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| The Garden of Mystery | |
|---|---|
| Opera by Charles Wakefield Cadman | |
 | |
| Librettist | Nelle Richmond Eberhart |
| Language | English |
| Based on | "Rappaccini's Daughter" by Nathaniel Hawthorne (1844) |
| Premiere | 20 March 1925 (1925-03-20) Carnegie Hall, New York City |
The Garden of Mystery is an English-language American opera in one act and three scenes. The composer was Charles Wakefield Cadman with a libretto by Nelle Richmond Eberhart. The opera was based on Nathaniel Hawthorne's 1844 short story "Rappaccini's Daughter". The work premiered in a concert version at Carnegie Hall in New York City on March 20, 1925, with the American National Orchestra conducted by Howard Barlow.Cite error: A <ref> tag is missing the closing </ref> (see the help page).. A 1927 study of American opera claimed Garden "was probably the second absolutely native American operatic performance. Hawthorne, the author of the original story; Eberhart, who transformed it into an opera libretto ; and Cadman, the composer, all were born in America. The same was true of the cast, orchestra, conductor and stage personnel;" the first being Cadman and Eberhart's Shanewis.
The New York critics were harsh. Francis D. Perkins of the ] said the opera was "a hardly feasible libretto set to undistinguished music."Cite error: A <ref> tag is missing the closing </ref> (see the help page).
Howard Pierson said in 1982 that Garden was "a remarkable departure from Cadman's usual style, becoming at times chromatic and dissonant and employing unusual modal melodic patterns in an attempt to convey the sinister aspects of the story."
Revivals
The American Chamber Opera Company gave the first staged performance of Garden on February 16, 1996, in New York at at the Kate Murphy Theatre at the Fashion Institute of Technology. Anthony Tommasini of the New York Times]] was critical of both the work and the production. "The opera has a hokey, incomprehensible libretto about a maniacal doctor, a poisonous plant and two pairs of ill-fated lovers. The score is a hodgepodge that borrows shamelessly from Richard Strauss." Of the performers, Tommasini said "the orchestra, conducted by Douglas Anderson, floundered through this wayward music. Cadman's vocal parts are punishing, and the principals . . . struggled through them with forced and edgy singing."
Plot
The opera is set in 16th century Italy at Padua. The action takes place in the garden of the home of Dr. Giacomo Rappacini. Rappacini is a expert on botany and toxic plants. The plants in his garden are beautiful but deadly. He lives with his daughter, Beatrice. Beatrice's cousin Bianca is visiting. Bianca's love is Enrico.
Giovanni Guasconti is a university student who lives in a room that overlooks Rappacini's garden. He observes that the doctor seems to be afraid of plants in the garden but which Beatrice handles freely. He sees a bug drop dead from her breath. Giovanni is enchanted by this mysterious and beautiful woman.
Bianca and Enrico sit in the garden by the fountain and sing of their love and how they must flee the deadly garden.
Giovanni enters the garden and woos Beatrice. They start to embrace but she pulls back. Beatrice tells Giovanni that she has been raised on poisons and her kiss would be deadly. They both exit.
Giovanni retreats and visits a friend of his father's who gives him an antidote to Beatrice's poison. The next morning, Giovanni finds that he too is poisonous when his breath kills a spider. He goes to the garden with the antidote. Beatrice, having lived her whole life on poison, believes she could not live without the toxins. She drinks the antidote and is proven correct. As she starts to die, she tells Giovanni to drink because the antidote will save him. She died in her father's arms. Giovanni drinks the antidote.
Roles
| Role | Voice type | Premiere cast, 1925 Conductor: Howard Barlow |
|---|---|---|
| Dr. Giacomo Rappacini | bass | George Walker |
| Beatrice Rappacini | contralto | Helen Cadmus |
| Bianca | soprano | Yvonne de Treville |
| Giovanni Guasconti | tenor | Ernest Davis |
| Enrico | baritone | Hubert Linscott |
References
- Mattfeld, Julius (1927). A Hundred Years of Grand Opera in New York, 1825-1925: A Record of Performances. New York: New York Public Library. p. 55.
- Hipsher, Edward Ellsworth (1927). American Opera and It's Composers: A Complete History of Serious American Opera, with a Summary of the Lighter Forms Which Led up to Its Birth. Philadelphia: Theodore Presser. p. 104.
- Pierson 1982. sfn error: no target: CITEREFPierson1982 (help)
- ^ Giffel & 2013 300. sfn error: no target: CITEREFGiffel2013300 (help)
- Encyclopedia of American Opera. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland. 2024. p. 272. ISBN 9781476612386.
- Tommasini, Anthony (February 21, 1996). "Neglected One-Act Operas". New York Times. New York, N.Y. p. C15. Retrieved January 1, 2025.
- ^ Tommasini 1996, p. C15.
- Cadman & Eberhard 1925, p. 1.
- Cadman & Eberhard 1925, p. title page verso.
