of the original score.

[@clementj1]

@@wlawrencemoore You are welcome. Yes, there are audio recordings, but the show should have a complete video performance. The Wikipedia lists a recording of the complete score. It is always necessary to edit the dialog on older shows to account for the changes in the audiences, but the music and lyrics should be treated with great respect.

[@pamplayer4086]

R u freakin serious 👎🏻👎🏻👎🏻👎🏻

[@clementj1]

Sorry, that you don't find it to be interesting. It is not the type of entertainment which is currently in vogue, but it was popular and many people love Romberg's romantic music. Entertainment changes and there is no accounting for taste. Each generation likes to diss the previous generation's taste, but sometimes the old entertainments come back and become popular again.