On this day in 1911, The Ziegfeld Follies opened at the rooftop Jardin de Paris on 44th and Broadway (where The Gap is now.) Irving Berlin provided the score and headliners included Fanny Brice, Bert Williams, The Dolly Sisters, Leon Errol and arguably the great of all Ziegfeld Girls, Lillian Lorraine.
The show introduced (or rather imported from San Francisco) a new dance craze, “The Texas Tommy.”
Born on this day in 1933 conductor Claudio Abbado.
Dan Soda (Windy City Operaman) is a Chicago native whose first visit to opera was at age 17 and Massenet’s Werther with Troyanos and Kraus. Nothing was ever the same. Opera and concert performances, recordings and video are an obsession. He prepares Parterre Box’s daily birthday and anniversary tributes. He also enjoys concerts, live theater and movies.
Parterre Box concludes the thrilling first year of Talk of the Town by inviting your lightning rod opinions on several more categories of operatic argumentation.
