DESCRIPTION:
Soprano Christie MacDonald (1875-1962) and Baritone Reinald Werrenrath (1883-1953) / The Angelus / Sweethearts (Smith; Herbert) / Recorded: April 25, 1913 --

Victor Male Chorus
William Hooley - bass
Lambert Murphy - tenor
Harry Macdonough - tenor
S.H. Dudley - baritone (Samuel H. Rous)
G. dellAquila - harp
Orchestra - Magee - director

Christie MacDonald (February 28, 1875-- July 25, 1962) was a Canadian-American actress and opera singer. She was born in Pictou, Nova Scotia, the daughter of John MacClean MacDonald, a shipbuilder, mariner and inn-keeper in the coastal town of Pictou and Jessie (née MacKenzie). She began in theatre in 1893 in New York when she was cast in Francis Wilson's popular play Erminie. She was thereafter successful in the operetta brand of musical theater. She was the star or co-star of The Belle of Mayfair (1906) co-starring Valeska Suratt, Miss Hook of Holland (1908) with Bertram Wallis and The Mikado (1910) with Fritzi Scheff. In 1910 she starred in one of her best known musicals The Spring Maid by Victor Herbert. In 1913 she popularised Herbert's Sweethearts. MacDonald made several gramophone records before retiring in 1920. She was married first to William W. Jefferson, a son of the famous actor Joseph Jefferson, in 1901 and ended in divorce several years thereafter. In 1903, Miss MacDonald conceived a child with prominent theatrical promoter and New York State Senator, Timothy Sullivan who was soon placed in the New York Foundling Hospital.[citation needed] Miss MacDonald did not make any stage appearances until 1904. In 1911, Miss MacDonald married Henry L. Gillespie, the scion of a wealthy Pittsburgh contracting family and had one daughter, Christie. As of 1950 MacDonald was living with her daughter and grandchildren in Westport, Connecticut. Christie MacDonald died in Fairfield, Connecticut on July 25, 1962. (wikipedia)

Reinald Werrenrath (August 7, 1883 -- September 12, 1953) was an American baritone opera singer, who also recorded popular songs and appeared regularly on radio in the early decades of the twentieth century. He was born in Brooklyn, New York, the son of George Werrenrath, an operatic tenor born in Denmark. He studied at New York University, and made his operatic debut in 1907 in Die Meistersinger. He also recorded for Edison Records in 1907, before a long recording career with Victor Records. He sang on several hundred Victor recordings between 1906 and 1929, both as a soloist and as part of vocal ensembles such as the Orpheus Quartet. His most commercially successful recordings included "As Long As The World Rolls On" (1907), "Hello Frisco!" (from "Ziegfeld Follies of 1915"), and "Smilin' Through" (1919).Werrenrath made his debut at the Metropolitan Opera in 1919, in Pagliacci, in a cast that also included Enrico Caruso. He also toured widely, and made over 3,000 concert appearances. He was one of the first singing stars to appear regularly on radio, notably on radio station WEAF in New York. In 1930, he made a private recording of Christmas greetings accompanied by Harpo Marx and others. In 1932, he became a member of NBC's music staff, and in later years devoted himself mainly to teaching, at the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore, Maryland and elsewhere. He also ran a regular summer music school at Chazy Lake, New York. He was married three times. He died in 1953 in Plattsburgh, New York, after suffering a heart attack while at Chazy Lake. (wikipedia)


Sweethearts is an operetta or musical play in two acts with music by Victor Herbert, lyrics by Robert B. Smith and book by Harry B. Smith and Fred De Gressac. The first performance of the work was at the Academy of Music in Baltimore in March 1913, after which the show was overhauled and shortened before spending five weeks in Philadelphia and another five in Boston tryouts. The original Broadway production opened at the New Amsterdam Theater on September 8, 1913 and transferred to the Liberty Theatre on November 10, 1913 running for a total of 136 performances. The original cast included Christie MacDonald as Princess Jeanne/Sylvia, Thomas Conkey as Prince Franz, Edwin Wilson as Lieutenant Karl, Frank Belcher as Petrus Von Trump, Tom McNaughton as Mikel Mikeloviz, Ethel Du Fre Houston as Dame Paula, and Hazel Kirk as Liane. The FULL wikipedia article can be found here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sweethearts_(musical)

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