|
|
Bob’s
|
|
Reviews — The New York Times
From the New York Times - November 7, 1909
MANHATTAN SEASON OPENS WITH ”HERODIADE”
Massenet’s Production To Be Heard For the First Time In America
Tomorrow Evening.
“Herodiade,” though it will be heard for the first time in America tomorrow evening, has already arrived at what must be considered a very respectable age in the life of a modern opera, for in this realm of art the infant mortality reaches a very high percentage. It is, in fact, among Massenet’s earliest works for the stage, only a couple of opera comiques that have left little trace and the opera “Le Roi de Lahore,” having preceded it when it was composed in 1878. “Le Roi de Lahore” made a great success in Italy, among other countries outside of France, in 1877, and the music publisher Ricordi, who has an eagle eye for young composers of talent, ordered a new opera of Massenet’s, who responded with the score of “Herodiade.” Its libretto was written by one Zanardini, and it was intended for the “stagione” at La Scala, in Milan, in the early Spring of 1881. But it was postponed, as new operas often are, whereupon Massenet took back his score and sent it to Brussels, where it was promptly produced at the hospitable Theatre de la Monnaie, foster mother of many French operas that have gone begging elsewhere. The first production took place on Dec. 19, 1881. On Feb 1, 1884, it was brought out in Paris at the Theatre Italian, then under the management of Victor Maurel, who now lives in New York. The cast is interesting to New York operagoers, for in it were Jean de Reszke, Victor Maurel, and Edouard de Reszke. For this production (which had no enduring success) Massenet made changes and additions to his score, adding two new tableaux at the beginning of the second and third acts, respectively.
The day of “Herodiade” came later. It was revived in 1903 at the Gaite, and had forty-three performances, with Mme. Calvé and Mr. Renaud in the cast. It was taken to London in the “season” of that year, and was produced at Covent Garden with a company comprising Mmes. Calvé and Kirkby Lunn, and Messrs. Dalmores, Renaud, Plan‡on, and Gilibert. It was given then in a strange transmogrification, however, under the title of “Salome,” and there were various absurd changes in the names and attributes of the chief characters, “more Brittanico,” enforced by the Lord Chamberlain as censor, in order that Biblical characters and Biblical scenes might not appear on the stage - although there is very little or nothing happening in “Herodiade” that is described in the New Testament account of the Daughter of Herodias.
The libretto was made over into French by Messrs. Milliet and Gremiet, ’prentice hands, apparently, both of them. They have departed a long way from the plain tale of the evangelist Mark, much further, indeed, than did Oscar Wilde. Salome becomes in their manipulation a young convert to John the Baptist’s preaching, who loves him with the love of one who has “seen the light.” She makes love to him openly in song. When she hears of his death through the order of Herodias she throws herself upon Herodias to kill her, who protects herself by crying out that Salome is her own daughter, a relationship till then concealed both from her and from the audience. Thereupon she kills herself; the chorus exclaims “Day of Horror!” and the curtain falls. Nothing in fact, could be more strictly in accordance with the operatic librettist’s rule of thumb.
This tale caused a good deal of derision among the Parisian critics of the day. Thus Camille Saint-Saëns, who was acting then in that capacity for a Parisian journal called the Voltaire, wrote: “Help, Regnier; help, Flaubert! Help me, all of you who have been charmed by this strange type of lascivious adolescence and unconscious cruelty called Salome, the very flower of evil grown in the shadow of the Temple, enigmatic and fascinating. Come and explain to me how Salome is changed into a Mary Magdalen, or rather do not explain. I do not seek to understand, and I will not busy myself with the eccentricities of a poem that escapes my feeble intellect.” Another critic found the characters of all the personages “denatured,” Salome made into a kind of Hebraic grisette, the prophet into a simpleton who is finally captured by the hussy’s wiles. Clearly it is a very different Salome from the one of Wilde and Strauss’s grim and grisly portrayal.
The music of “Herodiade” is not wholly unknown to New York. The air of Salome, “Il est doux, il est bon,” has long been a favorite of prima donnas who sing “grand airs” from operas on the concert stage, and the Herod’s air, “Vision fugitive,” has served the same purpose for baritone singers.
There is not so general a knowledge as there should be of the presence in New York of Mme. Milka Ternina as a teacher of dramatic singing in the Institute of Musical Art. In his recent interesting little book about piano playing Josef Hofmann speaks of the “curious and out-of-date superstition that music can be studied abroad better than here.” He mentions the strange fact that American teachers who have struggled here for many a year without gaining that high recognition that they deserve are now in European capitals receiving the highest fees from American students who throng their studios. As Dr. Damrosch puts it, students would pay hundreds of dollars a year for the opportunity of crossing the ocean to study with so great and authoritative a dramatic artist as Mme. Ternina in Munich, or somewhere else in Germany, but they think much less of the opportunity when it is at their disposal for a five-cent car fare. The profound impression that Mme. Ternina made in the last years of her presence here as a member of the company of the Metropolitan Opera House is still fresh in the memories of all frequenters of the opera. The communicating flame of her dramatic and vocal gifts was all the more intense and powerful because it was directed and controlled by profound study a great intellectual force, and a minute knowledge of the dramatic technique, as has always been true in the case of the greatest artists. And this fact is an inestimable one in determining her value as a teacher. It is seldom that great artists who are such wholly or chiefly “by the grace of God” are the best ones for handing on the torch of their knowledge to their pupils. It would be difficult, for instance, to imagine Mme. Patti, the greatest singer of her generation in vocal endowment, as a great teacher imparting her skill to even the most gifted pupil; and it would be quite impossible for her to train a great dramatic talent. The presence of Mme. Ternina, who has all the qualities to inspire and stimulate others with the artistic impulse that has made her own greatness, ought not to be without a great influence on the development of the singers of lyric drama in this country. It ought to be no longer necessary for ambitious and talented aspirants to seek their training elsewhere. They have altogether too valuable a privilege within their reach at home.
Richard Aldrich.
Last updated December 29, 2006