Part 35
Marta shrinks from him in horror, but when Petro returns to fetch her, she instinctively turns from him to her old master.
Petro has disdained to put on the fine clothes offered him, and goes to church with his bride in his own old jacket.
When they are gone, Tommaso calls the land-owner once more to account about Marta, and learns, that everything Moruccio told him is true, for the young man repeats the story in his master's presence.
Tommaso hastens away, to stop the marriage, but already the church bells are ringing and the bridal procession returns.
Pedro sends his guests away, and when alone with his wife tries to win her love by his simple arts and wiles. He shows her the first hard earned silver coin he gained by killing a wolf, which had made havoc amongst the master's herds. The coin is still red with Pedro's own blood.
But Marta, though somewhat softened and interested in spite of herself only points to the room opposite her own, and is about to leave him, when suddenly a light is seen in her own room. Marta shrinks back frightened and this awakens Pedro's suspicions.
He too has seen the light, but Marta succeeds in quieting him for the moment, as the light has disappeared.
Slowly a change is coming over Marta. As she perceives, that Pedro is quite ignorant of her {510} true position, her heart goes out to him, but she gives no sign of the love, that has taken possession of her. She resolves to stay all night in this outer hall and sinks down near the hearth, while Pedro stretches himself on the floor at her feet and soon falls asleep.--
The second act still finds them in the same position. Marta, seeing Pedro asleep, gets up quietly in the early dawn, to attend to her household cares.
When she is out of the hall or kitchen, Nuri comes in and awakes Pedro. The poor lad's suspicions return and are intensified tenfold by Nuri's remarks about the village people, who laugh at and pity the young husband, and she wonders, what the reason of this can be.
Marta, finding the two together, drives the girl away. Her love for Pedro is awakened and with it jealousy. But Pedro, without looking at his young wife, takes Nuri by the hand and leads her away.
Old Tommaso, who now comes in, reproaches Marta for her evil life. With bitter tears she tells him her whole story. How she lived in Barcelona with her mother, a beggar, having never known her father;--how her mother died after years of misery, and how the old lame man, who lived with them, took her abroad, and made her dance and beg for him.
Having one day reached this village, the pretty girl of thirteen pleased the rich landowner Sebastiano, and he made her his mistress, after giving her old {511} foster-father this mill by way of renumeration for his connivance.--She was often about to drown herself, but her courage failed her, and so her life was passed in misery until the day of this marriage, into which she was forced by her master.
Tommaso advises her, to confess everything to her husband, and to ask his forgiveness.
In the next scene the village girls come to visit the young couple; they drive Pedro almost mad with their taunts and innuendos, telling him to ask Marta about their meaning.
When they are gone and Marta brings him the soup for his breakfast, he refuses to touch it, and abruptly tells her, that he is going back to the mountains alone.
Full of despair Marta defiantly owns, that she has belonged to another, and recklessly goads him to such fury, that he seizes a knife and wounds her in the arm.
She implores him to kill her, but seeing her blood flow, his love gets the better of him; he presses her to his heart, and persuades her to fly with him from the baleful air of the plain to the pure heights of the mountains.
But the door is barred by a crowd of peasants and by Sebastiano himself, who enters triumphantly and bids Marta dance for him. Pedro forbids this and the master strikes him.
Still Pedro's respect holds him in check, till Marta whispers to him, that Sebastiano is the man, who has brought her to shame.
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On this Pedro flies at the scoundrel. He is however prevented from attacking him by being forcibly removed by the peasants at Sebastiano's command.
Marta sinks back in a swoon.
At this moment old Tommaso returns, and tells Sebastiano, that having denounced his villany to the rich bride's father, the daughter is now lost to him.
Recklessly Sebastiano turns to Marta, who, having revived, finds herself alone with her old tyrant.
She struggles against him, calling to Pedro, who suddenly returns through another door, and bidding the scoundrel defend himself rushes upon him with his knife. But Sebastiano has no weapon, Pedro therefore throws down his knife and says they can wrestle then, and so be on equal terms.
After a short and desperate struggle Pedro succeeds in strangling Sebastiano, who falls dead to the ground.
Pedro then calls the villain's servants, and taking his wife into his arms, rushes away from the "Tiefland" to find peace and happiness in the mountains.
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MADAME BUTTERFLY.
Tragedy of a Japanese woman in three acts after John L. Long and David Belasco by L. ILLICA and G. GIACOSA.
Music by GIACOMO PUCCINI.
Though Puccini has not reached the musical heights of "Bohème" and "Tosca" in this opera, it has nevertheless a certain value for its true local colouring, united to the grace and the broad, flowing cantilene peculiar to the Italian composer.
These are most prominent in the love duet.
In the second act the little flower scene, which seems redolent with the delicate perfume of cherry blossoms, and the shimmering atmosphere, steeped in a peculiar shifting haze, gives score to the best musical effects of this famous composer.
The scene is laid in Nagasaki in our own time.
The first act takes place on a hill, from which there is a grand view of the ocean and of the town below.
Goro ("Nakodo"=matchmaker) shows his new Japanese house to an American lieutenant, Linkerton, who has purchased it in Japanese fashion for 999 years, with the right of giving monthly notice.--He is waiting for his bride Cho-Cho-San, named Butterfly, whom he is about to wed under the same queer conditions for one hundred yens (a yen about four shillings).
Butterfly's maid Suzuki and his two servants are presented to him, but he is impatient to embrace his sweetheart, with whom he is very much in love.
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Sharpless, the American Consul, who tells him much good of the little bride, warns him, not to bruise the wings of the delicate butterfly, but Linkerton only laughs at his remonstrances.
At last Butterfly appears with her companions. At her bidding, they all shut their umbrellas and kneel to their friend's future husband, of whom the girl is very proud.
Questioned by the Consul about her family, she tells him, that they are of good origin, but that, her father having died, she had to support herself and her mother as Geisha. She is but fifteen and very sweet and tender hearted.--
When the procession of her relations come up, they all do obeisance to Linkerton. They are all jealous of Butterfly's good luck and prophesy an evil end, but the girl perfectly trusts and believes in her lover and even confides to him, that she has left her own gods, to pray henceforth to the God of her husband.
When the latter begins to show her their house, she produces from her sleeve her few precious belongings; these are some silken scarfs, a little brooch, a looking glass and a fan; also a long knife, which she at once hides in a corner of the house. Goro tells Linkerton, that it is the weapon, with which her father performed "Harakiri" (killed himself). The last things she shows her lover are some little figures, "the Ottoken", which represent the souls of her ancestors.--
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When the whole assembly is ready, they are married by the commissary.
Linkerton treats his relations to champagne, but soon the festival is interrupted by the dismal howls of Butterfly's uncle, the Bonze, who climbs the hill and tells the relations, that the wretched bride has denied her faith, and has been to the mission-house, to adopt her husband's religion.
All turn from her with horror and curse her. But Linkerton consoles his weeping wife and the act closes with a charming love duet.
The second act shows Butterfly alone.--Linkerton has left her, and she sits dreamily with her faithful maid Suzuki, who vainly invokes her gods, to bring back the faithless husband.
The young wife, who has been waiting three long years for his return, still firmly believes his promise, to come back when the robin-redbreast should build its nest.
She refuses a proposal of marriage from prince Yamadori, who has loved her for years, and now tries again to win the forsaken wife. She answers him with quiet dignity, that, though by Japanese law a wife is considered free, as soon as her husband has left her, she considers herself bound by the laws of her husband's country, and Yamadori leaves her.
Sharpless now enters with a letter he has received from Linkerton. Not daring, to let her know its contents at once, he warns her, that her {516} husband will never return and advises her to accept prince Yamadori's offer.
Butterfly is at first startled and alarmed, but soon she recovers herself, and beckoning to Suzuki, she shows Sharpless her little fair haired, blue eyed boy, begging the Consul to write and tell her husband, that his child is awaiting him.
Sharpless takes leave of her deeply touched and without having shown the letter, when Suzuki enters screaming and accusing Goro, who has goaded her to fury, by spreading a report in the town, that the child's father is not known.
"You lie, you coward!" cries Butterfly, seizing a knife to kill the wretch. But suppressing her wrath she throws away the weapon and kicks him from her in disgust.
Suddenly a cannon shot is heard. Running on to the terrace Butterfly perceives a war-ship in the harbour, bearing the name "Abraham Linkerton."
All her troubles are forgotten; she bids her maid gather all the flowers in the garden; these she scatters around in profusion. Then she fetches her boy and bids Suzuki comb her hair, while she herself rouges her pale cheeks and those of her child.--Then they sit down behind a partition, in which they have made holes, through which they may watch the ship and await Linkerton's arrival.
The third act finds them in the same position. Suzuki and the child have fallen asleep, while Butterfly, sleepless, gazes through the "Shosy". Suzuki waking sees, that it is morning and implores her {517} mistress to take some rest, on which Butterfly, taking her child in her arms, retires into the inner room.
A loud knock causes Suzuki to open the "Shosy", and she finds herself in the presence of Sharpless and Linkerton. The latter signs to her, not to waken Butterfly. She is showing him the room adorned with flowers for his arrival, when she suddenly perceives a lady walking in the garden and hears, that she is Linkerton's lawful American wife.
Sharpless, taking the maid aside, begs her to prepare her mistress for the coming blow and tells her, that the foreign lady desires to adopt her husband's little boy.
Linkerton himself is deeply touched by the signs of Butterfly's undying love; full of remorse he entreats Sharpless to comfort her as best he can, and weeping leaves the scene of his first love dream.
His wife Kate returning to the foot of the terrace, sweetly repeats her wish to adopt the little boy, when Butterfly, emerging from the inner room, comes to look for her long lost husband, whose presence she feels with the divination of love.
Seeing Sharpless standing by a foreign lady and Suzuki in tears the truth suddenly bursts upon her. "Is he alive?" she asks, and when Suzuki answers "yes", she knows that he has forsaken her.--
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Turned to stone she listens to Kate's humble apologies and to her offer to take the child.--By a supreme effort she controls herself.
"I will give up my child to him only; let him come and take him; I shall by ready in half an hour," she answers brokenly.
When Sharpless and Kate have left her, Butterfly sends Suzuki into another room with the child. Then seizing her father's long knife she takes her white veil, throwing it over the folding screen. Kissing the blade she reads its inscription. "Honourably he dies, who no longer lives in honour," and raises it to her throat.
At this moment the door opens and her child runs up to his mother with outstretched arms. Snatching him to her bosom she devours him with kisses, then sends him into the garden.
Seizing the knife once more Butterfly disappears behind the screen and shortly afterward the knife is heard to fall.
When Linkerton's call "Butterfly" is heard, she emerges once more from the background and drags herself to the door; but there her strength fails her and she sinks dead to the ground.--
ACTÉ.
Music-Drama in four Acts. Text and Music by JOAN MANÉN.
It is only a few years since the young Spanish composer has begun to be known beyond his own country.
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He was an infant prodigy, whose musical genius revealed itself in his earliest childhood. He began to play the piano at the age of three, and at seven he knew twenty-four of Bach's fugues by heart.
His fame began to be spoken of during his tours in Spain and all over America, where he appeared not only as virtuoso on the piano and on the violin, but also as director in difficult orchestral pieces.--When he was thirteen he devoted himself entirely to the violin and to composition, both of which studies occupied his early years completely.
Acté was produced at Barcelona in 1903, and its first performance out of Spain took place in Dresden on January 24th 1908.
It was received with general approval, due, it must be confessed, not so much to its dramatic effect as to its gorgeous and artistic staging. Though the opera shows great talent, fine orchestration, a distinct sense of local colour and some beautiful melodies, it lacks depth and dramatic power.--
It is more like one of those old stage operas of Verdi and Bellini, though it does not imitate them and contains, Wagner like, a number of leading motives. The same want is also to be found in the libretto, which fails to show us Nero, the many-sided; depicting him almost exclusively as a lover.--But considering the composer's youth, (he was just nineteen, when he wrote Acté), it promises much and is well worth hearing--and seeing.
The scene is laid in Rome during the reign of Nero.
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The first Act takes place in the Palatine, where Agrippina, Nero's mother, is haunted by evil forebodings, suggested by the story of Clytemnestra's fate, sung by a chorus of her attendants.
Nero appears, and seeing his mother restless and uneasy, tries to soothe her with assurances of his filial devotion. Agrippina reminds him of all she has done for him, and how she has committed crimes to pave his way to the throne.--To reassure her, he begs her to ask any favour she desires. On this she demands his separation from the Greek slave Acté, whom he has freed, and whom he loves to distraction, Acté being in fact the only woman he ever loved.
Nero of course indignantly refuses to make this sacrifice.--Agrippina persists in her demands and carried away by her violent temper and her contempt for her false and treacherous son she commands him, either to give up Acté, or to give back the imperial power to his mother, as she alone made him, what he is.--Nero enraged shows himself as the ruler and the despot and so terrifies her, that she tries to retract her evil words and begs his pardon.
Tigellinus, Nero's friend and confidant, has heard her last words. He excites his master's hatred against his false mother still more, and they decide to take vengeance on her at some favourable time.
Hearing Acté singing in the vestibule Tigellinus leaves Nero, who receives his lady with open arms. A charming love-duet closes the first Act.--
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In the second Act Marcus, an old Christian Patriarch, meets Acté in the gardens of the Palatine at night and wins her over to his faith. She promises to join the Christians, and to this purpose calls her slave Parthos, whom she persuades to guide her to the cave of Marcus.--After having given him a ring, Nero's love-token, to deliver to Caesar, she bribes Parthos, to swear, not to betray her secret, by making over to him all her worldly goods.--
Unfortunately this interview has been witnessed by Agrippina from her hiding place in the bushes, and she decides to make use of her discovery against her son.
When day breaks a grand festival takes place in the gardens. Agrippina hails her son, and seeing him alone she sweetly asks where his faithful companion Acté is.--Nero at once sends Tigellinus in search of her.
A beautiful ballet is now danced, and afterwards Caesar himself takes his lute and sings a hymn in praise of Venus, the Goddess of love.--He has hardly ended, when Tigellinus rushes in and exclaims that Acté is not to be found.
Nero storms and Agrippina, pretending to know nothing, suggests that Parthos should be questioned. The poor slave is dragged forward; he denies any knowledge of Acté's whereabouts, but her ring is found upon him. This he tremblingly gives to Nero, declaring that Acté gave it to him to return to Caesar.--Tigellinus says, that the slave evidently {522} knows more than this, and Nero orders him to be tortured. While the wretched Parthos is being led away Agrippina declares defiantly, that she alone knows where Acté is, and offers to tell Nero on the condition, that he will restore to her the imperial power, that she covets. Nero, enraged beyond measure orders Tigellinus to keep his mother as a prisoner, until she reveals Acté's hiding-place.
He then turns to the frightened spectators and with the words "My will is law, I am Caesar and will remain so for ever" the Act closes.
In the third Act Nero accompanied by Tigellinus leads his Pretorian guards to the hiding-place of the Christians.--This he has found out from the confessions of Parthos.--Nero hears Acté's voice singing a Miserere, but commands his guards to conceal themselves.--
The Christians, among them Acté and Marcus, believing themselves safe in the stormy night, at last emerge from the mountain caves, and at a sign from Nero are surrounded by the Pretorian guards.
Nero seizes Acté and tries to win back her love, but Acté remains firm, and she so infuriates her royal lover, that he threatens her with his dagger.--Old Marcus stepping between, only rouses the Emperor's anger to a higher pitch, while Tigellinus denounces the old man as Nero's rival and the cause of Acté's flight. Both are led away as captives with their Christian brethren to Rome.
The last Act takes place on the terrace of the Palatine.
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Lovely dances beguile the weary hours for Nero, lying on his couch, a prey to love and hatred. Tigellinus tries to rouse his pride by relating to him the last interview between Marcus and Acté overheard by him.
He describes the old man's exhortations and glowing promises of a better life, and Acté's calm courage and deep faith, and Nero cries: "She must be mine, or she dies!"--At this moment the Christians are heard, greeting Caesar as they pass the palace on their way to death.--Acté is not with them, she is now brought before Nero with Marcus, for whom she implores Nero's pardon.--But it is in vain; Nero falls upon the originator of his woes, and kills him with his own hands.--
In this moment flames are seen leaping up in the streets of Rome.
Tigellinus hurries in, exclaiming that the people accuse their Emperor of having set the city on fire, and already their furious cry is heard: "Death to the red Caesar!"
Beside himself with rage and fear Nero seizes Acté, and throwing her down from the terrace amongst the people, he accuses the Christians of having set fire to the town. Acté perishes a victim to the fury of the people, while Nero cries out: "Burn O Rome, burn, Nero greets Thee!"
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EUGENE ONEGIN.
Lyric Scenes in three acts by P. J. TSCHAIKOWSKY.
Text after Puschkin's poem of the same name.
Tschaikowsky's opera, long known and so intensely popular throughout Russia, that many of its melodies have become household-properties, has taken a long time to penetrate into other countries. But wherever it has been represented, its success was great and its impression upon the public deep and lasting.
At the Dresden Opera House it was first given October 20th, 1908, though the composer wrote it fully 29 years ago. It was the most brilliant success of the season.
Tschaikowsky is the classic amongst the Russian composers; his concert music is well known and greatly esteemed in Germany.
Of the eleven operas, which he wrote, Eugene Onegin is the best.
The libretto lacks dramatic force, although it is taken from Puschkin's masterpiece, a poem, which in Russia is equalled to Goethe's Faust, but the music is strikingly original and full of exquisite music and harmony. The hearer's attention may be drawn especially to the fine duet between Olga and Tatiana, and to the latter's love letter, a supreme hymn of love in the first act.
In the second act there are some charming dances, a quaint old-fashioned waltz, an original Mazurka and in the third act a brilliant polonaise {525} and a delightful waltz, interwoven with the passionate love duet between Onegin and Tatiana.
The text is adapted for the stage by Tschaikowsky's brother Modeste.
The scene is laid in Russia. The first and second acts take place in the country-house of Madame Larina, the third act in the house of Prince Gremin at St. Petersburg.
In the first scene Madame Larina is sitting in the garden with the nurse Philipyewna, talking of old times and listening to the pretty songs of her two daughters. Olga, a light-hearted merry girl, is engaged to Lenski, a somewhat jealous youth. Tatiana, the younger sister, is thoughtful and sensitive and possesses all the sentimentality of sweet eighteen.
While they are talking the peasants of the village enter, bringing presents of fruit and corn to their landlady. After having performed their pretty dances, they are treated to wine and food by the nurse.--
When they have left Lenski, Olga's betrothed is announced. He introduces his friend Eugene Onegin to the family, and Tatiana promptly falls in love with the interesting stranger, who seems also attracted by the charming girl. Lenski has only eyes for his bride Olga, who soon grows somewhat tired of her passionate and exacting lover.--