The Scarlet Letter (Damrosch opera)
1895 opera by Walter Damrosch
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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.
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| The Scarlet Letter | |
|---|---|
| Opera by Walter Damrosch | |
Walter Damrosch, composer of The Scarlet Letter | |
| Librettist | George Parsons Lathrop |
| Language | English |
| Based on | "The Scarlet Letter" by Nathaniel Hawthorne |
| Premiere | |
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
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, like 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
| 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
- 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]