CACrown ArchivesThe cinema collection
Menu
Research dossier · Arts & Letters

The Princess Pat

opera by Victor Herbert

Manuscripts, fine bindings, an engraving plate and preserved performance ephemera
Arts and lettersInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJun 18, 2026
Entity authorityQ7758309
Source-derived summary

The Princess Pat is an operetta in three acts with music by Victor Herbert and book and lyrics by Henry Blossom. While set on Long Island, New York, the story follows the American born Princess di Montaldo, a.k.a. "Princess Pat" (formerly Patrice O'Connor), who is married to the Italian Prince Antonio di Montaldo, a.k.a. "Prince Toto". Unhappy that her husband ignores her, she is intent on winning back his attention and affections. Herbert wrote the piece as a vehicle for the soprano Eleanor Painter.

Performance history

After an Atlantic City, New Jersey tryout in August 1915, The Princess Pat was scheduled to make its Broadway debut on September 27, 1915. However, the opening was postponed for two days when the actress Angela Palmer (born Pearl Foster), who was scheduled to perform the important ingenue role of Grace Holbrook, was murdered by her boyfriend on September 26. The producers quickly found and rehearsed the replacement for this role, Eva Fallon.

The Princess Pat premiered on Broadway on September 29, 1915, at the Cort Theatre, and ran for 158 performances; closing on February 12, 1916.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “The Princess Pat” as opera by Victor Herbert. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Princess, opera and Victor.

Editorial reviewA productive route into publication, performance and collection histories when the underlying object or edition remains clearly identified. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1915, 1916—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Princess, opera and Victor providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “The Princess Pat”, the useful work is to connect “opera by Victor Herbert” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Object files, edition statements, performance records and contemporary criticism preserve different stages of the work’s history. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 18, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7758309. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1915 and 1916.

Critical limits

Later fame can flatten the distinction between original context, subsequent adaptation and institutional collecting history. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.

Best used for
  • Identifying works and editions
  • Tracing reception history
  • Finding collection records
Verify next

The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “The Princess Pat”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow The Princess Pat primary sources, The Princess Pat archive and Princess research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “The Princess Pat”?
  2. Which edition, object, performance or recording is being described?
  3. How did later circulation or interpretation alter the work’s reception?
Subject index

Search terms from this dossier

Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from The Princess Pat” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.