Word: troilus
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...city handsome productions of Cherubini's short The Portuguese Inn, and Honegger's Joan of Arc at the Stake, both performed for the first time on a U.S. opera stage. The next year he followed up with the U.S. premiere of Sir William Walton's Troilus and Cressida. Adler also revived such difficult classics as Verdi's Macbeth and Wagner's Flying Dutchman, gradually building up his own high-caliber stable of singers, including Germany's Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, Vienna's Leonie Rysanek, British Tenor Richard Lewis, and a strong group of young American...
...Brandt & Brandt). Of his feelings at the time, he says laconically: "I suppose sex entered into it. After all, what's a woman for?" But in dedicating Son of Perdition, Cozzens was more gallant. The flyleaf is inscribed to her with these lines from Shakespeare's Troilus and Cressida: "Outliving her beauty's outward, with a mind/ That doth renew swifter than blood decays." Cozzens recalls: "Mother almost died when I married a Jew, but later when she saw I was being decently cared for, she realized that it was the best thing that could have happened...
...Troilus, the illegitimate son of Priam, declares himself a "happy little warmonger" and so he is until Cressida (or Crisseyida, as Ashton would have it) appears in Priam's court. The reason Cressida is in court is that her father, Calchas, has deserted to the Greeks, and Cressida is therefore in danger of being adjudged a security risk. Troilus naturally defends her against the ancient Committee on Un-Trojan Activities and, naturally enough, the two fall in love...
Incest with her father, however, has left Cressida with a guilty conscience and she feels unworthy of Troilus, until he proves his love in bed. Love's victory is Pyrrhic, however, and Cressida soon succumbs to a Prince of Greece, who can provide security and a house in Connecticut. The Greek is nevertheless the tool of Mars, who is the real villain, and provides the climax, which is tragic for Ashton and perhaps slightly comic for the audience...
...cast, headed by Jean Concannon as Cressida and William Siebert as Troilus, gave an earnest but uneven performance. At times, overacting marred scenes that required emotional intensity rather than emotional exhibition. Cressida often shouted, like a querulous child in a tantrum. Siebert gave a sensitive interpretation of Troilus, showing an understanding of his composite personality. Regina Oliver was commendable as Cassandra, although she needed more variety of voice. William Harris, as Cressida's father, suffered most from overacting and a reliance on stick gestures. The Prince Regent, Hector, was strongly reminiscent of Marshall Tito, but needed a more imperial...