[Sponsorship for this series on alternate weeks was Lux Soap,
so on those weeks it was called: "Lux Playhouse";
Syndicated title: "Herald Playhouse"]
(CBS Primetime, 1951 - 1959;
Syndicated)
[aka: "Petit Caprice (for Piano)";
The English translation of the French title "La Boutique Fantasque"
is "The Fantastic Toyshop", although usually the French title
is seen on concert and ballet programs. This 1919 ballet was
created by Italian composer Ottorino Respighi from melodies
of earlier Italian composer Gioacchino Rossini (1792 - 1868)
whose most famous opera was "William Tell". (The overture for
"William Tell" is also the source of the "Lone Ranger" THEME.)
As contributor Tom Perrone points out, Respighi adapted the "Can Can"
movement of his suite from Rossini's "Petit Caprice (for Piano)".
Further information about it was uncovered on the Harvard College
Library Web Site. An abstract of that information follows:
After his successful career as an opera composer Rossini took a
long and well-deserved hiatus from composing. When he returned to
write, he wrote short pieces for solo piano and for voice with
piano accompaniment. At the end of his life, between the years
1857 - 1868, he wrote 237 such "miscellaneous" pieces, organized
in 13 albums, sometimes called "Péchés de Vieillesse."
The "Petit Caprice" is No. 6 from Book 10 of Rossini's 13 albums.
It's manuscript is at the Houghton Library, at Harvard College.
After Rossini's death in 1868, his widow sold this collection
of unpublished manuscripts to the English Baron Albert Grant.
He, in turn, had the collection auctioned in London in 1878.
A French music society acquired them, and licensed the rights of
publication of 35 of the solo piano pieces to the publisher
Heugel. This set was prepared for publication by Auguste Vaucorbeil,
the director of the Paris Opera who gave the pieces new picturesque
titles and changed the order of the pieces for publication.
In 1919 Respighi adapted several of Rossini's piano works for the
orchestra as ballet music, under the title "La Boutique Fantasque."
It was a very successful ballet, and the charming Ballet Suite
from it was often recorded, making Rossini's melody widely known.
Rossini never lived to see how famous this one of his 237 little
pieces would become all over the world -- through the hand of so many
others after his death, via Respighi's Ballet, through recordings,
and eventually through the medium of television.#93;
Composer: Ottorino Respighi (predates ASCAP & BMI)
Original Publisher: [unknown Italian publisher]
2001 Publisher: [public domain]
Composition Date: 1919
U.S. Copyright Date:
Recordings: