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 lust 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 sanctity 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 associated 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 _mousmés_ 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 Japanese melody in the opening of Act II; and her narrative in the scene with _Osaka_ in the same act, "Un dì al tempio" (One day at the temple)--these, with the hymn to the sun, are about the only passages 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 _Bass_ GIANNOTTO _Baritone_ ANTONIO _Bass_ 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. But he recognizes them. He looks for _Lodoletta_, only to find her frozen to death in the snow.
It may be that "Lodoletta's" success at its production in Rome was genuine. Whatever acclaim it has received at the Metropolitan Opera House is due to the fine cast with which it has been presented. There is little spontaneity in the score. A spirit of youthfulness is supposed to pervade the first act, but the composer's efforts are so apparent that the result is childish rather than youthful. Moreover, as Henry T. Finck writes in the N.Y. _Evening Post_, "Lodoletta" seems to have revived some of the dramatic inconsistencies of the old-fashioned kind of Italian opera. For instance, in the last act, the scene is laid outside _Flammen's_ villa in Paris on New Year's eve--it is zero weather to all appearances, although there is an intermittent snowstorm--but _Flammen_ and _Franz_, and later all his guests, come out without wraps, and stay for quite awhile. Later _Lodoletta_, well wrapped (though in rags), appears, and is quickly frozen to death.
The scene of the first act is laid in the village in April. _Lodoletta's_ cottage is seen and the shrine with the picture of the Madonna. It is in order to copy or obtain this that _Flammen_ comes from Paris. In the background is the tree which _Antonio_ climbs and from which, while he is plucking blossom-laden branches for the spring festival, he falls and is killed--a great relief, the character is so dull. There is much running in and out, and singing by boys and girls in this act. The music allotted to them is pretty without being extraordinarily fetching. An interchange of phrases between _Flammen_ and _Lodoletta_ offers opportunity for high notes to the tenor, but there is small dramatic significance in the music.
In the second act the stage setting is the same, except that the season is autumn. There is a song for _Lodoletta_, and, as in Act I, episodes for her and the children, who exclaim delightedly when they see the picture _Flammen_ has been painting, "È Lodoletta viva, com'è bella" (See! Lodoletta, and so pretty!). But there is little progress made in this act. Much of it has the effect of repetition.
In the third act one sees the exterior of _Flammen's_ villa, and through the open gates of the courtyard Paris in the midst of New Year's gayety. The merriment within the villa is suggested by music and silhouetted figures against the windows. Some of the guests dash out, throw confetti, and indulge in other pranks, which, intended to be bright and lively, only seem silly. As in the previous acts, the sustained measures for _Lodoletta_ and for _Flammen_, while intended to be dramatic, lack that quality--one which cannot be dispensed with in opera. "The spectacle of _Flammen_, in full evening dress and without a hat, singing on his doorstep in a snowstorm, would tickle the funny bone of any but an operatic audience," writes Grenville Vernon in the N.Y. _Tribune_.
ISABEAU
With Rosa Raisa in the title rôle, the Chicago Opera Company produced Mascagni's "Isabeau" at the Auditorium, Chicago, November 12, 1918. The company repeated it at the Lexington Theatre, New York, February 13, 1918, also with Rosa Raisa as _Isabeau_. The opera had its first performances on any stage at Buenos Aires, June 2, 1911. The libretto, based upon the story of Lady Godiva, is in three acts, and is the work of Luigi Illica. The opera has made so little impression that I restrict myself to giving the story.
In Illica's version of the Godiva story, the heroine, _Isabeau_, is as renowned for her aversion to marriage as for her beauty. Her father, _King Raimondo_, eager to find for her a husband, arranges a tournament of love, at which she is to award her hand as prize to the knight who wins her favour. She rejects them all. For this obstinacy and because she intercedes in a quarrel, _Raimondo_ dooms her to ride unclad through the town at high noon of the same day. At the urging of the populace he modifies his sentence, but only so far as to announce that, while she rides, no one shall remain in the streets or look out of the windows. The order is disobeyed only by a simpleton, a country lout named _Folco_. Dazed by _Isabeau's_ beauty, he strews flowers for her as she comes riding along. For this the people demand that he suffer the full penalty for violation of the order, which is the loss of eyesight and life. _Isabeau_, horrified by _Folco's_ act, visits him in prison. Her revulsion turns to love. She decides to inform her father that she is ready to marry. But the _Chancellor_ incites the populace to carry out the death sentence. _Isabeau_ commits suicide.
When "Isabeau" had its American production in Chicago, more than twenty-seven years had elapsed since the first performance of "Cavalleria Rusticana." A long list of operas by Mascagni lies between. But he still remains a one-opera man, that opera, however, a masterpiece.
Ruggiero Leoncavallo
(1858- )
Leoncavallo, born March 8, 1858, at Naples, is a dramatic composer, a pianist, and a man of letters. He is the composer of the successful opera "Pagliacci," has made concert tours as a pianoforte virtuoso, is his own librettist, and has received the degree of Doctor of Letters from the University of Bologna.
He studied at the Naples Conservatory. His first opera, "Tommaso Chatterton," was a failure, but was successfully revived in 1896, in Rome. An admirer of Wagner and personally encouraged by him, he wrote and set to music a trilogy, "Crepusculum" (Twilight): I. "I Medici"; II. "Gerolamo Savonarola"; III. "Cesare Borgia." The performing rights to Part I were acquired by the Ricordi publishing house, but, no preparations being made for its production, he set off again on his travels as a pianist; officiating also as a répétiteur for opera singers, among them Maurel, in Paris, where he remained several years. His friendship with that singer bore unexpected fruit. Despairing of ever seeing "I Medici" performed, and inspired by the success of "Cavalleria Rusticana," Leoncavallo wrote and composed "Pagliacci," and sent it to Ricordi's rival, the music publisher Sonzogno. The latter accepted "Pagliacci" immediately after reading the libretto. Maurel then not only threw his influence in favour of the work, but even offered to create the rôle of _Tonio_; and in that character he was in the original cast (1892). "I Medici" was now produced (La Scala, Milan, 1893), but failed of success. Later operas by Leoncavallo, "La Bohème" (La Fenice Theatre, Venice, 1897) and "Zaza" (Milan, 1900), fared somewhat better, and the latter is played both in Italy and Germany. But "Roland of Berlin," commissioned by the German Emperor and performed December 13, 1904, was a complete failure. In fact Leoncavallo's name is so identified with "Pagliacci" that, like Mascagni, he may be called a one-opera composer.
PAGLIACCI
CLOWNS
Opera in two acts, words and music by Ruggiero Leoncavallo. Produced, Teatro dal Verme, Milan, May 17, 1892. Grand Opera House, New York, June 15, 1893, under the direction of Gustav Hinrichs, with Selma Kronold (_Nedda_), Montegriffo (_Canio_), and Campanari (_Tonio_). Metropolitan Opera House, December 11, 1893, with Melba as _Nedda_, De Lucia as _Canio_, and Ancona as _Tonio_.
CHARACTERS
CANIO (in the play _Pagliaccio_), head of a troupe of strolling players _Tenor_ NEDDA (in the play _Columbine_), wife of _Canio_ _Soprano_ TONIO (in the play _Taddeo_, a clown) _Baritone_ BEPPE (in the play _Harlequin_) _Tenor_ SILVIO, a villager _Baritone_
Villagers.
_Time_--The Feast of the Assumption, about 1865-70.
_Place_--Montalto, in Calabria.
"Pagliacci" opens with a prologue. There is an instrumental introduction. Then _Tonio_ pokes his head through the curtains,--"Si può? Signore, Signori" (By your leave, Ladies and Gentlemen),--comes out, and sings. The prologue rehearses, or at least hints at, the story of the opera, and does so in musical phrases, which we shall hear again as the work progresses--the bustle of the players as they make ready for the performance; _Canio's_ lament that he must be merry before his audiences, though his heart be breaking; part of the love-making music between _Nedda_ and _Silvio_; and the theme of the intermezzo, to the broad measures of which _Tonio_ sings, "E voi, piuttosto che le nostre povere gabbane" (Ah, think then, sweet people, when you behold us clad in our motley).
[Music]
The prologue, in spite of ancient prototypes, was a bold stroke on the part of Leoncavallo, and, as the result proved, a successful one. Besides its effectiveness in the opera, it has made a good concert number. Moreover, it is quite unlikely that without it Maurel would have offered to play _Tonio_ at the production of the work in Milan.