Opera Books
A SECOND BOOK OF OPERAS
Their
Histories, Their Plots, and
Their Music
by Henry Edward Krehbiel
Garden City,
New York
GARDEN CITY PUBLISHING COMPANY
1926
To
Richard Aldrich
Old and faithful friend, gracious colleague,
kind helper
„Freundschaft ist ein Knotenstodt auf Reisen.“
—Chamisso.
CONTENTS AND INDEX
England and the Lord Chamberlain's censorship, 1 et seq. — Gounod's “Reine de Saba,” 2 — The transmigrations of “Un Ballo in Maschera,” 2 — How composers revamp their music, 3 et seq. — Handel and Keiser, 4 — Mozart and Bertati, 4 —Beethoven's readaptations of his own works, 4 — Rossini and his “Barber of Seville,” 5 — Verdi's “Nebuchadnezzar,” 6 — Rossini's “Moses,” 7, 9, 13 — “Samson et Dalila,” 8, 12 — Goldmark's “Konigin von Saba,” 8 — The Biblical operas of Rubinstein, 8, 11 — Mehul's “Joseph,” 9 — Mendelssohn's “Elijah” in dramatic form, 9 — Oratorios and Lenten operas in Italy, 9 — Carissimi and Peri, 10 — Scarlatti's oratorios, 10 — Scenery and costumes in oratorios, 11 — The passage of the Red Sea and “Dal tuo stellato,” 13 — Nerves wrecked by beautiful music, 15 — “Peter the Hermit” and refractory mimic troops, 15 — “Mi manca la voce” and operatic amenities, 16 — Operatic prayers and ballets, 16 — Goethe's criticism of Rossini's “Mose,” 17.
CHAPTER, II
BIBLE STORIES IN OPERA AND ORATORIO
Dr. Chrysander's theory of the undramatic nature of the Hebrew, his literature, and his life, 19 — Hebrew history and Greek mythology, 21 — Some parallels, 21 — Old Testament subjects: Adam and Eve, 22 — Cain and Abel, 22 — The “Kain” of Bulthanpt and d' Albert, 23 — “Tote Augen,” 25 — Noah and the Deluge, 26 — Abraham, 27 — The Exodus, 27 — Mehal's “Joseph,” 27 — Potiphar's wife and Richard Strauss, 30 — Raimondi's contrapuntal trilogy, 30 — Nebuchadnezzar, 31 — Judas Maccabseus, 31 — Jephtha and his Daughter, 32 — Judith, 33 — Esther, 33 — Athalia, 33.
CHAPTER III
RUBINSTEIN AND HIS "GEISTLICHE OPER"
Anton Rubinstein and his ideals, 34 — An ambition to emulate Wagner, 35 — “The Tower of Babel,” 35, 40, 41 — The composer's theories and strivings, 36 et seq — Dean Stanley, 38 — “Die Makkabäer,” 39 — “Sulamith,” 39 — “Christus,” 40, 47, 48 — “Das verlorene Paradies,” 40, 41 — “Moses,” 40, 42 — Action and stage directions, 41 — New Testament stories in opera, 45 — The Prodigal Son, 45 — Legendary material and the story of the Nativity, 46 — Christ dramas, 47 — Hebbel and Wagner, 48 — “Parsifal,”
The predecessors of M. Saint-Saëns, 51 — Voltaire and Rameau, 51 — Duprez and Joachim Raff, 52, 53 — History of Saint-Saëns's opera, 53 et seq. — Henri Regnault, 54 — First performances, 54 — As oratorio and opera in New York, 55 — An inquiry into the story of Samson, 56 — Samson and Herakles, 57, 58 — The Hebrew hero in legend, 59 — A true type for tragedy, 61 — Mythological interpretations, 61 — Saint-Saëns's opera described, 63 et seq. — A choral prologue, 64 — Local color, 67, 78 — The character of Dalila, 69 et seq. — Milton on her wifehood and patriotism, 70 — “Printemps qui commence,” 73 — “Mon coeur s'ouvre a ta voix,” 76 — Oriental ballet music, 78 — The catastrophe, 80.
CHAPTER V
“DIE KÖNIGIN VON SABA”
Meritoriousness of the book of Goldmark's opera, 81 — Its slight connection with Biblical story, 82 — Contents of the drama 82 et seq. — Parallelism with Wagner's “Tannhäuser,” 85 — First performance in New York, 85 — Oriental luxury in scenic outfit, 86 — Goldmark's music, 87.
Modern opera and ancient courtesans, 89 — Transformed morals in Massenet's opera, 90 — A sea-change in England, 91 — Who and what was Salome? 91 — Plot of the opera, 92 — Scenic and musical adornments, 93 — Performances in New York, 94 (footnote).
Story of the opera, 95 et seq. — The “Bell Song,” 96 — Some unnecessary English ladies, 97 — First performance in New York, 98 — American history of the opera, 99 — Madame Patti, 100 — Miss Van Zandt, 101 — Madame Sembrich, 101 — Madame Tetrazzini, 101 — Criticism of the drama, 101 — The music, 102.
The twin operas, “Cavalleria rusticana” and “Pagliacci,” 104 — Widespread influence of Mascagni's opera, 105 — It inspires an ambition in Leoncavallo, 107 — History of his opera, 107 — A tragic ending taken from real life, 108 et seq. — Controversy between Leoncavallo and Catulle Mendès, 109 et seq. — “La Femme de Tabarin,” 112 — “Tabarin” operas, 113 — The “Drama Nuevo” of Estebanez and Mr. Howells's “Yorick's Love,” 113 — What is a Pagliaccio? 114 — First performances of the opera in Milan and New York, 115 — The prologue, 115 et seq. — The opera described, 119 et seq. — Bagpipes and vesper bells, 120 — Harlequin's serenade, 105, 123 — The Minuet, 123 — The Gavotte, 124 — “Plaudite, amici, la commedia finita est!” 125 — Philip Hale on who should speak the final words, 126.
CHAPTER IX
“CAVALLERIA RUSTICANA”
How Mascagni's opera impressed the author when it was new, 127 — Attic tragedy and Attic decorum, 128 — The loathsome operatic brood which it spawned, 128 — Not matched by the composer or his imitators since, 129 — Mascagni's account of how it came to be written, 129 et seq. — Verga's story, 131 — et seq.--Story and libretto compared, 135 — The Siciliano, 137, 140 — The Easter hymn, 137, 142 — Analysis of the opera, 137 et seq. — The prelude, 137 — Lola's stornello, 144 — The intermezzo, 146 — “They have killed Neighbor Turiddu!” 130, 149.
CHAPTER X
THE CAREER OF MASCAGNI
Influence of “Cavalleria rusticana” on operatic composition, 150 — “Santuzza,” a German sequel, 151 — Cilea's “Tilda,” 128 — Giordano's “Mala Vita,” 128, 152 — Tasca's “A Santa Lucia,” 128, 153 — Mascagni's history, 154 et seq. — Composes Schiller's “Hymn to Joy,” 154 — “Il Filanda,” 154 — “Ratcliff, 129, 154, 157 — “L'Amico Fritz,” 155 — “I Rantzau,” 157 — “Silvano,” 158 — “Zanetto,” 158, 160 — “Le Maschere,” 159 — “Vistillia,” 159 — “Amica,” 159 — Mascagni's American visit, 159.
The song of the sun, 162 — Allegory and drama, 163, 166 — Story of the opera, 163 et seq. — The music, 167 et seq. — Turbid orchestration, 167 — Local color, 167 — Borrowings from Meyerbeer, 168.
CHAPTER XII
”MADAMA BUTTERFLY”
The opera's ancestry, 169 — Loti's “Madame Chrysantheme,” 169 — John Luther Long's story, 169 — David Belasco's play, 169 — How the failure of “Naughty Anthony” suggested “Madame Butterfly,” 169 — William Furst and his music, 171, 189 — Success of Mr. Belasco's play in New York, 171 — The success repeated in London, 172 — Brought to the attention of Signor Puccini, 172 — Ricordi and Co. and their librettists, 172 — “Madama Butterfly” fails in Milan, 173 — The first casts in Milan, Brescia, and New York, 173 (footnote) — Incidents of the fiasco, 174 — Rossini and Puccini, 174 — The opera revised, 175 — Interruption of the vigil, Story of the opera, 175 et seq. — The hiring of wives in Japan, 176 — Experiences of Pierre Loti, 176 — Geishas and mousmés, 178 — A changed denouement, 183 — Messager's opera, “Madame Chrysantheme,” 183 — The end of Loti's romance, 184 — Japanese melodies in the score, 186 — Puccini's method and Wagner's, 187 — “The Star-Spangled Banner,” 187 — A tune from “The Mikado,” 187 — Some of the themes of Puccini and William Furst, 188, 189.
CHAPTER XIII
“DER ROSENKAVALIER”
The opera's predecessors, “Guntram,” “Feuersnot,” “Salome,” 190 — Oscar Wilde makes a mistaken appeal to France, 190 — His necrophilism welcomed by Richard Strauss and Berlin, 190 — Conried's efforts to produce “Salome” at the Metropolitan Opera House suppressed, 191 — Hammerstein produces the work, 191 — “Elektra,” 192 — Hugo von Hoffmannsthal and Beaumarchais, 192 — Strauss and Mozart, 193 — Mozart's themes and Strauss's waltzes, 193 — Dancing in Vienna at the time of Maria Theresa, 193 — First performance of the opera at New York, 194 — “Der Rosenkavalier” and “Le Nozze di Figaro,” 195 — Criticism of the play and its music, 195 et seq. — Use of a melodic phrase from “Die Zauberflöte, 198 — The language of the libretto, 198 — The music, 199 — Cast of the first American performance, 200 (footnote).
Story of the play, 201 et seq. — First production of Hummerdinck's opera and cast, 203 — Earlier performance of the work as a melodrama, 204 — Author and composer, 204 — Opera and melodrama in Germany, 205 — Wagnerian symbolism and music, 206 — “Die Meistersinger” recalled, 207, 208 — Hero and Leander, 207 — Humperdinck's music, 208.
First performance of Moussorgsky's opera in New York, 209 — Participation of the chorus in the tragedy, 210 — Imported French enthusiasm, 211 — Vocal melody, textual accents and rhythms, 212 — Slavicism expressed in an Italian translation, 212 — Moussorgsky and Debussy, 213 — Political reasons for French enthusiasm, 212 — Rimsky-Korsakoff's revision of the score, 214 — Russian operas in America, 214 — “Nero,” “Pique Dame,” “Eugene Onegin,” Verstoffeky's “Askold's Tomb,” 214, 215 — The nationalism of “Boris Godounoff,” 216 — The Kolydda song “Slava” and Beethoven, 217 — Lack of the feminine element in the drama, 218 — The opera's lack of coherency, 219 — Cast of the first American performance, 219.
CHAPTER XVI
“MADAME SANS-GÊNE” AND OTHER OPERAS
BY GIORDANO
First performance of “Madame Sans-Gene,” 221 — A singing Napoleon, 221 — Royalties in opera, 221 — Henry the Fowler, King Mark, Verdi's Pharaoh, Herod, Boris Godounoff, Macbeth, Gustavus and some mythical kings and dukes, 222 et seq. — Mattheson's “Boris,” 223 — Peter the Great, 223 — Sardou's play and Giordano's opera, 224 — Verdi on an operatic Bonaparte, 224 — Sardou's characters, 225 — “Andrea Chenier,” 226, 227, 228 — French Rhythms, 226 — “Fedora,” 227, 228 — “Siberia,” 227, 229 — The historic Chenier, 228 — Russian local color, 229 — “Schöne Minka,” 229 — “Slava,” 229 — “Ay ouchnem,” 229 — French revolutionary airs, 230 — “La Marseillaise,” 230 — “La Carmagnole, 230 — “Ça ira,” 231.
CHAPTER XVII
TWO OPERAS BY WOLF-FERRARI
The composer's operas first sung in their original tongue in America,232 — First performances of “Le Donne Curiose,” “Il Segreto di Susanna,” “I Giojelli della Madonna,” “L'Amore Medico,” 232 — Story and music of “Le Donne Curiose,” 234 — Methods and apparatus of Mozart's day, 235 — Wolf-Ferrari's Teutonism, 235 — Goldoni paraphrased, 235 — Nicolai and Verdi, 236 — The German version of “Donne Curiose,” 237 — Musical motivi in the opera, 237 — Rameau's “La Poule,” 237 — Cast of the first performance in New York, 238 (footnote) — Naples and opera, 239 — “I Giojelli della Madonna,” 239 et seq. — Erlanger's “Aphrodite,” 240 — Neapolitan folksongs, 241 — Wolf-Ferrari's individuality, 242 — His “Vita Nuova,” 242 — First performance in America of “I Giojelli,” 243.
Last updated October 30, 2006