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2 unusual facts about Herman Darewski


Herman Darewski

Born in Minsk, and musically trained in Vienna, he worked in London, for the first 15 years of the new century, as a composer of light songs, some of which were written for the new theatre form, revue.

Darewski was born in Minsk, then part of the Russian empire, where his father Eduard Darewski, a Polish singing professor, was working.


Adrian Ross

He also worked on the revues Three Cheers (1917) with Herman Darewski, Airs and Graces with Lionel Monckton, and, years later, Sky High for the Palladium Theatre, but these were only diversions from his chief focus of writing lyrics for musicals and operetta adaptations.

The Better 'Ole

The Better 'Ole, also called The Romance of Old Bill, is an Edwardian musical comedy with a book by Bruce Bairnsfather and Arthur Elliot, music by Herman Darewski, and lyrics by Percival Knight and James Heard, based on the cartoon character Old Bill, an infantryman, drawn by Bairnsfather.


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