[Met Performance] CID:121600
World Premiere
The Man Without a Country {1} Metropolitan Opera House: 05/12/1937.
(World Premiere)
(Debuts: Helen Traubel, Daniel Harris, Maria Matyas, David Twachtman
Reviews)
Metropolitan Opera House
May 12, 1937
World Premiere
THE MAN WITHOUT A COUNTRY {1}
Walter Damrosch-Guiterman
Singers:
Lieutenant Philip Nolan.........Arthur Carron
Mary Rutledge...................Helen Traubel [Debut]
Harman Blennerhassett...........George Rasely
Aaron Burr......................Joseph Royer
Colonel Morgan..................John Gurney
Parke...........................Nicholas Massue
Fairfax.........................Lodovico Oliviero
Lieutenant Pinckney.............Wilfred Engelman
Lieutenant Reeve................George Cehanovsky
Negro Boatman...................Donald Dickson
1st Officer.....................Daniel Harris [Debut]
2nd Officer.....................Donald Dickson
3rd Officer.....................Nicholas Massue
1st Midshipman..................Nicholas Massue
2nd Midshipman..................Donald Dickson
3rd Midshipman..................Daniel Harris
4th Midshipman..................John Gurney
5th Midshipman..................George Rasely
Boatswain.......................Joseph Royer
Admiral of the Algerine Fleet...George Rasely
Five American Girls: Thelma Votipka, Maxine Stellman, Lucielle Browning, Maria Matyas [Debut], Jarna Paull
Speaking Parts:
Commodore Stephen Decatur.......Louis D'Angelo
Captain Morris..................Norman Cordon
Midshipman Denton...............Donald Dickson
Midshipman Ahearn...............John Gurney
Surgeon.........................Robert Nicholson
Captain Sedley..................Robert Nicholson
Sergeant O'Neil.................Louis D'Angelo
Private Schwartz................Ludwig Burgstaller
4th Officer.....................Robert Nicholson
5th Officer.....................Lodovico Oliviero
Conductor.......................Walter Damrosch [Last performance]
Director........................Désiré Defrère
Set designer....................David Twachtman [Debut]
[Twachtman designed only the set for Act II; no designer is credited in the program for Act I.]
[THE MAN WITHOUT A COUNTRY received four performances this season and a total of five in two seasons.]
Review of Lawrence Gilman in The New York Herald Tribune:
Last night's premiere of Walter Damrosch's opera, "The Man Without a Country", was more than the first performance of an American opera; the occasion assumed the aspects of a Damroschian apotheosis, with an audience of almost winter size and modishness acclaiming the hero of the evening with a fervor that must have warmed his capacious heart. His newest opera is, it may be affirmed at once, not only the best that Mr. Damrosch has given us, but it has an astonishing freshness of feeling, an infectious gusto. It is impossible to doubt that Mr. Damrosch enjoyed enormously the fun of writing it almost as much as he quite obviously enjoyed the fun of conducting it last night, with an engaging mixture of expert watchfulness over the performers' treatment of his score and of measureless benevolence when things went to his liking.
Mr. Damrosch has dealt simply and unpretentiously with a simple and unpretentious tale. He has not attempted to give us a music drama a la Richard (Strauss or Wagner). He has paid no heed to the siren temptings of ultra-modern composers. His music moves fluently, with apt and appropriate relation to what is happening on stage and in the hearts of his characters. It stops to let them speak, or it accompanies discreetly their spoken words. Once in a while, it goes alone on its own, as in the orchestral prelude to the second act. Sometimes the music is richly flavored with tinctures of the past, sometimes it is straight Damrosch. It would be fantastic to expect a sensitive musician to conduct as much great music by other men as Mr. Damrosch has done without some of it becoming part of his mental tissue.
Mr. Damrosch is fortunate in the production his opera receives. The settings are attractive; the direction is intelligent and alert; and the cast, on the whole, performs most capably. Miss Helen Traubel, a newcomer from St. Louis, a woman of noble and gracious beauty brings to the role of Mary Rutledge a voice of power and fine quality, and [her] embodiment of the heroine was moving through its restraint and sincerity.
Additional reviews of Helen Traubel:
The New York Mirror:
Miss Traubel, the debutante, has a regal voice, somewhat short in range, and a stage presence that is arresting. She would make a valuable addition to the Wagnerian wing.
H. F. B. The Brooklyn Eagle:
Miss Traubel as Mary Rutledge does an excellent job with a rather static role. Her voice, large and mellow though it is, tends to wobble a bit too much particularly on high notes. One difficulty seems to be that she has to yell to be heard above the orchestra which sometimes sounds as if it were composed of strikebreakers.
Pitts Sanborn, New York World Telegram:
Miss Traubel was a handsome and graceful figure and her voice, in spite of a tendency to tightness, is obviously exceptional. One thought of her as a potential Isolde and Bruennhilde.
W. J. Henderson,The New York Sun:
Of the singers, reference already has been made to the success of Miss Traubel, who made her Metropolitan debut as Mary. This success was primarily a singing one. She spoke her lines well but her stage technic was of the most rudimentary order. She can be taught to make more of the stature as well as the voice for Wagnerian roles. The soprano comes from St. Louis and is of German extraction. It is said that she has sung extensively in other spheres, including that of radio, but this was her first appearance in opera. Mature of voice and figure she gave clear hints of possibilities in heroic parts beyond those of the ordinary operatic fledgling. Her singing had power, her compass was an extended one, her tone was solid, steady and true with the scale well equalized. Moreover, her English diction was exceptionally good. Still to be answered are questions as to the adaptability of these assets to dramatic and artistic purposes; and a further question as to whether the quality of the voice is not already a little worn.
Additional newspaper review of Helen Traubel
The American:
The outstanding performance was that of Helen Traubel, who sang the part of Mary Rutledge, making her debut on the Metropolitan stage. She proved a soprano of rare gifts, with a particularly warm, opulent and beautiful quality of voice and moreover, a woman of exceptional beauty. One may state unreservedly that Miss Traubel is the most valuable addition so far to the Spring season's new members.
New York Daily News:
Miss Traubel, a native of St. Louis and graduate of the radio, possesses a glorious dramatic soprano and is potentially the most important American singer to come to the Met in a dozen years.
Olin Downes in The New York Times:
Helen Traubel of St. Louis made her debut on the Metropolitan stage as Mary. She has a big voice, of unusual capacity for dramatic expression, though her English was not as finished as Mr. Carron's. Here is an unusual vocal organ and talent for broad effects on the stage.
Brooklyn Eagle:
Miss Traubel, as Mary Rutledge, does an excellent job with a rather static role. Her voice, large and mellow though it is, tends to wobble a bit too much, particularly on high notes. One difficulty seems to be that she has to yell to be heard above the orchestra, which sometimes sounds as if were composed of strike-breakers.