The Complete Opera Book Part 72

Several women enter hastily. One of them, the one whose voice was heard in the distance, repeats, but now in a shriek, "Hanno ammazzato compare Turiddu!"--(They have murdered neighbour Turiddu!)

_Santuzza_ falls in a swoon. The fainting form of _Mamma Lucia_ is supported by some of the women.

"Cala rapidamente la tela" (The curtain falls rapidly).

A tragedy of Sicily, hot in the blood, is over.

When "Cavalleria Rusticana" was produced, no Italian opera had achieved such a triumph since "Ada"--a period of nearly twenty years.

It was hoped that Mascagni would prove to be Verdi's successor, a hope which, needless to say, has not been fulfilled.

To "Cavalleria Rusticana," however, we owe the succession of short operas, usually founded on debased and sordid material, in which other composers have paid Mascagni the doubtful compliment of imitation in hopes of achieving similar success. Of all these, "Pagliacci," by Leoncavallo, is the only one that has shared the vogue of the Mascagni opera. The two make a remarkably effective double bill.

L'AMICO FRITZ

FRIEND FRITZ

Opera in three acts, by Pietro Mascagni; text by Suaratoni [Transcriber's Note: later editions have P. Suardon (N.

Daspuro)], from the story by Erckmann-Chatrian. Produced, Rome, 1891. Philadelphia, by Gustav Hinrichs, June 8, 1892.

New York, Metropolitan Opera House, with Calve as _Suzel_, January 10, 1894.

CHARACTERS

FRITZ KOBUS, a rich bachelor _Tenor_ DAVID, a Rabbi _Baritone_ FREDERICO } friends of Fritz { _Tenor_ HANEGO } { _Tenor_ SUZEL, a farmer's daughter _Soprano_ BEPPE, a gypsy _Soprano_ CATERINA, a housekeeper _Contralto_

_Time_--The present.

_Place_--Alsace.

Act I. _Fritz Kobus_, a well-to-do landowner and confirmed bachelor, receives felicitations on his fortieth birthday. He invites his friends to dine with him. Among the guests is _Suzel_, his tenant's daughter, who presents him with a nosegay, and sits beside him. Never before has he realized her charm. _Rabbi David_, a confirmed matchmaker, wagers with the protesting _Fritz_ that he will soon be married.

Act II. _Friend Fritz_ is visiting _Suzel's_ father. The charming girl mounts a ladder in the garden, picks cherries, and throws them down to _Fritz_, who is charmed. When _Rabbi David_ appears and tells him that he has found a suitable husband for _Suzel_, _Fritz_ cannot help revealing his own feelings.

Act III. At home again _Fritz_ finds no peace. _David_ tells him _Suzel's_ marriage has been decided on. _Fritz_ loses his temper; says he will forbid the bans. _Suzel_, pale and sad, comes in with a basket of fruit. When her wedding is mentioned she bursts into tears. That gives _Fritz_ his chance which he improves. _David_ wins his wager, one of _Fritz's_ vineyards, which he promptly bestows upon _Suzel_ as a dowry.

The duet of the cherries in the second act is the princ.i.p.al musical number in the opera.

IRIS

Opera in three acts, by Mascagni. Words by Luigi Illica.

Produced, Constanzi Theatre, Rome, November 22, 1898; revised version, La Scala, Milan, 1899. Philadelphia, October 14, 1902, and Metropolitan Opera House, New York, October 16, 1902, under the composer's direction (Marie Farneti, as _Iris_); Metropolitan Opera House, 1908, with Eames (_Iris_), Caruso (_Osaka_), Scotti, and Journet; April 3, 1915, Bori, Botta, and Scotti.

CHARACTERS

IL CIECO, the blind man _Ba.s.s_ IRIS, his daughter _Soprano_ OSAKA _Tenor_ KYOTO, a _takiomati_ _Baritone_

Ragpickers, shopkeepers, geishas, _mousmes_ (laundry girls), _samurai_, citizens, strolling players, three women representing Beauty, Death, and the Vampire; a young girl.

_Time_--Nineteenth century.

_Place_--j.a.pan.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Copyright photo by White

Bori as Iris]

Act I. The home of _Iris_ near the city. The hour is before dawn. The music depicts the pa.s.sage from night into day. It rises to a cras.h.i.+ng climax--the instrumentation including tamtams, cymbals, drums, and bells--while voices reiterate, "Calore! Luce! Amor!" (Warmth! Light!

Love!). In warmth and light there are love and life. A naturalistic philosophy, to which this opening gives the key, runs through "Iris."

Fujiyama glows in the early morning light, as _Iris_, who loves only her blind father, comes to the door of her cottage. She has dreamed that monsters sought to injure her doll, asleep under a rosebush. With the coming of the sun the monsters have fled. _Mousmes_ come to the bank of the stream and sing prettily over their work.

_Iris_ is young and beautiful. She is desired by _Osaka_, a wealthy rake. _Kyoto_, keeper of a questionable resort, plots to obtain her for him. He comes to her cottage with a marionette show. While _Iris_ is intent upon the performance, three geisha girls, representing Beauty, Death, and the Vampire, dance about her. They conceal her from view by spreading their skirts. She is seized and carried off.

_Osaka_, by leaving money for the blind old father, makes the abduction legal. When _Il Cieco_ returns, he is led to believe that his daughter has gone voluntarily to the Yos.h.i.+wara. In a rage he starts out to find her.

Act II. Interior of the "Green House" in the Yos.h.i.+wara. _Iris_ awakens. At first she thinks it is an awakening after death. But death brings paradise, while she is unhappy. _Osaka_, who has placed jewels beside her, comes to woo, but vainly seeks to arouse her pa.s.sions. In her purity she remains unconscious of the significance of his words and caresses. His brilliant attire leads her to mistake him for Tor, the sun G.o.d, but he tells her he is Pleasure. That frightens her. For, as she narrates to him, one day, in the temple, a priest told her that pleasure and death were one.

_Osaka_ wearies of her innocence and leaves her. But _Kyoto_, wis.h.i.+ng to lure him back, attires her in transparent garments and places her upon a balcony. The crowd in the street cries out in amazement over her beauty. Again _Osaka_ wishes to buy her. She hears her father's voice. Joyously she makes her presence known to him. He, ignorant of her abduction and believing her a voluntary inmate of the "Green House," takes a handful of mud from the street, flings it at her, and curses her. In terror, she leaps from a window into the sewer below.

Act III. Ragpickers and scavengers are dragging the sewer before daylight. In song they mock the moon. A flash of light from the mystic mountain awakens what is like an answering gleam in the muck. They discover and drag out the body of _Iris_. They begin to strip her of her jewels. She shows signs of life. The sordid men and women flee.

The rosy light from Fujiyama spreads over the sky. Warmth and light come once more. _Iris_ regains consciousness. Spirit voices whisper of earthly existence and its selfish aspirations typified by the knavery of _Kyoto_, the l.u.s.t of _Osaka_, the desire of _Iris's_ father, _Il Cieco_, for the comforts of life through her ministrations.

Enough strength comes back to her for her to acclaim the sanct.i.ty of the sun. In its warmth and light--the expression of Nature's love--she sinks, as if to be absorbed by Nature, into the blossoming field that spreads about her. Again, as in the beginning, there is the choired tribute to warmth, light, love--the sun!

Partly sordid, partly ethereal in its exposition, the significance of this story has escaped Mascagni, save in the climax of the opening allegory of the work. Elsewhere he employs instruments a.s.sociated by us with Oriental music, but the spirit of the Orient is lacking. In a score requiring subtlety of invention, skill in instrumentation, and, in general, the gift for poetic expression in music, these qualities are not. The scene of the _mousmes_ in the first act with _Iris's_ song to the flowers of her garden, "In pure stille" ([Transcriber's Note: translation left blank in original; should probably be 'In pure droplets']); the vague, yet unmistakable hum of j.a.panese melody in the opening of Act II; and her narrative in the scene with _Osaka_ in the same act, "Un d al tempio" (One day at the temple)--these, with the hymn to the sun, are about the only pa.s.sages that require mention.

LODOLETTA

Opera in three acts, by Mascagni. Words by Gioacchino Forzano, after Ouida's novel, _Two Little Wooden Shoes_.

Produced, Rome, April 30, 1917. Metropolitan Opera House, New York, January 12, 1918, with Farrar (later in the season, Florence Easton) as _Lodoletta_, Caruso (_Flammen_), Amato (_Giannotto_), and Didur (_Antonio_).

CHARACTERS

LODOLETTA _Soprano_ FLAMMEN _Tenor_ FRANZ _Ba.s.s_ GIANNOTTO _Baritone_ ANTONIO _Ba.s.s_ A MAD WOMAN _Mezzo-Soprano_ VANNARD _Mezzo-Soprano_ MAUD _Soprano_ A VOICE _Tenor_

A letter carrier, an old violinist.

_Time_--Second empire.

_Place_--A Dutch village.

_Lodoletta_, a young girl, who lives in a little Dutch village, is a foundling, who has been brought up by old _Antonio_. He discovered her as an infant in a basket of flowers at the lakeside. When she has grown up to be sixteen, she is eager for a pair of red wooden shoes, but _Antonio_ cannot afford to buy them. _Flammen_, a painter from Paris, offers him a gold piece for a roadside Madonna he owns.

_Antonio_ takes it, and with it buys the shoes for _Lodoletta_. Soon afterwards the old man is killed by a fall from a tree. _Lodoletta_ is left alone in the world.

_Flammen_, who has conceived a deep affection for her, persuades her to be his model. This makes the villagers regard her with suspicion.

She begs him to go. He returns to Paris, only to find that absence makes him fonder of the girl than ever. He returns to the village.

_Lodoletta_ has disappeared. His efforts to find her fail. On New Year's his friends gather at his villa to celebrate, and make him forget his love affair in gayety. The celebration is at its height, when _Lodoletta_, who, in her turn, has been searching for _Flammen_, reaches the garden. She has wandered far and is almost exhausted, but has found _Flammen's_ house at last. She thinks he is expecting her, because the villa is so brilliantly illuminated. But, when she looks through the window upon the gay scene, she falls, cold, exhausted, and disillusioned, in the snow just as midnight sounds. _Flammen's_ party of friends depart, singing merrily. As he turns back toward the house he discovers a pair of little red wooden shoes. They are sadly worn.