The Scarlet Letter (Damrosch opera)
| The Scarlet Letter | |
|---|---|
| Opera by Walter Damrosch | |
.jpg) Walter Damrosch, composer of The Scarlet Letter | |
| Librettist | George Parsons Lathrop |
| Language | English |
| Based on | "The Scarlet Letter" by Nathaniel Hawthorne |
| Premiere | 10 February 1896 |
The Scarlet Letter is an opera by Walter Damrosch, based on Nathaniel Hawthorne's 1850 novel of the same name. The libretto was by George Parsons Lathrop, the son-in-law of Hawthorne. The work is Wagnerian in style, Damrosch being a great enthusiast and champion of the composer.
Excerpts from the opera first premiered at Carnegie Hall on January 4 and 5, 1895; the first fully staged performance was by the composer's own Damrosch Opera Company February 10, 1896, at The Boston Theatre in Boston, Massachusetts.[1] Among those present at the premiere were Charles Eliot Norton, Prince Serge Wolkonsky, Julia Ward Howe, and Nellie Melba.[2] The opera was performed later that year at the Metropolitan Opera House at 39th Street in New York–but was not performed by the company of the Metropolitan Opera.[3]
Critical response
[edit]Freund's Musical Weekly was unimpressed by the concert version of the unfished work performed at Carnegie Hall on January 4, 1895.[4] While Lathrop's libretto was praised as "cleverly handled and most intelligently written," Damrosch's score lacked "flow of melody" and "rel[ied] totally on orchestral effects."[5] In contrast, The Outlook, a leading American weekly, praised it as "distinctively and essentially American," with "charming and simple melody."[6]
The Vocalist, a New York magazine, called the finished opera "a creditable production" that was "a success in every way," hailing Damrosch's "genius."[7]
A detailed review of the score by the critic Alfred Remy—also German-born, likelike Damrosch—faulted the composer for repeatedly quoting Wagner, The Scarlet Letter containing passages from Die Walküre, "Siegfried 's Funeral March" from Götterdämmerung, Tristan und Isolde, and Albumblatt.[8] Remy praised the libretto but described the score harshly—among Remy's words are "monotony," "impossible," "dreary," "clumsy," "unpardonable," "noisy," and "meaningless"—summarizing the opera as a "worthless imitation of Wagner" that displays a "surprising ignorance of the technique of composition."[9]
The critic for London 's The Theatre magazine called Damrosch "a sorry imitator of Wagner," his opera lacking melody even if the orchestration was "technically perfect."[10] Johanna Gadski and Baron Berthald, Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale in the original production, reprised the roles in New York.[11]
Roles
[edit]| Role | Voice type | Concert premiere cast, January 4–5, 1895 (the composer conducting)[12] |
Full premiere cast, February 10, 1896 (the composer conducting)[2][13] |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hester Prynne, a young Puritan woman | soprano | Lillian Nordica | Johanna Gadski |
| Rev. Arthur Dimmesdale, an eloquent young minister | tenor | William H. Rieger | Barron Berthold |
| Roger Chillingworth, Hester's husband | baritone | Giuseppe Campanari | Wilhelm Merten |
| Rev. John Wilson, an elderly and revered minister | baritone | Ericsson F. Bushnell | Gerhard Stehman |
| Governor Bellingham, governor of Boston | bass | Conrad Behrens | Conrad Behrens |
| Brackett, a jailer | bass | James F. Thomson | Julius von Putlitz |
| A Shipmaster | baritone | presumably Ericsson F. Bushnell | Gerhard Stehmann |
| Chorus: Puritans | |||
Differences from the novel
[edit]- Pearl, Hester's daughter, is absent.
- Instead of living a solitary life after Dimmesdale dies at the end, Hester takes poison and dies with him.[1]
References
[edit]- ^ a b Kirk, Elise Kuhl (2001). American opera. University of Illinois Press. pp. 133–136. ISBN 9780252026232.
- ^ a b Whiting, Lilian (1902). Boston days: the city of beautiful ideals; Concord, and its famous authors; the golden age of genius; dawn of the twentieth century. Little, Brown & Company. pp. 403–410.
- ^ Brockway, Wallace; Weinstock, Herbert (1941). The Opera: A History of Its Creation and Performance, 1600–1941. New York: Simon & Schuster. p. 476.
- ^ "The Scarlet Letter". Freund's Musical Weekly. Vol. 8, no. 9. New York: Harry E. Freund. January 9, 1895. p. 4.
- ^ Freund's 1895, p. 4.
- ^ "An American Opera". The Outlook. Vol. 51, no. 2. New York: The Outlook Co. January 12, 1895. p. 70.
- ^ "The Scarlet Letter". The Vocalist. Vol. 12, no. 3. New York: Mortimer P. Lee. March 1896. p. 137–138.
- ^ Remy, Alfred (April 1896). "The Scarlet Letter". The Looker-on. Vol. 2, no. 4. New York, N.Y.: The Looker-on Publishing Co. pp. 569–576.
- ^ Remy 1896.
- ^ "New York". The Theatre. London: Wyman & Sons. April 1, 1896. p. 237–238. Retrieved January 4, 2025.
- ^ Theatre 1896, p. 238.
- ^ "Music in America". The Musical Times. 36: 116. February 1, 1895.
- ^ Upton, George Putnam (1906). The standard operas: their plots, their music, and their composers. A. C. McClurg. p. 62.