Dublin-born Victor Herbert emigrated to America in 1896. He earned world renown as a composer of operettas for which he produced a wealth of memorable melodies that to this day have never lost their charm. Herbert also aspired to be an accepted ‘classical’ music composer, and in 1911 completed an opera, Natoma, strongly influenced by Wagner. His American years produced the charming Irish Rhapsody of 1892, and the attractive Columbus Suite completed in 1903.