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John Treville Latouche
Born: November
13, 1914
Baltimore, Maryland
Died: August 7, 1956
Calais, Vermont
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Composer |
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Librettist |
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The Story |
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Book Writer, Lyricist, Opera Librettist
Latouche's family moved to Richmond,
VA when he was four months old. His parents soon divorced, and he grew
up there in genteel poverty living with his mother, Effie, a seamstress,
and his younger brother, Louis. Latouche graduated from public school
and, thanks to a scholarship he won in a literary contest, moved to
New York City in 1932. He attended Riverdale Country School for a year,
Columbia University for two years, then left school to concentrate on
writing for the theatre, contributing music and/or lyrics to a number
of musical revues on and off-Broadway, as well as writing nightclub
material for a variety of performers.
His first great success came with the
musical cantata Ballad for Americans, a 13-minute paean to
American democracy for soloist and full orchestra and chorus (music
by Earl Robinson.) Written to be the finale of the Federal Theatre Project's
musical revue, Sing for Your Supper, it achieved national success
when performed on the radio by Paul Robeson. It led to the opportunity
to write lyrics for the hit Broadway musical, Cabin in the Sky
(music by Vernon Duke, book by Lynn Root), which starred Ethel Waters
and was subsequently filmed by MGM under the direction of Vincente Minnelli,
featuring Waters, Eddie "Rochester" Anderson, and Lena Horne.
Latouche's second hit song, "Taking a Chance on Love," comes
from Cabin.
Duke and Latouche followed the show
with the songs for two short-lived star vehicles, Banjo Eyes
(for Eddie Cantor) and The Lady Comes Across (for Jessie Matthews).
World War II intervened in their collaboration; Latouche served in the
Seabees.
He resumed his Broadway career in 1944,
writing the lyrics for two unsuccessful operettas, Rhapsody
(from the music of Fritz Kreisler, adapted by Robert Russell Bennett)
and Polonaise (from the music of Frederic Chopin, adapted by
Bronislaw Kaper.) Three critically acclaimed but financially unsuccessful
musicals for which Latouche did book and lyrics followed:
Beggar's Holiday (1946? music by Duke Ellington), an interracial
contemporary version of John Gay's The Beggar's Opera, starring
Alfred Drake as Macheath, from which emerged the jazz standard, "Take
Love Easy"; Ballet Ballads (1948? music by Jerome Moross),
three one-act "dance cantatas"; and The Golden Apple
(1954? music by Moross), which reset Homer's The Iliad and
The Odyssey in 1900 in the American Northwest and won the prestigious
New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Musical. It also gave Latouche
his last big hit song, "Lazy Afternoon."
Next came The Vamp, in 1955,
a vehicle for Carol Channing (music by James Mundy, co-book writer Sam
Locke). A spoof of the early days of silent films and loosely based
on the life and career of Theda Bara, it was a critical and commercial
failure on Broadway, despite receiving largely positive reviews on its
pre-Broadway tour.
In July of 1956, the opera The
Ballad of Baby Doe opened to rave reviews. Perhaps Latouche's best-known
work, Baby Doe came about due to a commission from the Koussevitsky
Foundation. But composer Douglas Moore and playwright/lyricist Paul
Green, the original choice as librettist, ran into artistic differences,
and Latouche was brought on board to replace Green. Though the two were
unlikely cohorts--Moore a patrician family man, Latouche an openly gay
man and a dedicated hedonist--their work ultimately bore the mark of
a shared appreciation of the Tabor story, and, after considerable research
and a "fact-finding" trip to Leadville, Colorado, a deep understanding
of how the story might make for some especially rich musical theatre.
Baby Doe's world premiere
took place in the opera house at Central City, Colorado (which opened
in early March of 1878, reputedly with the REAL Baby Doe in the audience).
It was subsequently presented in 1958 at the New York City Opera, making
a star out of Beverly Sills, and is one of the few 20th-century American
operas to enter the standard repertory.
Talented, gregarious, engaging, John
Latouche made an impression on everyone he met. "He would find
the quietest person at party and in no time that would be the liveliest
part of the room," according to Moore's daughter, Mary.
Latouche died of a sudden heart attack
at his Vermont home at the age of 41, having just completed revisions
on The Ballad of Baby Doe and while at work on revisions to
his lyrics for Candide (to Leonard Bernstein's music), produced
posthumously on Broadway in December, 1956. Divorced from Connecticut
heiress Theodora "Teddy" Griffis after a brief, early marriage,
he was survived by his partner-in-life, poet Kenward Elmslie, who still
occupies their Vermont home today.
Biography courtesy of Erik Haagensen