Free Grand Opera: The Story of the Met by Charles Affron, Mirella Jona Affron Page B

Fidelio, Lohengrin, Tannhäuser, Tristan und Isolde, Meistersinger, Parsifal, Rheingold, Walküre, Siegfried, and Götterdämmerung, was scratched. The company premiere of Saint Elisabeth, a Liszt oratorio staged as an opera, was done in English, not in the anticipated German; Martha was given in Italian as usual. In 1916–17, forty-six performances had been sung in German. To compensate for the boycott, in 1917–18 the Italian total rose from eighty-eight to 122, the French from thirty-three to forty-eight. The premieres represented Great War allies Italy, France, Russia, and the United States: Mascagni’s Lodoletta, Henri Rabaud’s Mârouf, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s Le Coq d’or, and The Robin Woman: Shanewis by Charles Wakefield Cadman, a specialist in Native-American music. 22
    The November 11, 1918, armistice converged with the opening of the season; the company celebrated offstage and on. In the afternoon, a procession to Times Square of Met administrators (Gatti-Casazza included), instrumentalists, and singers followed a “dummy” Siegfried, hung in effigy from a gibbet and helmeted to resemble Kaiser Wilhelm. Between acts of the evening’s opera, Samson et Dalila, national anthems rang through the house, “The Star-Spangled Banner” capped by Caruso’s high B flat.
    The reintegration of Wagner began in 1919–20 with Parsifal, in English; in 1920–21, Lohengrin and Tristan were on the program, also in English; all did well at the box office. In 1921–22, with the lifting of the linguistic ban,Italian maintained its plurality, although performances in German increased gradually through the 1920s. In the mid-1930s, with the coming of Kirsten Flagstad, German reclaimed its prewar share of approximately 30 percent.
    TABLE 5. Metropolitan Opera Premieres, 1908–09 to 1917–18
     

     
     
    TABLE 5. (continued)
     

     
     
    TABLE 5. (continued)
     

     
     
    TABLE 5. (continued)
     

     
     

CARUSO AND FARRAR: CELEBRITIES FOR MODERN TIMES
     
    At the very top of the operatic pyramid stood those few whose fame eclipsed the genre itself. The adventures of these artists/personalities made juicy copy for gossip columns and other channels of extramusical discourse. In Caruso’s case, most clamorous were stories surrounding the monkey-house episode and his daring defiance of racketeers of the Black Hand; in Farrar’s, her reputed affair with Crown Prince Friedrich Wilhelm, son of the Kaiser. That Farrar was the only diva to command her own dressing room and that she traveled in a private railroad car when the company was on the road were details to pique the public’s curiosity. Spaghetti Chaliapin, Chicken Tetrazzini, Lattuga alla Caruso, Coupe Patti, and Peach Melba showed up on the menus of sophisticates. In a handful of years at the end of the 1920s, likenesses of Melba, Farrar, Jeritza, and Bori appeared on the covers of Time . 23
    Caruso’s name all but ensured a sold-out house and, in 1913–14, for example, that meant a take of $12,000; Farrar, without Caruso, raked in the next highest receipts. They could salvage even as coolly received a novelty as Julien . From 1906–07 to their last joint appearance, opening night 1919, Caruso and Farrar sang together at the Met and on tour more than ninety times, despite the fact that the bottom line argued against the extravagance of casting the star couple. On the other hand, the pairing of the two could be counted on to turn performance into mega-event, notice into feature article, delight into delirium. In answer to the frequently asked question of which performance in Met history unleashed the greatest number of curtain calls and the longest ovation, the Metropolitan Opera online archive researchers award the palm to the April 22, 1914, Caruso/Farrar Tosca . The Times carried a long account of the show’s reception: “ovation for caruso and miss farrar. Opera Stars Recalled 40 Times after Last Appearance of Season in Tosca . tenor dances jig steps.