The White Horse Inn

“From Erik Charell’s White Horse Inn  Part 1″
Light Opera Company’
1931 (HMV C.2229 mx 32-2159)
Light Opera Company – From Erik Charell’s White Horse Inn Part 1]

“From Erik Charell’s White Horse Inn Part 2″
Light Opera Company
1931 (HMV C.2229 mx 32-2360)
Light Opera Company – From Erik Charell’s White Horse Inn Part 2]

Here is a medley recording of vocal selections from the highly successful operetta The White Horse Inn.  The operetta is best remembered for its musical score by Ralph Benatzky and Robert Stolz.

The original German production was produced and directed by Erik Charell and premiered as Im weißen Rößl at Berlin’s Großes Schauspielhaus on November 8, 1930.  Charell also produced and directed the London production which opened at the London Coliseum on April 8, 1931.   You can view a program from the London production complete with interesting period advertisements at this link.    When the National Socialists came to power in Germany in 1933, Charell fled to the United States where he later directed the operetta’s Broadway run which opened at the Center Theatre on October 1, 1936.

The performers on this recording are credited only as “Light Opera Company.”  My strong guess is that this ensemble consisted of HMV in-house studio artists.

If you are a regular listener to Radio Dismuke many of the tunes in the medley might sound familiar to you.  That’s because a number of dance bands in both Germany and Britain recorded popular versions of the production’s songs.  In a future update, I will feature some of these dance band versions.