The Complete Opera Book Part 100

The second scene takes place in a convent. _Cyrano_, wounded and dying, visits _Roxane_. He begs to see her husband's last letter.

Forgetting himself, he recites it in the dusk. Thus he betrays his love. But when _Roxane_ realizes the truth he denies it, "dying," as he declares, "without a stain upon his soldier's snow-white plume."

THE CANTERBURY PILGRIMS

Opera in four acts by Reginald de Koven. Book by Percy Mackaye. Produced for the first time on any stage at the Metropolitan Opera House, March 8, 1917, with the following cast:

CHAUCER _Johannes Sembach_ THE WIFE OF BATH _Margaret Ober_ THE PRIORESS _Edith Mason_ THE SQUIRE _Paul Althouse_ KING RICHARD II _Albert Reiss_ JOHANNA _Marie Sundelius_ THE FRIAR _Max Bloch_ JOANNES _Pietro Audisio_ MAN OF LAW _Robert Leonhardt_ THE MILLER _Basil Ruysdael_ THE HOST _Giulio Rossi_ THE HERALD _Riccardo Tegani_ TWO GIRLS { _Marie Tiffany_ { _Minnie Egener_ THE PARDONER _Julius Bayer_ THE SUMMONER _Carl Schlegel_ THE s.h.i.+PMAN _Mario Laurenti_ THE COOK _Pompilio Malatesta_

Conductor, Bodanzky

The time is April, 1387; the place, England. _Chaucer_, first poet-laureate of England, travelling incognito with pilgrims from London to Canterbury, encounters _Alisoun_, the _Wife of Bath_, a woman of the lower middle cla.s.s, buxom, canny, and full of fun, who has had five husbands, and is looking for a sixth. She promptly falls in love with _Chaucer_ who, instead of returning her sprightly attentions, conceives a high, serious, poetic affection for the _Prioress_. She is a gentlewoman, who, according to the custom of the time, is both ecclesiastical and secular, having taken no vows.

The _Wife of Bath_, however, is determined to win her man. Devising a plan for this, she wagers that she will be able to get from the _Prioress_ the brooch, bearing the inscription "Amor Vincit Omnia,"

that this lady wears upon her wrist. Should _Alisoun_ win, _Chaucer_ is bound by compact to marry her. After much plotting and by means of a disguise, the _Wife of Bath_ wins her bet, and _Chaucer_ ruefully contemplates the prospect of marrying her. In his plight he appeals to _King Richard II_, who announces that the _Wife of Bath_ may marry a sixth time if she chooses, but only on condition that her prospective bridegroom be a miller. A devoted miller, who has long courted her, joyfully accepts the honour, and the opera ends with a reconciliation between _Chaucer_ and the _Prioress_.

Mr. Mackaye in speaking of his libretto at the time of the production of the opera had this to say:

"In writing 'The Canterbury Pilgrims' one of my chief incentives was to portray, for a modern audience, one of the greatest poets of all times in relation to a group of his own characters. As a romancer of prolific imagination and dramatic insight, Chaucer stands shoulder to shoulder with Shakespeare. For English speech he achieved what Dante did for Italian, raising a local dialect to a world language.

"Yet the fourteenth-century speech of Chaucer is just archaic enough to make it difficult to understand in modern times. Consequently his works are little known today, except by students of English literature.

"To make it more popularly known I prepared a few years ago (with Professor J.S.P. Tatlock) 'The Modern Readers' Chaucer'; and I wrote for Mr. E.H. Sothern in 1903 my play 'The Canterbury Pilgrims,' which since then has been acted at many American universities by the Coburn Players, and in book form is used by many Chaucer cla.s.ses.

"In the spring of 1914, at the suggestion of Mr. De Koven, I remodelled the play in the form of opera, condensing its plot and characters to the more simple essentials appropriate to operatic production. Thus focussed, the story depicts Chaucer--the humorous, democratic, lovable poet of Richard Second's court--placed between two contrasted feminine characters, the _Prioress_, a shy, religious-minded gentlewoman, who has retired from the world, but has as yet taken no vows; and the _Wife of Bath_, a merry, sensual, quick-witted hoyden of the lower middle cla.s.s, hunting for a sixth husband. These three, with many other types of old England, are pilgrims, en route from London to the shrine of Thomas a Becket, at Canterbury.

"Becoming jealous of the _Prioress_, the _Wife of Bath_ makes a bet with _Chaucer_ concerning the gentlewoman's behaviour--a bet which she wins by a trick in the third act, only to lose it in the fourth.

"The work is a comedy in blank verse of various metres, interspersed with rhythmed lyrics. For the first time, I believe, in drama of any language, it inaugurates on the stage the character of the famous first poet-laureate of England--the 'Father of English Literature.'"

Mr. De Koven also tells how he came to compose the music:

"I have often been asked the question why I have never before now written a work in the larger operatic form, and my answer has always been that I was waiting until I could find a really good book. For an opera libretto that successfully meets the requirements of a lyric work of this cla.s.s, which is primarily for and of the stage, in the way of dramatic interest, development and climax, a poetic knowledge of the possibilities and limitations of the English language when sung, and those visual and picturesque qualities in the story which alone can make the unreal conditions of opera, _per se_, either plausible or intelligible, is about as rare as the proverbial white crow--as many gifted composers have found to their cost.

"All these requirements are, I think, fulfilled in the really charming libretto which Mr. Mackaye has written in 'The Canterbury Pilgrims,'

which came to me unsought as it were. As a member of a committee for choosing plays to be used in settlement work on the East Side, my wife read Mr. Mackaye's earlier play of the same name, and told me she thought it contained excellent operatic material. Agreeing with her, I went to Mr. Mackaye and suggested the idea to him. He agreed with me and soon afterwards, early in 1914, we set to work. To adapt a play of over 17,000 words for operatic purposes by merely cutting it was manifestly impossible. Entire reconstruction, both in structure and language, was necessary, and this Mr. Mackaye has so successfully accomplished that in my judgment his libretto, as an artistic whole, is far superior to his earlier play.

"I took the first act with me when I went abroad in March, 1914, and the entire opera, begun October 10, 1914, was finished on December 21, 1915, during which time I lived at Vevey, Switzerland, amid, and yet far from, wars and rumours of wars.

"As to my part of the work, the characters of Mr. Mackaye's story, whose essentially old English atmosphere appealed to me strongly from the first, naturally suggested Verdi's 'Falstaff' as a model in a sense. But Verdi abjured the leit motif or motto theme, and I had always felt that Wagner's theory, applied in some form, was the true basis of construction for all musico-dramatic work. Yet again it always seemed to me that, save in the hands of a consummate master, the leit motif, pushed to its logical development, was only too apt to become tiresome, obscure, and ineffective. So, after much consideration, I bethought me of the very way in which Ma.s.senet in 'Manon' had used a limited number of what might be called recurrent themes--such as the one for 'Des Grieux'--and made up my mind to try what could be done along these simpler and more plastic lines.

"So, without attempting to describe pictorially in music, swords, tarnhelms, or dragons, or to weave music into an intricate contrapuntal work, I have in 'The Canterbury Pilgrims,' while following closely the spirit and meaning of Mr. Mackaye's poetic text, attributed a number of saliently melodic themes to the characters, incidents, and even material objects of the story, and when these recur in or are suggested by the text the attributive themes recur with them, so that, as I hope, they may be readily recognizable by the untechnical opera-goer and aid him in following this story and action.

"Just a word in regard to the English language as a medium for opera and song. As Mr. Gatti says that a typical operatic audience in Italy, knowing their own language and generally familiar with both text and story of their operas, only expect to understand about half the words as sung, owing to the very conditions of opera itself, may it not be fairly said that American audiences who go to hear operas in English, expecting to understand every word, expect the impossible, and should be more reasonable in their demands?

"Again, I have always contended and maintained that the English language, properly used, is an entirely singable language, and as so far during the rehearsals of 'The Canterbury Pilgrims' none of the artists has seemed to find any great difficulty in singing in English beyond that inherent to a certain lack of familiarity with the language itself, it looks as if my contention stands at least a fair chance of being admitted."

Spanish Opera

During the winter of 1915-16 the interest in Spanish music was at its height in New York. Enrique Granados, a distinguished Spanish composer and pianist, came to the city to superintend the production of his opera, "Goyescas," sung in Spanish at the Metropolitan. Pablo Casals, the famous Spanish 'cellist, and Miguel Llobet, virtuoso of the guitar, were making frequent appearances. La Argentina was dancing, and Maria Barrientos made her debut at the Metropolitan. In the season of 1917-18 the Spanish craze culminated in "The Land of Joy," a musical revue which came first to the Park Theatre, then was transferred to the Knickerbocker Theatre. The music was by Joaquin Valverde, fils, and the entertainment was an entrancing blend of colour and intoxicating rhythms, with the dancing of the pa.s.sionate gipsy, Doloretes, as the most amazing and vivid feature.

GOYESCAS

The characters and setting of the opera are suggested by the work of the Spanish painter Goya. The opera opens with a crowd of _majas_ and _majos_ enjoying a holiday on the outskirts of Madrid. Some of the _majas_ are engaged in the popular pastime of tossing the _pelele_ (a man of straw) in a blanket. _Paquiro_ the toreador is paying compliments to the women. _Pepa_, his sweetheart of the day, arrives in her dogcart. Popular, she is warmly welcomed. Soon _Rosario_, a lady of rank, arrives in her sedan-chair to keep a tryst with her lover, _Fernando_, a captain in the Royal Spanish Guards. _Paquiro_ reminds her of a _baile de candil_ (a ball given in a room lit by candlelight) which she once attended. He invites her to go again.

_Fernando_ overhears his remarks. His jealousy is aroused. He informs _Paquiro_ that _Rosario_ shall go to the ball, but that he, _Fernando_, will accompany her. He extracts _Rosario's_ promise to go with him, while _Pepa_, enraged by _Paquiro's_ neglect, vows vengeance upon her.

The second tableau shows the scene at the ball. _Fernando_ appears with _Rosario_. His haughty bearing and disdainful speech anger all present. The two men arrange for a duel that evening, and when _Rosario_ recovers from a swoon, _Fernando_ takes her away.

The third tableau reveals _Rosario's_ garden. _Fernando_ visits her before keeping his appointment with _Paquiro_. When a bell strikes the fatal hour, _Fernando_ tears himself away. He is followed hesitatingly by _Rosario_. Soon the silence is broken by a cry from _Fernando_, followed by a shriek from _Rosario_. The lovers reappear. _Rosario_ supports _Fernando_ to a stone bench where he dies in her arms.

Enrique Granados, perhaps the first important composer from Spain to visit North America, was born July 27, 1867, at Lerida, Catalonia. He died March 24, 1916, a pa.s.senger on the _Suss.e.x_, torpedoed in the English Channel. The libretto for his "Goyescas" is by Fernando Periquet.