Operas that never were (Sigh ...)
Talk Opera, or Nobody Knows the Traubel I've Seen
Join LibraryThing to post.
This topic is currently marked as "dormant"—the last message is more than 90 days old. You can revive it by posting a reply.
1denseatoms
Giacomo Puccini once considered writing an opera based on Ferenc Molnar's play, "Liliom," but, of course, never did. Rodgers and Hammerstein later turned "Liliom" into their Broadway musical, "Carousel." I always thought that a Puccini "Liliom" would resemble the composer's "Il Tabarro."
Puccini, like Wagner before him, mulled over the life of the Buddha as an operatic subject.
What news would break with the discovery of a "lost" Lilliom or Buddha score, especially when record companies seem to have recorded every scrap of music that Puccini ever wrote!
Does anyone else have any "fantasy discoveries" like this in mind by any other composers?
Puccini, like Wagner before him, mulled over the life of the Buddha as an operatic subject.
What news would break with the discovery of a "lost" Lilliom or Buddha score, especially when record companies seem to have recorded every scrap of music that Puccini ever wrote!
Does anyone else have any "fantasy discoveries" like this in mind by any other composers?
2lilithcat
A couple that ought to be written:
I was reading Andrew Holleran's recent novel, Grief, in which the main character becomes engrossed in a book of letters of Mary Todd Lincoln. At one point, his landlord describes a scene between Mrs. Lincoln and former Secretary of State William Seward. They meet on a train and he brings her a cup of tea, which she tosses out the window, "tucking her head down and shedding bitter tears”. “What a scene in a movie that would make!” said my landlord. He gazed into the garden. “Why has no one written an opera on this woman?" Good question!
Another opera I'd like to see written is one that I think William Bolcom could make a good job of, and that is one based on the life of Samuel Insull, who built the Civic Opera House in Chicago for the Chicago Grand Opera Company (whose general director, soprano Mary Garden, is said by some to have been his mistress). What a life! From being a clerk in London, he went to work for Thomas Edison and became a utilities magnate in the States. His companies collapsed during the Depression; he was criminally charged and, after a lengthy attempt to get him extradited, was tried and acquitted. He died on a Paris Métro platform of a heart attack. Popular legend had it that he was broke and had only a few cents in his pocket, though in fact he was probably robbed after collapsing. Either makes a pretty operatic story! I really think Lyric Opera of Chicago missed a bet not commissioning an opera based on his life for their 50th anniversary season. To have that life portrayed on the stage of the opera house that he build really would be something!
I was reading Andrew Holleran's recent novel, Grief, in which the main character becomes engrossed in a book of letters of Mary Todd Lincoln. At one point, his landlord describes a scene between Mrs. Lincoln and former Secretary of State William Seward. They meet on a train and he brings her a cup of tea, which she tosses out the window, "tucking her head down and shedding bitter tears”. “What a scene in a movie that would make!” said my landlord. He gazed into the garden. “Why has no one written an opera on this woman?" Good question!
Another opera I'd like to see written is one that I think William Bolcom could make a good job of, and that is one based on the life of Samuel Insull, who built the Civic Opera House in Chicago for the Chicago Grand Opera Company (whose general director, soprano Mary Garden, is said by some to have been his mistress). What a life! From being a clerk in London, he went to work for Thomas Edison and became a utilities magnate in the States. His companies collapsed during the Depression; he was criminally charged and, after a lengthy attempt to get him extradited, was tried and acquitted. He died on a Paris Métro platform of a heart attack. Popular legend had it that he was broke and had only a few cents in his pocket, though in fact he was probably robbed after collapsing. Either makes a pretty operatic story! I really think Lyric Opera of Chicago missed a bet not commissioning an opera based on his life for their 50th anniversary season. To have that life portrayed on the stage of the opera house that he build really would be something!
3pechmerle
Considering the extraordinary power of his "Nelson Mass," I'd love the discovery of Haydn's "lost" opera "Lord Nelson," with a great Lady Hamilton role as the love interest. This being opera, she could turn up on the deck of HMS Victory as Nelson simultaneously triumphs and dies at Trafalgar.
4HouseholdOpera
It occurred to me some time ago that Virginia Woolf's Orlando would make a marvelous opera in the right hands. And, just now, Google told me that Angela Carter left behind a draft of a libretto for an Orlando opera -- it's collected in her book The Curious Room. According to this article from the Guardian, it looks like nobody's been interested in staging it. But clearly someone must, because, really, Angela Carter! The mind boggles!
5denseatoms
George Gershwin considered an opera based on the play, "Mimba's Daughters," by Dubose Heyward the libretto of "Porgy and Bess" was based on Heyward's "novel, Porgy"). He didn't live long enough to do so.
I saw a production of "Mimba's Daughters" at the Charleston Spoleto Festival a few years ago. Its plot is darker and less linear than "Porgy," so it may have been an appropriate vehicle for a second (and more sophisticated) Gershwin opera.
Point of trivia: Singer/actress Ethel Waters played the lead role in the original production of "Mimba's Daughters."
I saw a production of "Mimba's Daughters" at the Charleston Spoleto Festival a few years ago. Its plot is darker and less linear than "Porgy," so it may have been an appropriate vehicle for a second (and more sophisticated) Gershwin opera.
Point of trivia: Singer/actress Ethel Waters played the lead role in the original production of "Mimba's Daughters."
