The First Cast Recording

In September and October of 1900, the two-year-old Gramophone Company of London invited cast members from Florodora to make recordings of the songs that they were singing every night in the show. The world's first ever "original cast recording" was created in four sessions, comprising 14 seven-inch disks (the longer playing - by about a minute - higher fidelity 10-inch 78 rpm hadn't yet been invented).

It was a big gamble. The primitive recording technology of the day better captured louder, and often less accomplished, singers. The Florodora cast members persevered, giving themselves a place in history and giving us an important record of the style of performance in the original production.

In Lady Holyrood's solo numbers, actress Ada Reeve practically recites many of her numbers music hall style. Some of this clipped delivery might be exaggerated so that the words came through on the recording, but contemporary accounts and reviews also tell us of her comic melodrama style. Now we can hear it. Indeed in the vocal score the notes in the vocal line of the number are represented in all sixteenth notes - and now we know why.

Florodora's composer, Leslie Stuart, happened to be filling in as conductor at the Lyric Theatre during this time and joined in on the recording sessions as accompanist on a day of these recordings. We can safely assume those numbers are delivered in a manner that the composer approved of! Paul Rubens, lyricist, also accompanies the recordings. (Rubens soon became a noted composer/lyricist of many West End hit musicals).

Eleven of these original Florodora recordings were released on a modern CD by Pearl records in 1993 and though now discontinued, new and used copies can still be found on the Internet. The recordings are understandably low fidelity, but give us another connection to the Florodora Days.

Happy 109th Birthday, Florodora

Florodora opened exactly 109 years ago today, November 11th, 1899 at the Lyric Theatre in London where it originally ran for 455 performances!

The Florodora Cocktail

I've gotta try this one after a long day of scanning:

60 ml London dry gin
15 ml fresh lime juice
15 ml Chambord liqueur (or BOLS Raspberry, Framboise, etc)
Ginger ale

For a Florodora "Imperial Style" replace the Gin with Cognac. Yum.

Shake well with 4 to 5 ice cubes in a chilled cocktail shaker, then pour unstrained into a Collins glass and top off with the cold ginger ale. Lime Wedge garnish.

I'll take two!

Florodora In Joyce and Woodhouse

Florodora shows up in the oddest places...

The tenor song in Florodora, In the Shade of the Palm, is artfully mis-quoted all through the Sirens chapter of Joyce's Ulysses. In Florodora, the heroic tenor Frank Abercoed tells his beloved Dolores that he'll return if she but waits patiently for him. Get it?

In The Adventures of Sally by P.G. Wodehouse takes a swipe at all of the actresses who ever claimed to be a Florodora Girl:

Sally was disappointed, but it was such a beautiful morning, and New York was so wonderful after the dull voyage in the liner that she was not going to allow herself to be depressed without good reason. After all, she could go on to Detroit tomorrow. It was nice to have something to which she could look forward.

"Oh, is Elsa in the company?" she said.

"Sure. And very good too, I hear." Mrs. Meecher kept abreast of theatrical gossip. She was an ex-member of the profession herself, having been in the first production of "Florodora," though, unlike everybody else, not one of the original Sextette. "Mr. Faucitt was down to see a rehearsal, and he said Miss Doland was fine. And he's not easy to please, as you know."