100 Great Operas and Their Stories: Act-By-Act Synopses (29 page)

Had not Puccini, years later, composed the scores of
Gianni Schicchi
and
Turandot
, one might conclude that this experience had broken his spirit and ended his career as a first-class opera composer. For
The Girl
, despite the brilliant success of its premiere, is a tired opera. It does have its dramatic moments—particularly during the poker-game scene-but it notably fails in the one virtue the composer claimed for it. “For this drama,” he said, “I have composed music that, I feel sure, reflects the spirit of the American people, and particularly the strong, vigorous nature of the West.” But it is almost all pure second-rate Italian opera, and when the Wild West dialogue intrudes (“Veils Fargo! Veils Fargo!” shout the cowboys in Act I), it is difficult not to laugh. Yet, it was revived in Chicago in 1956.

ACT I

The barroom of “The Polka” inn is a favorite spot for the roughnecks of the gold rush to whoop it up, and Minnie, its owner and presiding genius, has the practical assistance of a couple of Indians named Billy Jackrabbit and his squaw Wowkle
(pronounced
Vuffkleh
in Italian). The opening local color includes a game of faro, in which one of the miners is almost strung up for cheating, and a Western ballad singer named Jake Wallace.

There is also Ashby, an agent of the Wells Fargo Transport Company, who says that he is on the lookout for a gang of robbers led by one Ramerrez. Rance, the sheriff and local big-shot, claims that he is going to marry Minnie; his claim is disputed by the others; there is a free-for-all; and it is Minnie herself who enforces peace at the point of a gun. Now the Wells-Fargo post arrives with a letter for Ashby telling him that Ramerrez will be in the neighborhood shortly. While Rance, with Italian passion but without success, pleads for Minnie’s love, a stranger named Dick Johnson comes in and immediately arouses the dislike of Rance. “Stranger, what’s your business?” he asks, sweeping Dick’s drink to the floor, and it is only Minnie’s intervention once more which saves Dick—for he, being the leading tenor, has immediately caught her fancy.

While Dick and Minnie are in the next room dancing, Castro, a captured member of the Ramerrez gang, comes in and promises to lead the boys to the hiding place in return for his own life. A moment later Dick returns, and Castro recognizes him as none other than Ramerrez himself. He manages to tell his boss that he has given away no secrets: the boys are merely waiting for the sheriff to go away before they raid the place.

When they all go off, Dick is left with Minnie, who is guarding all the gold for the miners. In the duet that closes the act Dick not only gives up his villainous project for the love of a good woman, but promises to defend her against any attack. Still not knowing the real identity of her new flame, she invites him to come up later and see her in her cabin.

ACT II

Up in Minnie’s room, Wowkle is singing a lullaby to her papoose and discussing with Billy the advisability of making
it all legal. Their domestic discussion is interrupted by the boss-woman, who is getting ready to entertain Dick Johnson with a Western supper. The guest arrives; they discuss life; they decide Dick had better spend the night (in a separate bed) on account of the terrible snowstorm, when a gang of the boys interrupts. Dick, hiding behind a curtain, hears them tell Minnie that they have found out that Dick Johnson is Ramerrez himself; but she laughs at them and manages to shoo them out. Now she turns about and upbraids the bandit. He admits who he is; he pleads his sad history in extenuation (his father’s death left him no alternative in life if he was to support his dear old mother and the other kids); and he says that the sight of Minnie made him decide to turn over a new leaf. Thereupon he rushes out into the night—only to return a moment later, shot by Rance.

Quickly Minnie hides the wounded man in the loft, and, when Rance enters, insists that there is no one with her. Rance cannot find his quarry, but he harshly accuses Minnie of loving the bandit. As they argue, a drop of blood falls from the wounded man; he comes down the ladder and collapses; and Minnie tries one last desperate stratagem. Knowing Rance for an inveterate gambler, she suggests three hands of poker. If she wins, Dick goes free; if Rance wins, he can have Dick—and Minnie too. They play, and each wins one of the first two hands. Minnie’s last one, however, is weak; and while Rance is obligingly getting her a drink, she substitutes five cards from her stocking for the deal she got. Thus, when Rance shows with three kings, Minnie lays down a full house, aces high. The lovers are left alone.

ACT III

In a clearing among the giant redwoods of California, a gang of the boys is again hunting for Dick Johnson, who has been nursed back to health only to have to go on the lam once more. Twice there are false alarms of his having been caught; but at last one of the miners, Sonora, brings him in. A rope is prepared for him; everyone takes a turn at accusing
him of various crimes; and he replies that he has always stopped short of murder. Finally, they allow him a last word, which turns out to be the one well-known aria from the opera,
Ch’ella mi creda libero
(“Let her believe me free”), in which he begs that Minnie should never know of his inglorious fate but be allowed to believe he may someday return to her.

Rance’s reply is to strike him in the face and prepare to pull the rope. But just at this moment in rides Minnie on a horse (if the leading lady is up to it) and brandishing her pistol. Hasn’t she always done everything for the miners? she pleads. And won’t they do one thing for her now: let off the man she loves so that he may begin a new life with her?

They do.

H
Ä
NSEL UND GRETEL

Opera in three acts by Engelbert Humperdinck
with libretto in German by Adelheid Wette,
based on a fairy tale by Jakob and Wilhelm
Grimm

Time: once upon a

Place: Germany

First performance at Weimar, December 23, 1893

    For many years it has been a custom to perform this opera at Christmas time as a matinee for the kiddies, though why a tale which obviously must take place in summertime should be deemed especially appropriate for the winter is not entirely clear. Nor does its very skillful but heavily Wagnerian orchestration and harmonic elaboration strike one as well adapted for little children to love or appreciate. Yet the custom has been so long established, and so many generations of grownups think that they loved it when they were not grownups, that the tradition is beginning to fade only in the United States. Here, for better or worse, the moppets express their opinions more freely than elsewhere, and a Christmas-time consensus of those opinions (which has never been taken in a
scientific way) would almost certainly give the palm to Mr. Menotti’s
Amahl and the Night Visitors
. Its story is more appropriate—and you don’t have to sit still so long.

Nevertheless, it is a treasurable score. The use of genuine children’s folk songs in Act I, the
Prayer
as it is sung in Act II, the
Witches’ Ride
, and several other pages of music have become part of our culture, and deservedly so. One could, however, almost wish that Humperdinck had reined his enthusiasm for writing notes by confining himself to his original intention—that of composing some incidental music for a children’s play that his sister, Frau Adelheid Wette, had written for the family.

OVERTURE

A favorite number on pops concerts, the overture begins with the
Prayer
from Act II, continues with contrasting themes from other parts of the score, and develops quite elaborately till the
Prayer
is thundered out as if it were a hymn to victory.

ACT I

In the cottage of a poor broommaker his two children, Hänsel and Gretel, are hungry but nevertheless working, playing, and quarreling in the best of spirits. They sing the old German folk song about Susie and her geese (who have no shoes), and they end up by singing and dancing the familiar “Brother, come and dance with me”
(Brüderchen, komm tanz’ mit mir)
. Their mother’s entrance puts a quick stop to the laughing, and they guiltily try to explain away the broommaking they have abandoned. In her anger the mother knocks over a pitcher of milk, leaving nothing for supper. With threats of a dire beating she sends them into the woods, warning them not to come back before they have picked a full basket of strawberries.

Peter, the father, returns home, jolly and drunk, and mollifies his wife, Gertrude, by exhibiting a basket of sausages,
coffee, and bread and butter, which he has bought after an unexpected windfall of business in the village. As she prepares the supper, he misses the children, and Gertrude tells him that she has sent out the brats for strawberries. She doesn’t care if they’re at a mountain called Ilsenstein. Peter is horrified; and, as Gertrude does not seem to be up on local sociology, he sings her an aria explaining that there is a witch at Ilsenstein who navigates a broom and bakes little children into gingerbread. Gertrude at once rushes out after the children, and Peter follows, armed with his bottle of liquor.

ACT II

As intermission time can be troublesome when an audience includes many children, the management often labels this act “Scene 2” and the orchestra plays the
Hexenritt
(“Witches’ Ride”), a lively little tone poem, while the scenery is being changed.

At the foot of the dread Ilsenstein the children are casually gathering—and eating—their strawberries. Gretel sings the charming folk song
Ein Männlein steht im Walde
, likening a mushroom to a man; but as it begins to grow dark, they begin to be frightened. They have lost their way; they think they see mysterious figures and hear mysterious voices (there is a female chorus off-stage to lend some verisimilitude to this); and they fall into each other’s arms in fright. But the Little Sandman comforts them, strews the sand of sleepiness over them, and disappears as they sing the lovely
Children’s Prayer
about fourteen angels who will guard them in their sleep.

A light shines on them from the mountain, and the fourteen angels descend, gather round them, and perform a quiet and modest ballet.

ACT III

After a short prelude, the curtain rises on the same scene next morning, except that there is now visible in the back a
charming old German house decorated all over with life-size figures of children looking like gingerbread. It is, of course, the Witch’s house.

The Dew Man, after singing a little self-identifying song, wakes the children, who are delighted to see the attractive dwelling. Hänsel breaks off a piece of gingerbread and begins to eat it; and they decide it is merely the wind when they hear someone inside singing the old game tune “Who’s Nibbling at My House?” But it is really the Witch, who tosses a rope around Hansel’s neck (he frees himself), invites the children into the house (they refuse), and only manages to make them prisoners by the use of magic. She waves a juniper bough, utters the words
“Hocus-pocus Hexenschuss”
—and they are paralyzed. She thereupon places Hänsel in a cage, orders Gretel to work about the house, prepares the big stove, and takes a fiendish ride on her broom.

But this Witch is not very competent. When she tests Hänsel to see how good he is to eat, he presents her with a stick instead of his finger, and she is satisfied that he is too bony to cook. When she isn’t looking, Gretel gets hold of the magic wand and frees her brother. And when Gretel asks for instructions about looking into the stove, she shows her how and is pushed into the fire for her pains. Delighted with their arson, the children start gathering sweetmeats from all over the house, when the big stove crackles and then explodes. With this turn of events the children whom the Witch had baked into her gingerbread house become partially free of the spell; Hänsel completes the reverse spell with the wand; and they all join in a chorus celebrating the end of the black magic.

Just then Peter and Gertrude find their children, with all their new friends; the Witch, now in the shape of a great gingerbread cake, is dragged from the debris of her oven; Peter finds an appropriate moral (wickedness gets punished); and everyone praises God in a choral variation of the
Prayer
.

L’HEURE ESPAGNOLE
(The Spanish Hour)

Opera in one act by Maurice Ravel with
libretto in French by “Franc-Nohain” (Maurice
Legrand) based on his own play of the same
name