Santa Maria (operetta)

Santa Maria is an operetta, or 'comic opera', in three acts with music and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein I. It opened at Hammerstein's Olympia Theatre in New York City on September 14, 1896. After closing on December 19, 1896, it went on tour, starting at the Alvin Theatre in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on December 21, 1896.

The final scene, in which Bertrand and Santa Maria are proclaimed future King and Queen, was set as a "Palace of Ice" constructed from aluminum, a novel design for 1896.Edna May, who would soon become a star in Edwardian musical comedies, made her Broadway debut in the piece.

The protagonist, as an infant, was found in a forest by Santa, a bird catcher. He named her Maria and raised her to train birds. As she is somewhat of a vixen, her jocular neighbors reversed her name to Santa Maria. Meanwhile, the childless King of Holland is about to be divorced at the demand of some conspirators, when a gypsy is bribed to reveal to him that he has a son, born twenty years before, while he was away at war. This infant had been stolen from its cradle, and Lieutenant Bertrand, a young officer who has been sentenced to death, volunteers to go in search of the lost Prince.

Three years later, Bertrand is in Italy, where he is imprisoned for kissing an old woman by mistake. A tailor is also imprisoned for spoiling a dress and is to be tried by a jury of women. Bertrand bribes the tailor to change identities with him and is ordered by the jury to try the dress on Santa Maria, the complainant. On Santa Maria's arm he discovers the birthmark, a lily and a crown, that proves her to be the child of the King of Holland he has been seeking for three years – a daughter rather than a son. The two fall in love, and Bertram is pardoned.

Bertrand and Santa Maria return home to Holland and are proclaimed the future King and Queen.

The New York Times noted the audience's enthusiastic response to the piece and commented, "There is elemental strength, and humor too, in some of the situations here developed.... The first act is deliciously naïve.... But there is some fun in it, and plenty of jingle and color.... Mr. Hammerstein is scarcely a Sullivan or Suppe. Nor is he, as a librettist, a rival of Gilbert. But he is a man of extraordinary versatility and wonderful energy, who is doing much in a cheerful and vigorous way to entertain his fellow-citizens. There is good reason for his popularity."

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