The Ballad of Baby Doe
Douglas Moore
John Latouche
this is Conductor Thomas Martin's copy
his name is written on the upper right cover corner
here is his obit from the NYTimes:
Thomas Martin, an opera conductor best known for the
many English-language opera translations he wrote with his wife, Ruth,
died of a heart attack Monday morning. He was 74 years old and lived in
Manhattan.
Mr. Martin was active for more than 40 years as a
staff conductor with both the Metropolitan and New York City Operas. But
his and his wife's translations of nearly 50 opera librettos were his
most lasting contribution to musical life in the United States.
The translations helped spark the revival of
interest in Mozart's operas in this country in the 1940's and 50's, and
for many years provided the staples of the primarily English-language
repertories of the regional opera companies that in recent decades
proliferated throughout the United States.
Thomas Philipp Martin was born in Vienna in 1909. He
graduated from the Vienna Conservatory and conducted at the Vienna
Volksoper. After touring the United States with the Salzburg
International Opera Guild in 1937-38, he settled in this country and
conducted operas in St. Louis, Cincinnati, Chicago, Havana, and San
Juan, Puerto Rico. Submitted First Translation
In 1939 he married Ruth Kelley of Jersey City. Two
years later, they submitted their first translation - Mozart's ''Magic
Flute'' - to the Metropolitan Opera. ''We just sent it in and had the
good luck to have it done,'' Mrs. Martin said Monday.
Mr. Martin was hired as Bruno Walter's assistant in
the preparation of that production, and from then on he alternated
between the Metropolitan and the City Opera in various conducting
capacities.
He was associate chorus master at the Metropolitan
from 1958 to 1965 and, most recently, director of musical studies at the
City Opera, which included conducting school performances, from 1966 to
1981, when he retired. He also conducted at the Lake George Opera and,
more recently, with the Bel Canto Opera (his and his wife's translation
of Lortzing's ''Wildsch"utz'' earlier this season), the Liederkranz
Foundation and the Reimann Opera Studio of New York University.
The couple's translations were marked by a breezy
American colloquialism, in contrast to the stilted antiquarianism of
Victorian-era translations. The two concentrated on Italian and comic
German works; they never translated Wagner. But they did do all the
major Mozart operas, plus numerous works of Verdi, Puccini, Rossini,
Donizetti and, most recently, Lortzing. Their last completed
collaboration was Lortzing's ''Waffenschmied.'' In 1981, their work was
awarded a Medal of Honor First Class by the Austrian Government.
This score was published by Chappell & Co., Inc.
250 pages
A well-used working rehearsal/performance score
old tape reinforcement to spine, some age appropriate wear & tear
1958 copyright
Wow -- history!
Westbury 1