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Babes in Toyland / Red Mill on CD

Few works seem to encapsulate the turn-of-the-century mood as well as Victor Herbert's indestructible Babes in Toyland of 1903, a vaudeville-like musical stage play. The music is sweetly nostalgic and was famously incorporated in the 1934 movie with Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy. This suite from the stage play is performed rather well, highlighting the more universal romantic elements Herbert invested in the music. Included are the famous "Toyland" and "March of the Toys." But also here is the "Prelude" that Herbert couldn't use in the original staging (it was too long for the era). The Red Mill (1906) is in much the same vein as Babes, with sparkling marches and lilting melodies, and it at times resembles the fin-de-siècle works of Albert Ketelbay.