Word: henchman
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...stalked her stately way into a well-known box; this distinguished musician, that famed diplomat?they kept the audience craning necks, peering into programs, discussing personalities. The most brilliant gathering of the, year, had assembled to hear the first U. S. opera commissioned by Gatti-Casazza, The King's Henchman. A half-hour before the tall yellow curtains parted, the standees were under full pressure. Many of these people were skeptical. They said: "Gatti is a shrewd impresario. He will tickle U. S. vanity by presenting native opera, if they insist upon it. This is the twelfth such production. None...
...native" operas had come through competition for prizes, forced hot-house flowers, that wilted soon after exposure. Some were independent experiments, brilliant in spots, dull on the whole. An opera requires musicianship but it fails without the accompaniment of theatre. So Signor Gatti-Casazza selected the creators of the Henchman. Edna St. Vincent Millay, poetess with a dramatic sense, was to write the libretto (TIME, Jan. 17); Deems Taylor, composer of concert music, onetime music critic of the N. Y. World, would provide the score...
Unexpectedly Eadgar comes to visit their worried household, where Aelfrida yearns for glamorous court life and Aethelwold's treachery burns constantly in his heart. Mr. Taylor's cellos breathe chromatic sights. The henchman is driven to reveal to his wife his perfidy: how he deprived the King of her beauty, her of a queen's throne. If she loves him, let her hurry to make herself appear ugly, bent, broken, scarred, withered, that the King may find his brother innocent of treason...
...yellow curtains folded. A moment of silence, then storms of applause and 37 curtain calls. No one fled for his limousine. This ovation was sincere. Critics hailed a triumph: The Henchman, they said was more than the greatest U. S. opera; it took rank with the great music of the world. Though Composer Taylor showed traces of Wagnerian influence, his music held enough ingenuous wealth to need no comparison, to point to far greater possibilities of creation...
...Experts estimated that the cost of producing The King's Henchman, with its 28 roles and large chorus, ran near to $75,000. Each performance would cost $15,000 running expense. The box office took in $15,504 the first night. The authors' reward was guessed at $15,000, share alike...