by Sam Juliano
Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II are the “Giacomo Puccinis” of the stage and screen musical form. Like the Italian opera master, the American composing team wrote flowing and sonorous melodies in the service of basic story lines that showcased romance as the central plot device. Like the Italian, their stage work has achieved enormous popularity with the public. In fact, Rogers and Hammerstein remain to this day the most popular composers of show music, much as Puccini is hands down opera’s most resounding audience favorite. Rodgers and Hammerstein were further linked to their European compatriot in the international scope of their musical vision. Puccini’s four defining works were set in Rome, Paris, Japan, and China, while the composing duo set their own seminal half-dozen works in Oklahoma, New England, the Middle West, the South Pacific, Austria and the Far East. Of course when romance and high drama are played out in such scenic and exotic locations that seem almost cut off from the rest of the world, one immediately understands the creators are striving to apply universal themes that are realized in the passion-infused words and music that have remained a staple in their respective forms. (more…)
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