Opera Books
THE OPERA
EDITED BY
ALBERT HILLERY BERGH
VOLUME IV.
1909
{269}
Damrosch.
Walter Johannes
Damrosch was born at Breslau, Prussia, in 1862. Early in life he was
instructed in harmony by his father, Dr. Leopold Damrosch, and also
studied under Rischbieter and Draeseke in Dresden. He came to this
country with his parents in 1871, and has since become prominent as a
musical conductor. He conducted German opera at the Metropolitan Opera
House, New York, as assistant to his father, and succeeded him as
conductor of the New York Oratorio and Symphony Society. He was also
assistant conductor to Anton Seidel at the Metropolitan Opera House, and
in 1894 founded the Damrosch Opera Company. He conducted German operas
at the Metropolitan Opera House during the seasons of 1900-01 and
1901-05.
He is at present the conductor of the New York Symphony Orchestra,
which he founded in 1892. He has written two operas, The Scarlet
Letter and Cyrano. The libretto of Cyrano was adapted
from Rostand’s play of the same name.
Opera in three acts by
Damrosch. Libretto adapted by George Parsons Lathrop from Hawthorne’s
novel of the same name.
{270}
Characters: Hester Prynne; Roger Chillingsworth; Arthur Dinnnesdale;
Rev. John Wilson; Governor Bellingham; Puritan men and women, soldiers
and jailers.
Place, Boston. Time, Seventeenth Century. First produced, in part
only, in New York, at the Symphony Society concerts at Carnegie Hall,
January 4, 1895.
First produced as an entire opera in New York on March 6, 1896.
The first act opens in the market-place in the old town of Boston.
The stage is filled with an infuriated crowd of Puritans clamoring for
the immediate death of Hester Prynne, who is kept in the prison awaiting
judgment. The jailer and his soldiers finally succeed in driving back
the crowd and forming a lane leading from the prison to a scaffold in
front of the Council Hall. Through this lane Hester passes, the scarlet
letter embroidered upon her bosom. As she reaches the scaffold the
populace are about to break through the line of soldiers surrounding her,
when the roll of drums announces the approach of the Governor, his staff
and various dignitaries of the Church, among whom is young Arthur
Dimmesdale, the beloved pastor of the people. Wilson and Governor
Belliugham command Hester to confess the name of her lover. She is
silent. Arthur himself is bidden to speak to her, and in impassioned
accents and veiled allusions to his own guilt he implores her to tell
what he himself dare not confess. Again she refuses, when suddenly from
the crowd is heard the voice of Chillingsworth, her husband, of whose
presence in the new country she knew nothing, crying out: woman, speak
and give thy child a father!” Hester,
{271}
startled, exclaims: “No! no! thrice No! My child has found its Heavenly
Father; ye shall never know its earthly one!” At this impassioned
outburst the people shout to the Governor in fury, demanding her
immediate death. Arthur’s voice is heard above the din in self-accusing
accents. Chillingsworth vows to take terrible vengeance upon the man who
has wronged him, while the Rev. John Wilson pleads for mercy.
When the tumult subsides, the Governor proclaims the punishment:
“Henceforth apart from others she shall tarry, and on her breast shall
life-long carry the scarlet letter.” The Governor commands the people to
enter the church, there to offer a prayer to the Almighty. All enter the
meeting-house, leaving Hester upon the scaffold. Chillingsworth, who has
been crouching near it, makes himself known to her, and finally, in an
impassioned scene, although trying in vain to wrest from her the name of
her lover, he succeeds in forcing her to promise never to divulge his
own name, either to the world or to her lover. He vows that he will yet
find the man who has wronged him.
During the singing in the church wild cries are heard, and the
crowd bursts forth crying that the minister has fainted. Arthur,
overcome by the terrible tortures of his conscience, has suddenly
swooned, and is carried from the church. Hester sees him, and, forgetful
of the watchful eyes of Cbillingsworth, hurries down the steps of the
scaffold towards him. As she approaches Arthur the Puritans drive her
back with the words: “Back, woman, thy touch to this man’s soul would be
pollution!” Chillingsworth, who has watched her closely,
{272}
suddenly cries out, “ ’Tis he! ’tis he! Ye powers of darkness, I have
found the man!”
In a subsequent act Hester is in the forest, struggling with her
grief and scorned by a band of pilgrims, who pass singing a lively
madrigal. Chillingworth meets Arthur and urges him with considerable
cunning to offer consolation to Hester. The act ends with a long duo
between Hester and Arthur, closing with their determination to escape
across the sea.
In the beginning of the last act we learn that Chillingworth has
detected their plain, and has engaged passage on the same ship.
Ultimately Arthur ascends the pillory with Hester, makes a full
confession of his guilt, and dies in her arms. Hester then exclaims,
“Thou shalt not go alone,” and poisons herself, while the chorus that
had been jeering her sings the final chorus, “Hush, hush, their souls
are fled!”
Opera in four acts by
Damrosch. Libretto by William J. Henderson, adapted from the play
“Cyrano de Bergerac,” by Edmond Rostand.
Characters: Cyrano; Roxane; Puenna; Lise; Flower Girl; Mother
Superior; Christian; Raguenean; De Guiche; Le Bret; First Musketeer;
Second Musketeer; Montfleury; a Monk; four Cavaliers; cadets.
Place, Paris and Arras. Time, the Seventeenth Century. First
produced at New York in 1913.
The operatic story begins at the theatre, where Cyrano appears to
order the main actor off the stage, apparently just as a piece of
bravado, but in reality because the actor has dared to raise his eyes
insolently to
{272a}
Roxane, Cyrano’s cousin, and the woman he loves, but may not woo; owing
to his physical deformity, his ridiculous nose. Roxane also appears at
the play in a box, and in the audience she discovers Christian, a young
officer with whom she has fallen in love, and who is in love with her,
although they do not know each other. Cyrano fights a duel with De
Guiche, a roué suitor of Roxane, and becomes the observed of all
observers, as he pricks his adversary in the arm, according to his boast,
at the last line of a song he sings. After an interview with Roxane’s
duenna, who arranges a meeting for his cousin with him, he is so elated
that he starts off to put to flight a hundred men who are in ambush to
kill one of his friends.
In the second act Cyrano is in the shop of the chef, Ragueneau,
where he is to meet Roxane. He has killed a few desperadoes and
dispersed the rest, but all is forgotten in his impatience to see
Roxane. He writes an ardent love letter which he intends to give her,,
but all his hopes are blasted when she tells him of her love for
Christian, who is that day to join the regiment to which Cyrano belongs.
He promises her that he will protect the man she loves. From Christian
he bears insults, and for love of Roxane he makes a compact with him to
woo the lady through verse and charming wit, all of which he carefully
teaches to Christian. He even gives him the love letter he had just
written, telling him it will suit Roxane perfectly.
In the next act Christian rebels at this arrangement and after
making love in a most humdrum way to Roxane, who is disgusted with his
lack of wit, he gladly accepts Cyrano’s offer of renewed help. Cyrano
hides in the dark under Roxane’s balcony, prompting the unpoetic
{272b}
poetic lover, but the results are so halting that, in spite of the
darkness, the lady becomes suspicious, and Cyrano has to displace
Christian under cover of the night and make love to her himself. Roxane
is delighted with his wooing and grants her lover a kiss. At this moment
a monk appears with a letter from De Guiche, who is desirous of
obtaining a rendezvous. The clever Roxane sees her chance to resort to a
ruse. She ignores the actual contents of the letter and tells the monk
that the letter contains a request that he perform the marriage ceremony
for her and her lover. Cyrano stays outside, and when De Guiche arrives
he keeps him entertained with {lubricious} stories until Roxane and
Christian are united in marriage. For revenge, De Guiche orders the
regiment of the Gascons, to which Cyrano and Christian belong, to the
war.
The final act opens at the siege of Arras, where the famished but
ever-courageous Gaseous are holding their own at the cost of enormous
effort. Suddenly Roxane appears in a carriage driven by the faithful
Ragueneau. Cyrano’s love letters, ostensibly from Christian, have drawn
her to her husband’s side. To Christian’s horror, he finds, from her
enthusiasm over these love letters, that the man she really loves is
Cyrano, although she believes it is Christian. Christian leaves for the
front after having implored Cyrano to explain all to Roxane. The
broken-hearted husband is wounded in battle and is brought back in a
dying condition. Cyrano assures him that he has explained all, and
endeavors to convince Christian that Roxane really loves him.
The scene then changes to a convent, where the widowed Roxane has
gone for consolation in her grief. To her comes Cyrano, wounded and
dying. He begs to see
{272c}
her husband’s last letter, and as the dusk falls, he forgets himself,
recites it from memory, and thus betrays his love to Roxane. As he dies
he declares that his honor has remained unsullied.
The consensus of critical opinion in regard to Cyrano is
that the score is a composite of various musical styles which the
composer has endeavored to fuse into a consistent and homogeneous entity.
The music never rises above the level of average achievement, and the
composer’s style is singularly devoid of individuality.
Last updated April 20, 2007