The Fortune Teller (operetta): History and Key Facts

The Fortune Teller is an operetta in three acts composed by Victor Herbert, with a libretto by Harry B. Smith. After a brief tryout in Toronto, it premiered on Broadway on September 26, 1898, at Wallack's Theatre and ran for 40 performances. Star Alice Nielsen and many of the original company traveled to London, where the piece opened at the Shaftesbury Theatre on April 9, 1901, running for 88 performances. It was revived in New York on November 4, 1929, at Jolson's 59th Street Theatre, starring Tessa Kosta, and ran for 16 performances. The piece continued to be revived, including by the Light Opera of Manhattan in the late 20th century and the Comic Opera Guild in the early 21st century.

This was Herbert's sixth operetta, which he wrote for Nielsen and her new Alice Nielsen Opera Company, which included Joseph W. Herbert, Eugene Cowles, Joseph Cawthorn, Richard Golden and Marguerite Sylva. Nielsen, having earned widespread praise in The Serenade, requested and received not one but three roles in The Fortune Teller: Irma, her twin brother Fedor, and Musette, a gypsy fortune teller. Irma, an heiress from Budapest, is studying ballet. She is in love with a young Hussar captain, Ladislas, but is being forced to marry a silly pianist, Count Barezowski. When Musette arrives, she is mistaken for Irma; the case of mistaken identity fosters many complications, but all ends happily.

Songs include "Gypsy Love Song" ("Slumber on, my little gypsy sweetheart") and "Romany Life". Cowles' 1898 recording of "Gypsy Love Song" was added to the National Recording Registry in 2004.

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