When filming began in 1936 (in color), the original opera finale was also recorded, staged and shot. This was to have been Act II of Giacomo Puccini's "Tosca", one of the few operatic works with major roles for baritone (Scarpia) and soprano as equals (Tosca). It also allowed Jeanette MacDonald to sing the famous aria "Vissi D'arte". By the time shooting recommenced in black and white, this idea was scrapped and replaced with an elaborate fake Russian opera "Czaritza" created by Herbert Stothart to music by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, presumably to allow for a big Duet (in "Tosca", she murders Scarpia by stabbing him through the heart!). The rewritten story of "Maytime" presumably demanded it. Sadly, the Technicolor "Tosca" sequence does not appear to have survived, which is a pity as it would have been fascinating to see MacDonald and Nelson Eddy in a major operatic sequence and in color.
The plot of the stage "Maytime" is completely different from the one used in the film, and only one song from the stage production ("Will You Remember?") was retained for the film.
One of MGM mogul Irving Thalberg's personal projects, this originally began filming in Technicolor, with Paul Lukas as Nikolai Nazaroff and Frank Morgan as August Archipenko. When Thalberg died, production was halted. When it was able to resume, black and white was selected as a more economical format. Lukas and Morgan were no longer available, so John Barrymore and Herman Bing took over their roles.
The original release prints contained tinting for pink fruit tree blossoms in the prologue and epilogue, and also in the carnival scene in the body of the story. Unfortunately, only "straight" black and white reissue prints have been used for the DVD release and for broadcast on Turner Classic Movies.
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