MAKING AMERICA OPERATIC: SIX COMPOSERS’ ATTEMPTS AT AN AMERICAN OPERA, 1910–1918 BY AARON BENJAMIN ZIEGEL DISSERTATION Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Musicology in the Graduate College of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2011 Urbana, Illinois Doctoral Committee: Associate Professor Gayle Sherwood Magee, Chair Associate Professor Jeffrey Magee Professor William Kinderman Assistant Professor Katherine Syer ABSTRACT This dissertation explores six selected operas written by American composers and librettists from the 1910s, the earliest decade in which this nation supported the widespread and frequent production of operas by native artists. Example works by Charles Wakefield Cadman, Frederick Converse, Henry Hadley, Victor Herbert, Mary Carr Moore, and Arthur Nevin exemplify a shared goal to enact on the operatic stage indigenous stories with American characters, in competition against a field dominated by imported repertoire and singers. The opening chapter examines the nation’s cultural scene at the beginning of the twentieth century, focusing on the position of opera within the broader American music debate. The second chapter outlines the genesis of each project and follows the path of each work leading up to their stage premieres. The central chapters present in-depth analyses of the librettos and musical style of these scores, illustrating the emergence of a distinctively American operatic outlook during the decade. Reception history provides a central point of reference throughout these analytical chapters. The final chapter resumes the narrative of chapter two by highlighting the audience response to the premiere performances and the subsequent production history of these operas following their premieres. Throughout this study, it is apparent that the Americanist motivation more strongly associated with composers of a younger (and more modernist-leaning) generation was indeed a powerful force, even among tradition-bound composers of the 1910s. Despite their adoption of European-inherited musical styles and operatic conventions, the selected composers and librettists still intensely desired for audiences to receive their works as definitively American creations. Thus, a reassessment of the period’s cultural context and a reexamination of the scores themselves yield new insights into an exciting stage in the development of American opera. ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Support for this project was on two occasions provided by the Jill McAllister Award, established in memory of Jill McAllister (1948–2003) by her husband Stuart Levy, for the furtherance of musicological research on opera topics by graduate students at the University of Illinois. My sincerest thanks … … to my committee members, whose insightful suggestions and criticisms have improved and strengthened this dissertation immeasurably. … to my advisor, Gayle Magee, for having mentored me through this project from its initial conception to eventual completion, and seeing my work safely to the finish line. … to my family, for their steadfast encouragement of a career in music and academia. … to our Boston terrier, Olive, whose on-the-lap companionship accompanied the writing of many of these pages. … and most especially to my wife, Audra, without whose selfless support and infinite love this project could not have been accomplished. iii In memory of my grandmother —pianist and music-lover— Mary Ziegel (1916–2011) iv TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................................ vii CHAPTER 1 Overture: Answering the Call for American Opera ...........................................1 CHAPTER 2 Expectations: From Conception to Premiere ...................................................46 CHAPTER 3 Writing in “Operese”: Plots and Librettos .....................................................105 CHAPTER 4 Soundworld I: Musical Ingredients of American Opera ................................181 CHAPTER 5 Soundworld II: A Stylistic Analysis ..............................................................211 CHAPTER 6 Curtain: Audience Reception and Later Revivals ..........................................302 APPENDIX A The Operatic Performance Canon ..................................................................345 APPENDIX B Plot Synopses .................................................................................................352 APPENDIX C Casts of the Premiere Performances ..............................................................362 APPENDIX D Books of Opera Synopses ..............................................................................365 APPENDIX E Index of Music Examples in Chapter 5 ..........................................................374 BIBLIOGRAPHY ........................................................................................................................376 v American operas of the past have generally been preserved in a silent limbo called “print,” located in tombs of learning called “libraries.” There, in stacks seldom disturbed by a curious hand, are the heroes and villains, the happy or tragic lovers, the adven- turers and plotters, the leaders and the followers that inhabit the alluring land of opera. Of course, the music is there too—for those who know how to read it.1 —Gilbert Chase [T]he standard references give an impression of poverty. What is so terribly irritating to me is that European music gets all the adjectives and verbs, while American music is limited to nouns. In other words, European operas are dealt with in lively dis- cussions, while American operas are given only as titles and composers’ names on supplementary 2 lists. —Edith Borroff 1 Gilbert Chase, America’s Music: From the Pilgrims to the Present, 3rd ed. (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1987), 545. 2 Edith Borroff, “American Opera: An Early Suggestion of Context,” in Opera and the Golden West: The Past, Present, and Future of Opera in the U.S.A., ed. John L. DiGaetani and Josef P. Sirefman (Cranbury, N. J.: Associated University Presses, 1994), 22. vi INTRODUCTION The cultural currents seemed right for American opera at the beginning of the twentieth century. A confluence of factors—from performers and music critics to opera-producing institutions and audiences—all contributed to the demand for new operas by native composers. Responding to this call, American composers penned more operas than ever before. The genre at last attracted a regular stream of compositional activity, in stark contrast to the infrequent and sporadic appearances of indigenously composed scores during the preceding hundred years. Yet this period’s style of American opera was a short-lived phenomenon. The impact of war and the subsequent critical and academic privileging of a select group of modernists made the aesthetic of the 1900s and 1910s, with its dependence upon elements inherited from European, nineteenth- century Romanticism, seem dated and not even especially American, in terms of both musical and plot content. By mid-century, the major opera companies concerned themselves with the continuance of the canonical European repertoire and the most current American works, rather than the revival of moderate successes from years past. Critics might fondly remember a favorite moment from prior seasons, but none called for restagings. Thus, since not one American opera from the first two decades of the twentieth century has managed to enter the performance repertoire, all of this period’s operas must ultimately be considered failures along this front. The general pattern is the same with any opera project from these years that achieved the goal of a fully staged performance. Critics and audience members alike eagerly awaited the premiere. Upon actually seeing the opera performed, however, critics voiced their disappointment. The librettos were the primary target of critical ire, with the music generally receiving greater approval. Audiences, meanwhile, provided composers with a more generous vii reception. Even if each season boasted a premiere or two, the arrival of a new American opera was still rare enough to elicit an enthusiastic response. With enough audience support, some of these works managed to maintain a tenuous position in the repertoire of a single company for an extra season or two. Perhaps neighboring cities might get to see a performance if the opera company toured, or a particularly intrepid and persistent composer might manage to achieve a revival performance years later. But for the most part, after only a few years these works vanished from the repertoire completely. A present-day revival of any American opera from the first two decades of the twentieth century is the rarest of exceptions. The titles of these operas receive little more than passing mention in the standard references. Published piano-vocal scores remain more accessible on the shelves of many music libraries, but performing materials are not readily available. The sheer amount of operatic activity during this period indicates that this is a far more significant segment of the repertoire than our modern performance canon might suggest. At least 55 new operas by American composers received first performances between 1900 and 1920.1 In brief, the nation’s artistic climate held all the necessary ingredients to foster this level of operatic activity. By the early years of the twentieth century, each of the nation’s major cities