The Desert Song
The Desert Song was a notable 1926 operetta with music by Sigmund Romberg and book and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II and Otto Harbach. One of the most famous stage shows of all time, it is still frequently performed and has been made into a motion picture four times: in 1929, 1939, 1943, and (the best-known version) in 1953 with Kathryn Grayson and Gordon MacRae, and on television with Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy in 1955.
Spoiler warning: Plot or ending details follow.
The plot, reminiscent of The Scarlet Pimpernel or Superman, concerns "The Red Shadow", a rebel leader whose band of freedom fighters threaten the safety of a French outpost in the Moroccan desert. In reality, the Shadow is Pierre, unassuming son of a French general. Margot, a French girl soon to be married at the fort, is in love with the Red Shadow, little suspecting his true identity. Pierre, in disguise, kidnaps her in order to reveal his love for her. Eventually his identity is discovered and they live happily ever after.
Apart from the title song, musical numbers include:
- High On A Hill
- Ho! (The Riff Song)
- Let Love Go
- Margot
- One Alone##
- One Flower Alone Grows In Your Garden
- One Good Man Gone Wrong
- The Song of the Brass Key
