Joseph Deighn Redding
Born: 13 September 1859, Sacramento, CA
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- Fay-Yen-Fah,
libretto by Charles Templeton Crocker,
after the Grove-Play
The Land of Happiness
by Crocker and Redding
(26 Feb. 1925,
Monte Carlo;
11 Jan. 1926,
San Francisco Grand Opera Company, Columbia Theater)
[San Francisco cast, see Hipsher, p. 367]
Joseph D. Redding was better known as a musical citizen of San Francisco than as a composer, but he was the author, among other works, of the opera Fay-Yen-Fah (some sources give it as Fay-En-Fah), which became, not only the first American opera produced in France, but also the first American opera performed by the San Francisco Opera, as part of a special January season. The opera was composed to an English libretto, but the premiere and the San Francisco production were presented in French for the convenience of the singers.
Redding's contribution to American opera also includes the libretto to Victor
Herbert's Natoma and Henry Hadley's Semper virens.
last update: 1 Jan. 2003
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