Word: virgil
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...opera has a history of three performances, and composer Virgil T. as he is called in the libretto, laments that there has yet to be a definitive production. "Every other time it was performed in a setting that wasn't right," he says. Virgil T. will come up from New York on March 9 to enjoy the "scenery" and look for his "definitive production...
...much effect this reminiscence had when Gertrude S. got together with Virgil T. in 1946 to write their third major opera is unknown. The influence of the indefatigable Miss Anthony, whose 86-year life span is the opera's subject, seems certain. Librettist Gertrude S. hints at the link in Scene Four of The Mother of Us All: "If people are rich," says Susan B., "they do not listen to anybody; if they are poor, they listen; but all they perceive is the fact that they are listening. As for me, there is no wealth nor poverty, as long...
...love for the commonplace and the heroism of Miss Anthony partly inspired the 1946 creation of The Mother of Us All, there were other historically contributing factors. Gertrude S. and Virgil T. had long been thinking independently about the artistic expression of America's 19th century. They met early in the 1920's, quite naturally in Paris, where Gertrude's flock then and later included Hemingway, Sherwood Anderson, and Thornton Wilder...
...result of their friendship was the first collaboration--Capital, Capitals. When it opened in 1929, Virgil T. wrote from New York: "Some thought it a good joke, some a bad joke and one or so got quite angry ... The audience's way of taking it proved to me the possibility of having a regular boob success with opera, at least it might run long enough to pay its expenses...
...liaison, Four Saints in Three Acts was presented in Hartford by "The Friends and Enemies of Modern Music." Four Saints met with phenomenal success--in its cellophane settings, biting themes, and all-Negro cast. When informed that some residents of Hartford looked askance at the colored performers, Virgil T. quipped, "Tell the cast to go on whiteface." He chose the Negroes, he said, for their beauty of voice, clarity of enunciation, and fine carriage. Gertrude remained in Paris, despite this word from Virgil...