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White Horse Inn (Broadway version)

opera by Hans Spialek

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 revisionMay 11, 2026
Entity authorityQ15844974 ↗
Source-derived summary

White Horse Inn is the title of the Broadway version of the operetta Im weißen Rößl. The original operetta by Erik Charell and composers Ralph Benatzky and Robert Stolz was based on the popular farce of the same name by Oscar Blumenthal and Gustav Kadelburg. It was premiered at Berlin's Großes Schauspielhaus on 8 November 1930 and ran for 416 performances. The Broadway version was premiered on 1 October 1936 at the Center Theatre in New York City. It had a libretto by David Freedman and lyrics by Irving Caesar. The original score was re-orchestrated by Hans Spialek.

Background

White Horse Inn opened in New York on 1 October 1936, at the Center Theatre. In 1931, Jacob Wilk, executive for Warner Brothers Films, had approached Erik Charell with regard to a possible American production of White Horse Inn. But it was not until February 1936 that The New York Times finally disclosed that a triumvirate of producers – Rowland Stebbins, Warner Brothers and the Rockefellers – would present White Horse Inn. "Such delay was due to the depression shortage of investment capital for large scale musicals, and a reluctance to mount Graham's translation, penned in an 'old-fashioned operetta' style".

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “White Horse Inn (Broadway version)” as opera by Hans Spialek. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around White, Horse and Broadway.

Editorial reviewA useful identification and reception guide that helps separate the work itself from editions, performances, ownership and later interpretation. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1930, 1936, 1931—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with White, Horse and Broadway providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “White Horse Inn (Broadway version)”, the useful work is to connect “opera by Hans Spialek” 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 May 11, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q15844974. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1930, 1936 and 1931.

Critical limits

Rights, attribution and provenance may remain disputed even when a general reference summary presents a stable account. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. 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 “White Horse Inn (Broadway version)”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow White Horse Inn (Broadway version) primary sources, White Horse Inn (Broadway version) archive and White 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 “White Horse Inn (Broadway version)”?
  2. Which edition, object, performance or recording is being described?
  3. How did later circulation or interpretation alter the work’s reception?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “White Horse Inn (Broadway version)” 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.