Read Online Grand Opera: The Story of the Met by Charles Affron, Mirella Jona Affron - Free Book Online Page A

daunting enterprise of softening the hearts of the Wagnerites, so long hardened in contempt of bel canto. Reverting to form, critics shot the poisoned arrows they reserved for bel canto tragedy at Lucrezia Borgia, “a repetition of empty formulas and passages . . . absolutely without a trace of dramatic characterization” (Tribune) .
Verismo
     
    Composed by the masters of la giovane scuola (the young school, a group of late-nineteenth- to early-twentieth-century post-Verdi Italian composers) during the Belle Époque, Manon Lescaut and Madama Butterfly, Iris, Fedora, and Adriana Lecouvreur, all Conried premieres, belonged to a manner that continues to carry the problematic brand of “verismo.” They have in common the signature feature of the “hidden” aria. To be sure, and to the relief of singers and record companies, verismo admits excerptable pieces designed to invite applause and timed to the capacity of early disks. But the two-part structure of the bel canto aria, the slow cavatina capped by the fast cabaletta embellished with intricate fioritura and stratospheric high notes, gave way to a shorter-breathed and shorter-ranged arioso embedded in an ongoing fabric of dramatic recitative accompanied by orchestral comment. Sung phrases often approached the rhythms of spoken dialogue. At the same time, the subjects of Conried’s five verismo premieres fit uncomfortably under a single umbrella. An Italian outgrowth of French literary naturalism, verismo applies accurately to the plebeian characters and locales of Cavalleria rusticana and Pagliacci, but much less well to the exotic Iris and Madama Butterfly, to the ancien régime of Manon Lescaut ’s young lovers, to Adriana Lecouvreur ’s aristocrats, or to Fedora ’s contemporary European nobility. 21
    Manon Lescaut and Madama Butterfly reaped the lion’s share of press attention and its most fulsome praise. Puccini’s stock had risen rapidly in the wake of the 1900–01 first nights of La Bohème and Tosca . For the Times, Manon Lescaut, which predated La Bohème by three years, was the title that had lifted Puccini above his giovane scuola cohort. Even Krehbiel was willing to succumb to its allure: “fresher, more spontaneous, more unaffected and more passionate in its climaxes” (Tribune) . Caruso’s Des Grieux met the usual high expectations. Manon exposed the vocal and dramatic limits of Lina Cavalieri, better known for her looks than for her art. Another great beauty, Geraldine Farrar, made a phenomenal impression as Cio-Cio-San, the most important assignment of her debut season. Winning “the tribute of tears from many eyes . . . her triumph was complete” (Tribune) . The extended excerpts recorded by Victor a couple of years later capture the commitment of the inaugural cast. Puccini had been happy with the production of Manon Lescaut and with Cavalieri’s performance; he was disappointed in Madama Butterfly . He complained about the inadequatelyprepared orchestra and its conductor, Arturo Vigna, but most especially about Farrar, who sang out of tune and failed, in his view, to make the desired impact in the large auditorium. For sixteen consecutive seasons, Met audiences disagreed; Farrar portrayed Puccini’s tragic geisha a record 139 times. 22
    The role of yet another Japanese woman abused by a callous lover, the unfortunate Iris, fell to Emma Eames. She had more success than the work bearing the victim’s name. Caruso in kimono (much to the amusement of the spectators) made the most of limited opportunities. And the pioneering Mascagni, who had blazed the trail of verismo with Cavalleria rusticana, suffered in the inevitable comparison with Puccini. Iris was generally dismissed as a collection of Eastern effects with a few lyric effusions, an excess of tired symbolism, and an unsavory subject. The Met’s décor and lighting received special mention; admired particularly was the metamorphosis of a trash heap, the site of the heroine’s death,