The Garden of Mystery

Last updated

The Garden of Mystery
Opera by Charles Wakefield Cadman
Charles Wakefield Cadman, by Herman Mishkin.jpg
Cadman in 1919
Librettist Nelle Richmond Eberhart
LanguageEnglish
Based on"Rappaccini's Daughter" by Nathaniel Hawthorne (1844)
Premiere
20 March 1925 (1925-03-20)
Carnegie Hall, New York City

The Garden of Mystery is an English-language American opera in one act and three scenes. The composer was Charles Wakefield Cadman with a libretto by Nelle Richmond Eberhart. The opera was based on Nathaniel Hawthorne's 1844 short story "Rappaccini's Daughter".

Contents

The work premiered in a concert version at Carnegie Hall in New York City on March 20, 1925, with the American National Orchestra conducted by Howard Barlow. [1] [2] A staged performance did not occur until 1996. [3]

Hawthorne's Gothic story about a doctor whose work with poisons has made his daughter's touch deadly has inspired several operas, including The Poisoned Kiss, or The Empress and the Necromancer (Ralph Vaughan Williams, 1936);' Rappaccini's Daughter (Margaret Garwood, 1980), and La hija de Rappaccini (Daniel Catán, 1991).

Synopsis

Nathaniel Hawthorne, author of the story adapted into the opera Little Masterpieces - Frontispiece - Nathaniel Hawthorne.png
Nathaniel Hawthorne, author of the story adapted into the opera

The opera is set in 16th century Italy at Padua. The story takes place in the garden of Dr. Giacomo Rappacini. Overlooking the garden is a neighboring home.

Rappacini is an expert on botany and toxic plants. The plants in his garden are beautiful but deadly. He lives with his daughter, Beatrice. Beatrice's cousin Bianca is visiting. Bianca's love is Enrico.

Giovanni Guasconti is a university student who lives in a room that overlooks Rappacini's garden. He observes that the doctor seems to be afraid of plants in the garden but which Beatrice handles freely. He sees a bug drop dead from her breath. Giovanni is enchanted by this mysterious and beautiful woman.

Bianca and Enrico sit in the garden by the fountain and sing of their love and how they must flee the deadly garden.

Giovanni enters the garden and woos Beatrice. They start to embrace but she pulls back. Beatrice tells Giovanni that she has been raised on poisons and her kiss would be deadly. They both exit.

Giovanni retreats and visits a friend of his father's who gives him an antidote to Beatrice's poison. The next morning, Giovanni finds that he too is poisonous when his breath kills a spider. He goes to the garden with the antidote.

Beatrice, having lived her whole life on poison, believes she could not live without the toxins. She drinks the antidote and is proven correct. As she starts to die, she tells Giovanni to drink because the antidote will save him. She died in her father's arms. Giovanni drinks the antidote and lives. [4] [5]

Composition and premiere

Nelle Richmond Eberhart, the librettist Nelle Richmond Eberhart, songwriter.jpg
Nelle Richmond Eberhart, the librettist

Eberhart collaborated with Cadman on five operas. In May 1912, she suggested to Cadman basing an opera on the Hawthorne story and she began working that year. [6] The original title was Beatrice, the name of Rappacini's daughter, then The Garden of Death, before they settled on The Garden of Mystery. [6] The first draft of the libretto was completed in October 1912 and the final version in 1914. [6] Cadman finished the music in 1915. [6] Grove's Dictionary noted the opera was still in manuscript form in 1919. [7] The opera did not receive a performance until 1925 when it was given on March 20 in a concert version at Carnegie Hall given as a benefit performance for the Association of Music School Settlements of Greater New York. [8] Howard Barlow conducted the American National Orchestra, a unit which Barlow himself organized; its musicians were all American-born and American-trained. [9] Charles Trier directed. [10] The score was published in 1925. [11] Cadman's publisher was still advertising the score in 1951. [12]

A 1927 study of American opera claimed Garden "was probably the second absolutely native American operatic performance. Hawthorne, the author of the original story; Eberhart, who transformed it into an opera libretto; and Cadman, the composer, all were born in America. The same was true of the cast, orchestra, conductor and stage personnel;" the first native opera being Cadman and Eberhart's 1918 opera Shanewis . [13]

Charles Watt, publisher of Chicago's The Music News, was enthusiastic: "Here clearly was the Cadman flair, the Cadman effect, and the unique Cadman style. The flow of melody was almost continuous, the massing of tone was simple but striking and the injection of color was both appropriate and striking." [10] Watt had praise for all the singers' performances, particularly Ernest Davis as Giovanni. [10]

But the New York critics were harsh. Francis D. Perkins of The New York Herald Tribune said the opera was "a hardly feasible libretto set to undistinguished music". [14] William James Henderson of The New York Sun said "it is impossible to describe in critical terms such a sorry attempt." [15] Deems Taylor of The New York World said it was hard to judge the work itself from a performance that was "pretty bad". [15] The New Yorker wrote "Mr. Cadman's work had not been in progress more than ten minutes before it became reasonably obvious that no history was being made. The psychological story is undramatic and Mr. Cadman's ear-filling but uneventful music does not compensate for the lack of interest in the fable." [16] The same review observed "the fashionable audience departed early and often". [17]

Carnegie Hall (1898) A history of real estate, building and architecture in New York City during the last quarter of a century (1898) (14587171738).jpg
Carnegie Hall (1898)

The Pacific Coast Musician summarized the criticism of the 1925 premiere, writing it was "not satisfactorily produced . . . the cast was inefficient, [and] the orchestra was unsatisfactory". [18] The same review said Eberhart's libretto was done "with an eye to the literary quality rather than with an appreciation of dramatic values, a fatal thing to the success of opera, where action is necessary to hold the audience's interest". [19] B. M. Steigman in the journal Music & Letters called it "pathetic" and "wretched", with a libretto "beyond hope". [20]

Soon after the premiere, Cadman observed that the "brutal" notices of an amateur performance for charity led "to its lack of success . . . not withstanding that it took twelve curtain calls". [21]

Howard Perison said in 1982 that Garden was "a remarkable departure from Cadman's usual style, becoming at times chromatic and dissonant and employing unusual modal melodic patterns in an attempt to convey the sinister aspects of the story". [6]

Revivals

The second performance of the opera was over WOR-AM and the CBS Radio Network's Pioneer Hour at 8:30 p.m. Eastern Time on May 7, 1928. [22] [23] Howard Barlow, who conducted the premiere, also conducted the CBS performance. [24] The cast was Frank Croxton as Dr. Rappaccini, Elizabeth Lennox as Beatrice, Charles W. Harrison as Giovanni, Elise Thiede as Bianca, and Vernon Archibald as Enrico. [24] The NBC Red Network broadcast the opera later that year in a performance conducted by A. Walter Kramer. [25] In 1931, the CBS Radio Network aired Garden as part of its series Grand Opera Miniatures. [26] Howard Barlow again conducted, directing the Columbia Symphony Orchestra. [27]

The American Chamber Opera Company gave the first staged performance of Garden on February 16, 1996. [5] Garden was performed in New York City at the Kate Murphy Theatre at the Fashion Institute of Technology. [28] Garden was given on a double bill with Lukas Foss's 1950 opera The Jumping Frog of Calaveras County. [29] Anthony Tommasini of The New York Times was critical of both the work and the production. [30] "The opera has a hokey, incomprehensible libretto about a maniacal doctor, a poisonous plant and two pairs of ill-fated lovers. The score is a hodgepodge that borrows shamelessly from Richard Strauss." [31] Of the performers, Tommasini said "the orchestra, conducted by Douglas Anderson, floundered through this wayward music. Cadman's vocal parts are punishing, and the principals . . . struggled through them with forced and edgy singing." [31] The critic for Opera News was kinder, writing "Eberhart's libretto is needlessly obfuscatory: some members of the ACO cast were at a loss to explain what the story is about. The score is something else: its enchanting, graceful vocal lines and heavily perfumed orchestration (Cadman possessed an uncanny gift for getting maximum sound from minimum forces) recall the more intimate pages of Richard Strauss and especially Delius." [32]

Roles

Roles, voice types, premiere cast, 1928 broadcast, 1996 ACO
Role Voice type Premiere cast, 1925 [33]
Conductor: Howard Barlow		CBS broadcast, 1928 [24]
Conductor: Howard Barlow		American Chamber Opera, 1996
Conductor:Howard Meltzer [34]
Dr. Giacomo Rappacini bass George Walker Frank Croxton Larry Piccard
Beatrice Rappacini contralto Helen Cadmus Elizabeth Lennox Pamilia Phillips
Bianca soprano Yvonne de Tréville Elise ThiedeCynthia Madison
Giovanni Guasconti tenor Ernest Davis Charles W. Harrison Thomas L. Honnick
Enrico baritone Hubert Linscott Vernon Archibald

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Barbirolli</span> British conductor and cellist (1899–1970)

Sir John Barbirolli was a British conductor and cellist. He is remembered above all as conductor of the Hallé Orchestra in Manchester, which he helped save from dissolution in 1943 and conducted for the rest of his life. Earlier in his career he was Arturo Toscanini's successor as music director of the New York Philharmonic, serving from 1936 to 1943. He was also chief conductor of the Houston Symphony from 1961 to 1967, and was a guest conductor of many other orchestras, including the BBC Symphony Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, the Philharmonia, the Berlin Philharmonic and the Vienna Philharmonic, with all of which he made recordings.

This is a list of notable events in music that took place in the year 1906.

<i>Béatrice et Bénédict</i> 19th-century opéra comique by Hector Berlioz

Béatrice et Bénédict is an opéra comique in two acts by French composer Hector Berlioz. Berlioz wrote the French libretto himself, based in general outline on a subplot in Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing.

<i>La fanciulla del West</i> Opera by Giacomo Puccini

La fanciulla del West is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Guelfo Civinini and Carlo Zangarini, based on the 1905 play The Girl of the Golden West by the American author David Belasco. Fanciulla followed Madama Butterfly, which was also based on a Belasco play. The opera has fewer of the show-stopping highlights that characterize Puccini's other works, but is admired for its impressive orchestration and for a score that is more melodically integrated than is typical of his previous work. Fanciulla displays influences from composers Claude Debussy and Richard Strauss, without being in any way imitative. Similarities between the libretto and the work of Richard Wagner have also been found though some attribute this more to the original plot of the play, and have asserted that the opera remains quintessentially Italian.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rappaccini's Daughter</span> 1844 short story by Nathaniel Hawthorne

"Rappaccini's Daughter" is a Gothic short story by Nathaniel Hawthorne first published in the December 1844 issue of The United States Magazine and Democratic Review in New York, and later in various collections. It is about Giacomo Rappaccini, a medical researcher in Padua who grows a garden of poisonous plants. He brings up his daughter to tend the plants, and she becomes resistant to the poisons, but in the process she herself becomes poisonous to others. The traditional story of a poisonous maiden has been traced back to India, and Hawthorne's version has been adopted in contemporary works.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charles Wakefield Cadman</span> American composer

Charles Wakefield Cadman was an American composer. For 40 years, he worked closely with Nelle Richmond Eberhart, who wrote most of the texts to his songs, including Four American Indian Songs. She also wrote the librettos for his five operas, two of which were based on Indian themes. He composed in a wide variety of genres.

<i>The Mountebanks</i> Comic opera by W. S. Gilbert, Alfred Cellier and Ivan Caryll

The Mountebanks is a comic opera in two acts with music by Alfred Cellier and Ivan Caryll and a libretto by W. S. Gilbert. The story concerns a magic potion that causes the person to whom it is administered to become what he or she has pretended to be. It is similar to several "magic lozenge" plots that Gilbert had proposed to the composer Arthur Sullivan, but that Sullivan had rejected, earlier in their careers. To set his libretto to music, Gilbert turned to Cellier, who had previously been a musical director for Gilbert and Sullivan and had since become a successful composer. During the composition of the piece Cellier died, and the score was finished by the original production's musical director, Ivan Caryll, who became a successful composer of Edwardian Musical Comedy.

American Indian opera is a subgenre of music of the United States. It began with composer Gertrude Bonnin (1876-1938), also known as Zitkala-Sa. Bonnin drew from her Yankton Dakota heritage for both the libretto and songs for the opera The Sun Dance. This full-scale opera was composed with William F. Hanson, an American composer and teacher at Brigham Young University in Utah.

<i>Twice-Told Tales</i> (film) 1963 horror-film by Sidney Salkow

Twice-Told Tales is a 1963 American horror anthology film directed by Sidney Salkow and starring Vincent Price. It consists of three segments, all loosely adapted by producer/screenwriter Robert E. Kent from works by Nathaniel Hawthorne.

The American Opera Company was the name of six different opera companies active in the United States. The first company was founded in New York City in February 1886, but lasted only one season. The second company grew out of the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York, and was active from 1924 up until 1930, when it went bankrupt following the Wall Street crash of 1929. The third company, located in Trenton, New Jersey, was active in 1937 only. The fourth company was actively performing in Philadelphia from 1946 through 1950.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shanewis</span> 1918 American opera in English

Shanewis (1918) is an opera in one act and two scenes by American composer Charles Wakefield Cadman with an English-language libretto by Nelle Richmond Eberhart. Cadman called the work an "American opera."

The Poisoned Kiss, or The Empress and the Necromancer is an opera in three acts by the English composer Ralph Vaughan Williams. The libretto, by Evelyn Sharp, is based on Richard Garnett's The Poison Maid and Nathaniel Hawthorne's 1844 short story Rappaccini's Daughter.

La hija de Rappaccini is an opera in two acts composed by Daniel Catán to a libretto by Juan Tovar based on the play by Octavio Paz and the 1844 short story by Nathaniel Hawthorne. It premiered at the Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City in 1991 and had its US premiere in 1994 at San Diego Opera. Upon its premiere in San Diego, Rappaccini's Daughter became the first work by a Mexican composer to be produced by a major opera house in the United States. Although Catán's second opera, Rappaccini's Daughter was his first commercial success.

Life is a Dream is a three-act opera with music by Lewis Spratlan from an English-language libretto by James Maraniss which was based on the 1635 play Life Is a Dream by Spanish playwright Pedro Calderón de la Barca. It was written in the 1970s, but did not receive a complete stage premiere until 2010.

<i>The Emperor Jones</i> (opera) Opera in two acts composed by Louis Gruenberg

The Emperor Jones is an opera in two acts with a prologue and interlude composed by Louis Gruenberg to an English-language libretto adapted by the composer from Eugene O'Neill's 1920 play, The Emperor Jones. It premiered on January 7, 1933, at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City with Lawrence Tibbett in the title role. Set on an unnamed island in the West Indies, the opera tells the story of African American Brutus Jones, a former Pullman porter and ex-convict who escaped to the island, set himself up as its tyrannical "Emperor", and became rich by exploiting the natives. The natives start a revolt against him, and as he tries to escape through the jungle, he is haunted by visions of his past life and the man he had murdered. As the natives close in, he commits suicide using the silver bullet which he had worn around his neck as a good-luck charm. With a score that incorporates elements of jazz and negro spirituals, The Emperor Jones was the eleventh American opera to premiere at the Met, and has continued to be performed into the 21st century, albeit rarely.

Brokeback Mountain is an opera by American composer Charles Wuorinen, with a libretto in English by Annie Proulx, based on her 1997 short story "Brokeback Mountain". They began work on it in 2008 under a commission by Gerard Mortier of the New York City Opera. He took the project with him to the Teatro Real of Madrid, where the opera was premiered on January 28, 2014.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tsianina Redfeather Blackstone</span> American singer

Tsianina Redfeather Blackstone was a Muscogee singer, performer, and Native American activist, born in Eufaula, Oklahoma, within the Muscogee Nation. She was born to Cherokee and Creek parents and stood out from her 9 siblings musically. From 1908 she toured regularly with Charles Wakefield Cadman, a composer and pianist who gave lectures about Native American music that were accompanied by his compositions and her singing. He composed classically based works associated with the Indianist movement. They toured in the United States and Europe.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nelle Richmond Eberhart</span> American poet

Nelle Richmond Eberhart was an American librettist, poet, and teacher. She is known for her long collaboration with composer Charles Wakefield Cadman. She wrote 200 songs and the librettos for five operas for which he composed the music.

<i>Rappaccinis Daughter</i> (Garwood opera) 1980 American opera in two acts by Margaret Garwood

Rappaccini's Daughter is an English-language American opera in two acts and six scenes first presented in 1980. The composer and librettist was Margaret Garwood, who based it on Nathaniel Hawthorne's 1844 short story of the same name.

References

  1. ↑ Mattfeld, Julius (1927). A Hundred Years of Grand Opera in New York, 1825–1925: A Record of Performances. New York: New York Public Library. p. 55. ISBN   978-0-404-13038-1. OCLC   457461576 . Retrieved January 1, 2025.
  2. ↑ Perison, Harry D. (1982). "The 'Indian' Operas of Charles Wakefield Cadman". College Music Symposium. 22 (2): 20–48. ISSN   0069-5696. JSTOR   40375181 . Retrieved January 1, 2025.
  3. ↑ Griffel, Margaret Ross (2013). Operas in English: A Dictionary. Vol. 1. Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press. p. 300. ISBN   9780810883253.
  4. ↑ Cadman & Eberhard 1925, p. 1.
  5. 1 2 Griffel 2013, p. 300.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 Perison 1982.
  7. ↑ Pratt, Waldo Selden, ed. (1920). Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians. Vol. 6 (2nd ed.). Philadelphia: Theodore Presser. p. 150. Retrieved January 1, 2025.
  8. ↑ Watt, Charles E. (April 3, 1925). "Premiere of Charles Wakefield Cadman Opera The Garden of Mystery, Carnegie Hall, March 20". The Music News. Vol. 17, no. 14. Chicago: Charles E. Watt. pp. 2–3. hdl:2027/uiug.30112051335096 . Retrieved January 2, 2025.
  9. ↑ Ewen, David (1948). Dictators of the Baton (2nd ed.). New York: Ziff-Davis. p. 293. hdl:2027/mdp.39015011390823 . Retrieved January 2, 2025.
  10. 1 2 3 Watt 1925, p. 2.
  11. ↑ Cadman, Charles Wakefield; Eberhard, Nelle Richmond (1925). The Garden of Mystery, A Grand Opera in One Act, Three Scenes. New York: J. Fischer & Bro. OCLC   5294906 . Retrieved January 1, 2025.
  12. ↑ J. Fischer & Bro. (February 1951). "Operas by American Composers". Musical America . Vol. 71, no. 3. New York. p. 233. Retrieved January 2, 2025.
  13. ↑ Hipsher, Edward Ellsworth (1927). American Opera and Its Composers: A Complete History of Serious American Opera, with a Summary of the Lighter Forms Which Led up to Its Birth. Philadelphia: Theodore Presser. p. 104. OCLC   1334654200 . Retrieved January 1, 2025.
  14. ↑ "An American Opera". The Musical Observer. Vol. 24, no. 5. New York. May 1925. p. 28. Retrieved January 1, 2025.
  15. 1 2 Musical Observer 1925, p. 28.
  16. ↑ "Music". The New Yorker . Vol. 1, no. 7. April 4, 1925. p. 17. Retrieved January 1, 2025.
  17. ↑ New Yorker 1925, p. 17.
  18. ↑ "Injustice to Cadman". Pacific Coast Musician. Vol. 14, no. 15. Los Angeles, California: Frank H. Colby. April 11, 1925. p. 6. Retrieved January 1, 2025.
  19. ↑ Pacific Coast Musician 1925, p. 6.
  20. ↑ Steigman, B. M. (1925). "The Great American Opera". Music & Letters . 6 (4): 359–367. doi:10.1093/ml/VI.4.359 . Retrieved January 1, 2025.
  21. ↑ "Among the Washington Organists: Musical Personages and Happenings in the Nation's Capital". Melody: A Monthly Magazine for Photoplay Musicians and the Musical Home. Vol. 9, no. 6. Boston, Massachusetts: Walter Jacobs, Inc. June 1925. pp. 4, 30. hdl:2027/nyp.33433079840132 . Retrieved January 2, 2025.
  22. ↑ Tirindelli, Margherita (May 17, 1928). "Music on the Air". Musical Courier . Vol. 96, no. 20. New York. p. 35. Retrieved January 2, 2025.
  23. ↑ Frye, G. Shubert (May 7, 1928). "Fishing the Air". Indianapolis Times. Vol. 39, no. 321. Indianapolis, Indiana: Scripps-Howard. p. 12. Retrieved January 17, 2025.
  24. 1 2 3 Tirindelli 1928, p. 35.
  25. ↑ Lucas, Clarence (September 13, 1928). "Interpreting Classical Music". Musical Courier . Vol. 97, no. 11. New York. p. 8. Retrieved January 2, 2025.
  26. ↑ Columbia Broadcasting System (1939). Serious Music on the Columbia Broadcasting System: A Survey of Series, Soloists and Special Performances from 1927 through 1938. New York: Columbia Broadcasting System. p. 10. hdl:2027/uiug.30112099813112 . Retrieved January 2, 2025.
  27. ↑ Columbia Broadcasting System 1939, p. 10.
  28. ↑ Wlaschin, Ken (2024). Encyclopedia of American Opera. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland. p. 272. ISBN   9781476612386 . Retrieved January 1, 2025.
  29. ↑ American Chamber Opera Company. "American Chamber Opera Company, Inc. Complete Repertoire". American Chamber Opera Company. New York, N.Y. Retrieved January 17, 2025.
  30. ↑ Tommasini, Anthony (February 21, 1996). "Neglected One-Act Operas". The New York Times . p. C15. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved January 1, 2025.
  31. 1 2 Tommasini 1996, p. C15.
  32. ↑ Zakariasen, Bill (May 1996). "Foss: The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County". Opera News . Vol. 60. New York, N.Y.: Metropolitan Opera Guild. p. 66.
  33. ↑ Cadman & Eberhard 1925, p. title page verso.
  34. ↑ Zakariasen 1996, p. 66.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.