LUDERS, GUSTAVE.

King Dodo.

[A musical comedy, in three acts; text by Pixley. First produced at the Studebaker Theatre, Chicago, May 27, 1901.]

PERSONAGES.

King Dodo I.

Pedro, Court chamberlain.

Dr. Fizz, Court physician.

Mudge, Court historian.

Sancho, an innkeeper.

Bonilla, prime minister to Queen Lili.

Lo Baswood.

Lopez.

Diego.

José.

Unio.

Queen Lili.

Angela, the King’s ward.

Piola, a soldier of fortune.

Annette.

[Courtiers, knights, ladies, etc.]

The scene is laid in Dodoland and the South Sea islands; time, the present.

“King Dodo,” though usually set down on the programmes as a comic opera, strictly speaking, is a musical comedy, or comedy opera. Its plot turns upon the efforts of King Dodo to [117] find the elixir of youth. His adventures carry him from his own kingdom in the land of nowhere in particular to the South Sea islands and back, a few absurd love episodes adding to the humor of the situations in which he finds himself. The old King is enamoured of the Princess Angela, and to secure her he determines to find the fountain which will renew his youth. His Court physician has failed in the attempt; but Piola, “a soldier of fortune,” claims to know where the fountain is, but demands that when he finds it he shall have the hand of Angela as his reward. The King reluctantly consents, and starts with his whole establishment to find it. The wonderful spring is discovered in the land of the Spoopjus, and there King Dodo also finds Queen Lili, who promptly falls in love with him, because her ideal for a husband is a man full of years and experience. The King, however, accidentally drinks from the fountain, and is transformed into a child, whereupon the Queen rejects him. As the waters fortunately work both ways, when Dodo is thrown into them by conspirators, he becomes himself again, and the Queen devotes herself to him anew with such assiduity that they are united. Pedro and Annette and Piola and Angela also improve the occasion to get married, and all return in great glee to Dodoland.

The musical numbers in “King Dodo,” are all of a light, catchy kind, their success depending much upon the sprightliness of the performers. [118] The most popular are the “Cats’ Quartette”; “The Tale of the Bumble-bee”; Piola’s song, “I’ll do or die,” which is accompanied by a stirring chorus; the melodious “Zamoña,” sung by Angela and chorus; a drinking-song of a spirited sort by Annette and chorus; “The Eminent Dr. Fizz,” sung by the doctor himself; and “The Jolly old Potentate” and the topical song, “They gave me a Medal for that,” sung by King Dodo.

The Prince of Pilsen.

[A musical comedy, in two acts; text by Pixley. First produced in the Tremont Theatre, Boston, May 21, 1902.]

PERSONAGES.

Carl Otto, the Prince.

Hans Wagner, an American citizen.

Tom Wagner, his son.

Arthur St. John Wilberforce.

François.

Mrs. Madison Crocker, an American widow.

Sidonie.

Edith.

Nellie.

Jimmy.

[Tourists, students, flower-girls, sailors, etc.

The scene is laid in Nice; time, the present.

“The Prince of Pilsen,” the latest, and in many respects the best, of Mr. Luders’ productions, like most musical comedies of the prevailing kind, has but a brief and somewhat incongruous story. The [119] first act opens during the annual flower festival at Nice. The proprietor of the Hôtel Internationale learns that the Prince of Pilsen will reach there on the morrow incognito, and determines he shall be received with all the attentions due to his rank. He employs a band of musicians to escort him from the station to the hotel, and hires flower-girls to strew his way with roses. Hans Wagner, a German-American brewer from Cincinnati, and his daughter, who go to Nice to meet the brewer’s son, an American naval officer, arrive on the same day. The brewer is mistaken for the Prince, and he and his party meet with a brilliant but somewhat surprising reception. He can account for it in no other way than that his greeting as the Prince of Pilsen is a tribute to the excellence of his Pilsener beer, and accepts it complaisantly. When the real prince arrives, however, with a company of Heidelberg students, he is ignored, and even has some difficulty in securing accommodations. The Prince, however, does not declare his identity at once, but waits for an opportunity to expose the impostor who is trading on his name. He accidentally meets the daughter, and after some conversation with her is sure that her father has not intended to deceive and is not responsible for the mistake. He decides therefore to continue the rôle of private citizen, and is the more confirmed in his decision when he finds himself falling in love with the brewer’s daughter. This enrages the brother, who challenges the Prince, which leads to the arrest of [120] both of them. In the second act all the complications get straightened out. The real Prince marries the brewer’s daughter, and the brewer himself takes home the American widow, Mrs. Madison Crocker, as his wife.

On this somewhat slight thread of a plot the composer has strung numerous bits of lively, exhilarating music, some of it of a decidedly better kind than is usually found in these potpourris, but the most of it of the sort which is popular and easily caught up. The number of the lyrics as well as of the topical songs, choruses, and extravaganzas is so large, and they are of such uniformity in interest and tunefulness, that it is difficult to single out the most conspicuous. The numbers, however, which have made the greatest success are Wagner’s topical song, “He didn’t know exactly what to do”; a charming smoking-song, “Pictures in the Smoke”; the “Tale of the Sea-shell”; the unaccompanied male chorus, “Oh! Heidelberg, dear Heidelberg,” which should be a favorite students’ song; and the “Song of the Cities,” in which the peculiarities of the girls of various American cities are imitated, the song ending with a droll cake walk. So far as numbers go, indeed, the opera presents a bewildering embarrassment of good things.

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