HAMMERSTEIN, OSCAR II (b. New York, USA 12 July, 1895; d. Doylestown Pa. 23 Aug, 1960)
Hammerstein was the grandson of the opera manager Oscar Hammerstein I, who built the Manhattan Opera House, and was bought out by the The Met. At first intended for the law, the grandson studied at Columbia University and graduated in 1917 before turning his attention to the theatre.
His work as a lyricist began in the twenties with collaboration on libretti for the successful musical shows, Rose Marie and The Desert Song. In 1926 he joined forces with the composer Jerome Kern to write the Broadway smash hit, Show Boat. The lyrics for the bass aria Ol Man River are amongst his most successful, juxtaposing the drudgery and harshness of African-American life in the old South with the remorseless continuity of the flow of the Mississippi river.
In 1943 Hammerstein began a collaboration with the composer Richard Rogers, with whom he produced several spectacularly successful musicals. These included Oklahoma! (1943), Carousel (1945), South Pacific (1949) and The King and I (1951).
