Voodoo (opera)
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Voodoo is an opera in three acts with music and libretto by Harry Lawrence Freeman. A product of the Harlem Renaissance, it was first performed with piano accompaniment as a radio broadcast on May 20, 1928. The first staged performance with orchestra took place on September 10, 1928, at the Palm Garden (a temporary name for the 52nd Street Theatre) in New York City.[1]
Freeman was a talented African-American musician, becoming assistant church organist at age 10. A seminal moment in his life was seeing Richard Wagner's opera Tannhäuser. In 1891, at age 18, he completed his first opera. He continued to compose numerous operas during much of his life.[2]
In several articles concerning Voodoo, the New York Amsterdam News varied its reportage of the time Freeman had spent composing the opera. Initially, the paper said "Although Professor Freeman has been prepared for years for the opportunity to present the negro in opera he has had to bide his time."[3] After the opera had closed, the paper said that Freeman had been working on the opera for two years.[4] The paper corrected itself later when it reported that he had completed the opera in 1914.[5] (The finding aid for Freeman's papers at Columbia University indicates a vocal score dated 1912.)[2]
Synopsis
Voodoo is set in Louisiana during the Reconstruction Era. Cleota, a house servant, is in love with Mando, a plantation overseer on the plantation where they live. The voodoo queen, Lolo, is jealous and, seeing Cleota as a rival, tries to put her out of the way. A voodoo ceremony takes place during which Lolo and her associate, Fojo, distribute amulets and charms to participants, then retreat to a glen to invoke the snake-god. Cleota is about to be put to death but is rescued by Mando and Chloe (Lolo's mother). Another attempt by Lolo to subdue Cleota results in the queen being shot.[6][7]
The New York Herald Tribune reported that the opera was to illustrate "typical Negro life in the days of slavery, while the music includes spirituals, chants, arias, tangoes and other dances, among these a ritualistic voodoo ceremony."[8]
Productions
The opera was first presented as a radio broadcast with piano accompaniment (played by Freeman) on May 20, 1928, over station WGBS.[9] The cast included Doris Trotman, soprano; Carlotta Freeman, soprano; Ray Yates, tenor; Otto Bohanan, baritone.[10]
A month later, Valdo Freeman, the composer's son and a baritone, sang excerpts from Voodoo as well as another of his father's operas, Plantation, during a radio recital also broadcast on WGBS on June 25, 1928.[11]
Notices prior to the production's staged premiere mentioned a "company of over fifty people."[12][13] Advertisements also indicated the company was to include fifty people,[3] although this figure was reduced to thirty in later notices.[6][8][14]
The "Negro jazz grand opera" (as it was called by the New York Amsterdam News[3]) had its first staged performance at the "Palm Garden" (apparently a temporary name for the 52nd Street Theatre) on September 10, 1928. Freeman conducted an orchestra of twenty-one musicians.[6] The review in the New York Herald Tribune said the presentation was "offered" by his son Valdo Freeman.[6] One review referred to the producing company as the "Negro Opera Company Inc."[15]
Costumes were supplied by Chrisdie & Carlotta, and F. Berner supplied the wigs.[16] The executive staff included Robert Eichenberg, Leon Williams, Esther Thompson, Octavia Smith, Philip Williams, William Thompson, Grace Abrams, and Walter Mattis.[17]
Voodoo was scheduled to run for a week with a matinée on Saturday.[6] Apparently it had to close early for lack of funding.[4]
The score was never published. The manuscript resides in the Rare Book & Manuscript Library of Columbia University.[18]
The first production of Voodoo since 1928 took place June 26–27, 2015 at Miller Theatre by the Harlem Opera Theatre, Morningside Opera, and the Harlem Chamber Players. It was conducted by Gregory Hopkins.[19]
Casts
| Role | Voice type | First performance (on radio), May 20, 1928 Accompanist: Harry Lawrence Freeman | Premiere stage performance cast, September 10, 1928 Conductor: Harry Lawrence Freeman |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cleota | soprano | Doris Trotman | Doris Trotman |
| Lolo | soprano | Carlotta Freeman | Carlotta Freeman |
| Mando | tenor | Ray Yates | Ray Yates |
| baritone | Otto Bohanan | Valdo Freeman | |
| baritone | Thomas R. Hall | ||
| Marie Woodby | |||
| bass | William H. Holland | ||
| Joseph Northern | |||
| Rosetta Jones | |||
| dancer | Ollie Burgoyne | ||
The alternate cast for the staged presentation included Rosetta Jones, Cordelia Paterson, Luther Lamont, Blanche Smith, John H. Eckles, Leo C. Evans, and Harold Bryant. Named participants also included the dancer Ollie Burgoyne, who had recently performed at the Folies Bergère in Paris.[8]