Richard Rodgers |

Richard Rodgers

One of the most famous American composers, classic American musical theater Richard Rogers was born in New York on June 28, 1902 in the family of a doctor. The atmosphere of the house was imbued with music, and from the age of four the boy picked up familiar melodies at the piano, and at fourteen he began to compose. His hero and role model was Jerome Kern.

In 1916, Dick wrote his first theatrical music, songs for the comedy One Minute Please. In 1918, he entered Columbia University, where he met Lawrence Hart, who studied literature and language there and at the same time worked in the theater as a revue writer and translator of Viennese operettas. The joint work of Rogers and Hart lasted almost a quarter of a century and led to the creation of about thirty plays. After the student reviews at the university, these are the performances of The Girlfriend (1926), The Connecticut Yankee (1927) and others for Broadway theaters. At the same time, Rogers, not considering his musical education sufficient, has been studying at the New York Institute of Music for three years, where he studies musical theoretical subjects and conducting.

Rodgers’ music is slowly gaining popularity. In 1931, he and Hart were invited to Hollywood. The result of a three-year stay in the capital of the film empire is one of the best musical films of that time, Love Me in the Night.

The co-authors return to New York full of new plans. In subsequent years, there are On Pointe Shoes (1936), The Recruits (1937), I Married an Angel (1938), The Syracuse Boys (1938), Buddy Joy (1940), I Swear by Jupiter ( 1942).

After Hart’s death, Rogers collaborates with another librettist. This is one of the most famous in America, the author of the libretto of Rose Marie and The Floating Theatre, Oscar Hammerstein. With him, Rogers creates nine operettas, including the famous Oklahoma (1943).

The creative portfolio of the composer includes music for films, songs, more than forty musical and theatrical works. In addition to those listed above, these are Carousel (1945), Allegro (1947), In the South Pacific (1949), The King and I (1951), Me and Juliet (1953), The Impossible Dream “(1955), “The Song of the Flower Drum” (1958), “The Sound of Music” (1959), etc.

L. Mikheeva, A. Orelovich