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The Scarlet Letter (Damrosch opera)

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The Scarlet Letter
Opera by Walter Damrosch
Walter Damrosch, composer of The Scarlet Letter
LibrettistGeorge Parsons Lathrop
LanguageEnglish
Based on"The Scarlet Letter" by Nathaniel Hawthorne
Premiere
10 February 1896 (1896-02-10)
Damrosch Opera Company, The Boston Theatre, Boston, Massachusetts

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

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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

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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

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  • 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

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  1. ^ a b Kirk, Elise Kuhl (2001). American opera. University of Illinois Press. pp. 133–136. ISBN 9780252026232.
  2. ^ 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.
  3. ^ Brockway, Wallace; Weinstock, Herbert (1941). The Opera: A History of Its Creation and Performance, 1600–1941. New York: Simon & Schuster. p. 476.
  4. ^ "The Scarlet Letter". Freund's Musical Weekly. Vol. 8, no. 9. New York: Harry E. Freund. January 9, 1895. p. 4.
  5. ^ Freund's 1895, p. 4.
  6. ^ "An American Opera". The Outlook. Vol. 51, no. 2. New York: The Outlook Co. January 12, 1895. p. 70.
  7. ^ "The Scarlet Letter". The Vocalist. Vol. 12, no. 3. New York: Mortimer P. Lee. March 1896. p. 137–138.
  8. ^ 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.
  9. ^ Remy 1896.
  10. ^ "New York". The Theatre. London: Wyman & Sons. April 1, 1896. p. 237–238. Retrieved January 4, 2025.
  11. ^ Theatre 1896, p. 238.
  12. ^ "Music in America". The Musical Times. 36: 116. February 1, 1895.
  13. ^ Upton, George Putnam (1906). The standard operas: their plots, their music, and their composers. A. C. McClurg. p. 62.
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