Reginald De Koven

Henry Louis Reginald De Koven was born on April 3, 1859, in Middletown, Connecticut, and died on January 16, 1920. He worked as a composer, lyricist, and book writer for the Broadway stage, as well as a music critic, and was among the most prolific American composers of comic opera in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

De Koven's father was an Episcopal priest, as was his uncle, James DeKoven. In 1870 the family relocated to Europe, where De Koven received most of his formal education. He earned a Bachelor of Arts from St. John's College, Oxford, in 1880. His musical training was extensive and international: he studied piano at the Stuttgart Conservatory under Wilhelm Speidel, Sigmund Lebert, and Dionys Pruckner; composition in Frankfurt with Johann Christian Hauff; and singing in Florence with Luigi Vanuccini. He subsequently pursued operatic composition with Richard Genée in Vienna and then with Léo Delibes in Paris.

He returned to the United States in 1882 and settled first in Chicago, Illinois, before later moving to New York City. His broad musical background found an outlet in criticism, and he wrote for the Chicago Evening Post, Harper's Weekly, and the New York World. Among his many songs, "Oh Promise Me," with words by Clement Scott, became one of the most popular songs of its era and has endured as a wedding standard.

Between 1887 and 1913, De Koven composed twenty light operas, along with hundreds of songs, orchestral works, sonatas, and ballets. His works were patterned after the model of Gilbert and Sullivan rather than the continental operetta tradition that influenced his contemporary Victor Herbert. His greatest success was the operetta Robin Hood, with a libretto by Harry B. Smith, which premiered in Chicago in 1890 and subsequently played at New York's Knickerbocker Theatre and in London in 1891, and at New York's Garden Theatre in 1892, continuing to be revived for many years afterward. Other operettas included The Fencing Master, produced at the Casino Theatre in New York in 1892; Rob Roy, first staged in Detroit, Michigan, in 1894; The Highwayman, presented at the Herald Square Theatre in New York in 1897; and The Little Duchess, produced at the Casino Theatre in 1901.

His Broadway credits as composer, lyricist, or book writer span a wide range of productions. These include the operetta Foxy Quiller, set in Corsica, with a libretto by Harry B. Smith; the musical Broadway to Tokio, with book and lyrics by Louis Harrison and George V. Hobart; The Jersey Lily, with book and lyrics by George V. Hobart; The Beauty Spot, produced at the Herald Square Theatre in 1909, with book by Joseph W. Herbert and lyrics by Terry Sullivan; and The Golden Butterfly, an operetta with a libretto by Harry B. Smith. Additional stage works include The Begum, The Algerian, The Tzigane, The Mandarin, The Three Dragoons, Papa's Wife, The Man in the Moon, Maid Marian, Red Feather, Happyland, The Student King, and The Wedding Trip.

From 1902 to 1904, De Koven conducted the symphony orchestra in Washington, D.C. Despite skepticism from the music press about his ability to compose in a serious operatic form, his opera The Canterbury Pilgrims, with a libretto by poet and dramatist Percy MacKaye, premiered at the Metropolitan Opera in 1917. He completed a second opera, Rip Van Winkle, also with a libretto by MacKaye, but died before its 1920 premiere in Chicago. His wife, Anna de Koven, was a socialite, novelist, and amateur historian who published under the name Mrs. Reginald de Koven.