The Man Without a Country | |
---|---|
Opera by Walter Damrosch | |
Librettist | Arthur Guiterman |
Language | English |
Based on | "The Man Without a Country" by Edward Everett Hale (1863) |
Premiere |
The Man Without a Country is an English-language American opera in two acts and five scenes. The composer was Walter Damrosch with a libretto by poet Arthur Guiterman. The opera was based on Edward Everett Hale's 1863 short story of the same name. The work premiered at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City on May 12, 1937, in a performance conducted by Damrosch. [1]
The opera is set in the early nineteenth century and opens on Blennerhassett Island in the Ohio River. [2] The main character is Lt. Philip Nolan, an officer in the United States Marine Corps. [3] Harman Blennerhassett is throwing a party and awaiting the arrival of the guest of honor, former Vice President Aaron Burr. [3] Nolan sings to his love, Mary Rutledge, about how Burr's conspiracy will make him rich, but she tells him she cares only for him. [3] When he arrives, Burr sings of his plot to seize the Southwest Territory from the United States. [3] After Burr leaves, Nolan is arrested for his part in the conspiracy. [3]
The second scene is in a courtroom at the Marine Corps barracks at Charleston, South Carolina, where Nolan is on trial before Colonel Morgan on the charge of treason. [4] Nolan damns the name of the United States and tells the judge he never wishes to hear it spoken again. [4] Upon conviction, Colonel Morgan sentences Nolan to be held prisoner at sea aboard Navy ships, never to set foot on land, and forbids anyone to speak of the United States to him. [4] Mary vows to secure a pardon for Nolan. [4]
The second act opens aboard the warship Guerriere , in port at Gibraltar. [4] Nolan is wistful about the United States and his fate. [5] He has become a patriot during his exile. [6] In the next scene, Mary arrives and tells Nolan she is hopeful he will soon be pardoned. [5] Stephen Decatur comes aboard and tells Nolan and Mary that the ship will be sailing to attack the Barbary pirates on the North African coast. [5] At Mary's urging, Nolan is given command of a deck gun. [5]
In the final scene, the Guerriere has been boarded off the coast of Tripoli. [5] In close combat, Nolan kills the enemy commander but is himself shot. [5] As he lies dying he dreams of being reunited with Mary. [5] Decatur takes off his sword and places it in Nolan's dead hands. [5]
There were four performances during the 1936–37 season and one during the following season on February 17, 1938. [7] The production was directed by Desire Defrere. [8] A performance conducted by Wilfried Pelletier was broadcast on the radio on May 22, 1937. [9] The soprano Helen Traubel made her Met debut in the role of Mary Rutledge, Nolan's love, a character not in the original story. [10]
The score and the libretto were both published in 1937. [11] Copyright on the opera was registered on January 25, 1937. [12]
Paul Jackson wrote "Damrosch seems unable to solve the problem of fusing melodic outpourings with continuity of orchestral texture–the latter is merely supportive and does little musically to augment the expression of the text." [13]
Role | Voice type | Premiere cast, 12 May 1937 [14] Conductor: Walter Damrosch |
---|---|---|
Lieutenant Philip Nolan | tenor | Arthur Carron |
Mary Rutledge | soprano | Helen Traubel |
Harman Blennerhassett | tenor | George Rasely |
Aaron Burr | baritone | Joseph Royer |
Colonel Morgan | bass | John Gurney |
Stephen Decatur | speaking role | Louis D'Angelo |
Parke | tenor | Nicholas Massue |
Fairfax | tenor | Lodovico Oliviero |
Lieutenant Pinckney | baritone | Wilfred Engelman |
Lieutenant Reeve | baritone | George Cehanovsky |
Negro Boatman | baritone | Donald Dickson |
Lucia di Lammermoor is a dramma tragico in three acts by Italian composer Gaetano Donizetti. Salvadore Cammarano wrote the Italian-language libretto loosely based upon Sir Walter Scott's 1819 historical novel The Bride of Lammermoor.
This is a list of notable events in music that took place in the year 1937.
Sidney Coe Howard was an American playwright, dramatist and screenwriter. He received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1925 and a posthumous Academy Award in 1940 for the screenplay for Gone with the Wind.
Helen Francesca Traubel was an American opera and concert singer. A dramatic soprano, she was best known for her Wagnerian roles, especially those of Brünnhilde and Isolde.
Arthur Guiterman was an American writer best known for his humorous poems.
Nabucco is an Italian-language opera in four acts composed in 1841 by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Temistocle Solera. The libretto is based on the biblical books of 2 Kings, Jeremiah, Lamentations, and Daniel, and on the 1836 play by Auguste Anicet-Bourgeois and Francis Cornu. However, Antonio Cortese's ballet adaptation of the play, given at La Scala in 1836, was a more important source for Solera than the play itself. Under its original name of Nabucodonosor, the opera was first performed at La Scala in Milan on 9 March 1842.
"The Man Without a Country" is a short story by American writer Edward Everett Hale, first published in The Atlantic in December 1863. It is the story of American Army lieutenant Philip Nolan, who renounces his country during a trial for treason, and is consequently sentenced to spend the rest of his days at sea without so much as a word of news about the United States.
Vittorio Giannini was an American neoromantic composer of operas, songs, symphonies, and band works.
Walter Johannes Damrosch was a Prussian-born American conductor and composer. He was the director of the New York Symphony Orchestra and conducted the world premiere performances of various works, including Aaron Copland's Symphony for Organ and Orchestra, George Gershwin's Piano Concerto in F and An American in Paris, and Jean Sibelius' Tapiola. Damrosch was also instrumental in the founding of Carnegie Hall. He also conducted the first performance of Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 3 with the composer himself as soloist.
Howard Close Hickman was an American actor, director and writer. He was an accomplished stage leading man, who entered films through the auspices of producer Thomas H. Ince.
Barbary Coast is a 1935 American historical Western film directed by Howard Hawks. Shot in black-and-white and set in San Francisco's so-called Barbary Coast during the California Gold Rush, the film combines elements of the Western genre with those of crime, melodrama and adventure. It features a wide range of actors, from hero Joel McCrea to villain Edward G. Robinson, and stars Miriam Hopkins in the leading role as Mary 'Swan' Rutledge. In an early, uncredited appearance, David Niven plays a drunken sailor being thrown out of a bar.
The Criminal Code is a 1930 American pre-Code romantic crime drama film directed by Howard Hawks and starring Walter Huston and Phillips Holmes. The screenplay, based on a 1929 play of the same name by Martin Flavin, was written by Fred Niblo Jr. and Seton I. Miller, who were nominated for Best Adaptation at the 4th Academy Awards but the award went to Howard Estabrook for Cimarron.
Arthur Carron was an English operatic heldentenor.
"The Man Without a Country" is an 1863 short story by Edward Everett Hale.
George Rasely was an American tenor who had an active career in operas, concerts, and musicals during the first half of the 20th century. He was also a frequent performer on American radio during the 1920s through the 1940s. He won the National Music League singing competition in 1927 and the Walter W. Naumburg Foundation vocal competition in 1928.
Cyrano is an opera in four acts composed by Walter Damrosch to an English language libretto by William James Henderson based on Edmond Rostand's 1897 play, Cyrano de Bergerac. It premiered at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City on February 27, 1913, with Pasquale Amato in the title role and Frances Alda as Roxane.
The King's Henchman is an opera in three acts composed by Deems Taylor to an English language libretto by Edna St. Vincent Millay. The libretto is based on both legend and historical figures documented in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle including Edgar the Peaceful, Elfrida of Devon, and Dunstan. It tells the story of a love triangle between King Eadgar, his henchman Aethelwold, and Aelfrida, daughter of the Thane of Devon. It premiered on 17 February 1927 at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City in a performance conducted by Tullio Serafin.
Commodore Stephen Decatur Jr. was a United States Navy officer. He was born on the eastern shore of Maryland in Worcester County. His father, Stephen Decatur Sr., was a commodore in the Continental Navy during the American Revolutionary War; he brought the younger Stephen into the world of ships and sailing early on. Shortly after attending college, Decatur followed in his father's footsteps and joined the U.S. Navy at age 19 as a midshipman.
The Man Without a Country is a 1973 American made-for-television drama film based on the short story "The Man Without a Country" by Edward Everett Hale.
John R. Gurney was an American bass-baritone who had an active career as an opera, concert, vaudeville, and musical theatre performer from the 1920s through the 1940s. He was a principal artist at the Metropolitan Opera from 1936 through 1945 where he performed a total of 331 times. On the international stage he performed in operas at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires and the Theatro Municipal in Rio de Janeiro. He is best remembered for creating roles in the world premieres of Walter Damrosch's The Man Without a Country and Douglas Moore's The Devil and Daniel Webster. He recorded the role of Don Basilio in Rossini's The Barber of Seville which was released by RCA Camden in 1957. Gurney's son is racecar driver Dan Gurney.