THE BIRTHDAY OF THE INFANTA: AN EARLY TWENTIETH-CENTURY CHICAGO BALLET CONTEXTUALIZED by HEATHER R. LANCTOT A THESIS Presented to the School of Music and Dance and the Graduate School of the University of Oregon in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts June 2012 THESIS APPROVAL PAGE Student: Heather R. Lanctot Title: The Birthday of the Infanta: An Early Twentieth-Century Chicago Ballet Contextualized This thesis has been accepted and approved in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Master of Arts degree from the School of Music and Dance: Dr. Marian Smith Chair Dr. Frank Diaz Member Dr. Stephen Rodgers Member and Kimberly Andrews Espy Vice President for Research & Innovation/Dean of the Graduate School Original approval signatures are on file with the University of Oregon Graduate School. Degree awarded June 2012 ii © 2012 Heather R. Lanctot iii THESIS ABSTRACT Heather R. Lanctot Master of Arts School of Music and Dance June 2012 Title: The Birthday of the Infanta: An Early Twentieth-Century Chicago Ballet Contextualized The Birthday of the Infanta, a ballet that was created by John Alden Carpenter, Adolph Bolm, and Robert Edmond Jones, was performed at the Auditorium Theatre in Chicago on December 23, 1919 and the Lexington Theatre in New York on February 23, 1920. Despite the positive reviews from daily papers and music journals alike the ballet was only revived once and is not a part of a known ballet repertoire. Although musicologist Howard Pollack discusses The Birthday of the Infanta briefly in his biography of John Alden Carpenter my analysis serves, through its exploration of both primary and secondary sources, to create a more complete and thorough dialogue through the examination of the social, economic, political and artistic factors surrounding the ballet. This analysis also helps to create a better understanding of ballet’s place in America in the early twentieth century. iv CURRICULUM VITAE NAME OF AUTHOR: Heather R. Lanctot GRADUATE AND UNDERGRADUATE SCHOOLS ATTENDED: University of Oregon, Eugene DEGREES AWARDED: Master of Arts, Musicology, 2012, University of Oregon Bachelor of Arts, Music with an emphasis in History and Literature, 2010, University of Oregon AREAS OF SPECIAL INTEREST: Ballet and Opera of the 19th and 20th Centuries Music and Identity The Role of Humor in Music Music’s Creation of Spacial and Visual Boundaries in American Popular Music 20th and 21st centuries PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE: Teaching Assistant, Department of Musicology and Ethnomusicology, University of Oregon, 2010-2012 Student Assistant to Electronic Records Archivist, University of Oregon Special Collections and University Archives, 2010-2012 PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS: American Musicological Society, 2010-present GRANTS, AWARDS, AND HONORS: Outstanding Graduate Student in Musicology, 2012 Graduate Research Award in Music, 2012 Outstanding Undergraduate Student in Music, 2010 Outstanding Undergraduate Student in Music History, 2010 Cum Laude, University of Oregon, 2010 v ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I wish to express my sincerest appreciation to Dr. Marian Smith for her guidance and support in the preparation of this manuscript. Additionally I would like to thank Dr. Frank Diaz and Dr. Stephen Rodgers for their involvement as committee members. Furthermore I would like to thank Eric Sweeney and Joon Park for their indispensable contributions to this project through the retrieval of archival material and transcription of scores respectively. Howard Pollack deserves thanks as well for his foundational research and his eagerness to aide me in my exploration of this ballet. I would also like to thank the staff members at the Music Division of the Library of Congress and the Roger and Julie Baskes Department of Special Collections at the Newberry Library. Also, special thanks to Anne Wells at the Chicago Film Archive for her personal interest in, and support of, this project and Dolores Lipinski Long at the Ruth Page Center for the Arts for her valuable insights into the career and life of Ruth Page. The archival research for this project was completed with partial support from a Graduate Research Award from the University of Oregon’s School of Music and Dance. Lastly, but certainly not least, I would like to thank my family and friends for their unfailing love and support throughout this journey. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter Page I. INTRODUCTION .................................................................... 1 II. MUSIC ..................................................................................... 5 John Alden Carpenter and Text ........................................... 5 The Songs of John Alden Carpenter .................................... 6 Adventures in a Perambulator ............................................. 16 Oscar Wilde and The Birthday of the Infanta ....................... 22 The Music of The Birthday of the Infanta ............................ 31 III. CHOREOGRAPHY .................................................................. 51 Anna Pavlova: Common Thread .......................................... 51 Bolm’s Character Dance and Choreographic Approach ....... 55 Choreography and Characterization The Birthday of the Infanta ..................................................................... 62 IV. SET AND COSTUME DESIGN ............................................... 71 Robert Edmond Jones: Influences, Training, and Background ............................................................. 71 Analysis of Design .............................................................. 77 Set Design and Costumes The Birthday of the Infanta ......... 79 V. CHICAGO AND THE WORLD ............................................... 89 The Progressive Era ............................................................ 89 Politics and Opera ............................................................... 94 Spain and America .............................................................. 98 The Ballets Russes in America ............................................ 100 vii Chapter Page VI. CONCLUSION ......................................................................... 103 APPENDICES ...................................................................................... 108 A. FOUR-HAND PIANO SCORE TRANSCRIPTION WITH CUTS OBSERVED.................................................. 108 B. JOHN ALDEN CARPENTER SONG CHART .......................... 152 C. PROGRAM FOR ADVENTURES IN A PERAMBULATOR ........ 153 D. THE BIRTHDAY OF THE INFANTA PLAY ADAPTATIONS AND MENTIONS IN U.S. NEWSPAPERS ........................ 155 E. PROGRAM NOTES FOR THE BIRTHDAY OF THE INFANTA ............................................................................ 156 F. ANNAL OF OPERA SEASONS 1918-1919 AND 1919-1920 IN CHICAGO ..................................................................... 158 G. THE BIRTHDAY OF THE INFANTA CHART SHOWING SHIFTS IN TIME-SIGNATURES ...................................... 160 H. FIGURES ................................................................................. 162 REFERENCES CITED .............................................................................. 169 viii LIST OF TABLES Table Page 1.1. Moments of the speaker being naive and informed in Adventures in a Perambulator ............................................. 19 1.2. Use of color in Oscar Wilde’s “Birthday of the Infanta” ........... 29 1.3. Shifting Time-Signatures in both the two-hand piano score and full orchestral scores of The Birthday of the Infanta as “one by one the children enter the garden” .......... 34 1.4. The use of tuplet rhythms in the four-hand condensed piano score .......................................................................... 37 ix MUSIC EXAMPLES Music Example Page 1.1. Measures 3-5 showing Pedro’s theme at the opening of the ballet (four-hand condensed piano score) ............................. 39 1.2. Measure 902-904 showing Pedro’s theme during the “fatal dance” (four-hand condensed piano score) ................. 40 1.3. Measures 194-197: The beginning of the “A” section of the march, I-V alternation in the bass (four-hand condensed piano score) ......................................................................... 43 1.4. Measures 309-315 demonstrating the melodic motif of the gypsy dancers (four-hand condensed piano score) ............... 44 1.5. Measure 530 showing the “loping” rhythm (the bottom two hands from the four-hand score) ................................... 47 1.6. Measures 468-479 show the mocking melodic motif (four-hand condensed piano score) ...................................... 48 x LIST OF FIGURES Figure Page 1. Adolph Bolm as “Pedro” ............................................................. 162 2. Adolph Bolm as “Pedro” ............................................................. 162 3. Ruth Page as the “Infanta” .......................................................... 163 4. Ruth Page and Adolph Bolm as “Infanta” and “Pedro”................ 163 5. Ruth Page and Adolph Bolm as “Infanta” and “Pedro”................ 164 6. Sketch and watercolor design for Act 1 ....................................... 164 7. Cast and stage design from Act 1 ................................................ 165 8. Sketch and watercolor design for Act 2 ....................................... 165 9. Cast and stage design from Act 2 ................................................ 166 10. Female costume sketch.............................................................. 166