ABSTRACT
Victor Herbert's Naughty Marietta–from which Young Frankenstein borrows 'Ah, Sweet Mystery of Life' – for example, recreates an exotic New Orleans governed by the pre-revolutionary French, rife with politically motivated pirates. Young Frankenstein, which appeared in between the stage musical and film versions of Rocky Horror, is not a musical in conventional terms, yet it is in its way as centrally dependent on music as Rocky Horror. The 'Dream Melody' from Naughty Marietta refers quite explicitly to the larger themes of Frankenstein, in the central image of its leading phrase. The features of the Frankenstein story that Young Frankenstein takes for granted, as the basis for its own play with conventions, are it's use of electricity and music as tokens of the divine appropriated by humanity, using the latter, in particular, to chart a path to the safer ground of operetta conventions regarding mysterious songs of special personal significance.
