[lit-ideas] Two Nights at the Opera
- From: Jlsperanza@xxxxxxx
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 3 Mar 2009 13:38:13 EST
Dear Professor Ritchie
Thank you for the checque. Yes, I accept the invitation of the Eastern
Oregon Government on behalf of the American citizenship committee to formally
join
the ASSRC sponsored research, "The history of opera houses in Eastern
Oregon" under your guidance.
You write that we should focus on Wagner and Verdi. I agree. I find that
"Clari" was the most performed opera, though -- no doubt because of the
melodiousness of its aria, "Home, Home, Sweet Sweet Home." "I dwelt I dreamed
in
balls" seems to have been another favourite (10'clock show stopper in miner's
parlance slang) aria.
The websites you provided were interesting and helpful. If the Government of
Oregon publishes our research we have to be careful, though. I did an
exhaustive search for the keywords you suggested ("opera", "brothel",
"ill-repute")
and got some hits. Some are red-herrings, though. As the double use of
'opera' in the following:
"Content in the History CoOPERAtive database is intended for personal,
noncommercial use only.or in any way exploit the History CoOPERAtive
database in whole or in part without the written permission of the copyright
holder."
Equally confusing were your other leads:
"Over the next forty years, as mining shifted from primarily placer
OPERAtions
to hardrock mining, towns sprouted and then quickly withered as gold
played out
"First as a miner and then as a banker, gold buyer, and OPERAtor of
an assay
office and laboratory in Baker City."
"was a Baker County pioneer who arrived in 1862 and later owned and
OPERAted a hotel."
"Sparta ditches and OPERAted a ferry on Snake River."
The collocations are promising, though.
I still haven't been able to locate a diagram of the facade of the "Golden
Sumpter" opera house but the website you gave me is helpful ("Six years later
in 1903, the population had swelled to almost 4,000. It was world famous as
"Golden Sumpter," and boasted hotels, saloons, three newspapers, a smelter an
opera house, and a hospital")
As for the theme of the research (Was Opera a Euphemism), it seems to have
been so as far as the Elgin Opera House is concerned. There is no evidence that
they ever played Puccini there, though "Fanciulla del West" _would_ have had
'box' office success (I can't see the boxes, though -- the seats were
'slanted', they write). Puccini's masterpiece (apres the Mexican novella)
opened in
1914, however. So I'll need another checque to further study the files. So
far, I found out that the first production was "The maid of the mountains".
But this does not seem to have been a professional performance. Indeed, to
judge by the records:
"Elgin High School’s graduating class of 1912 holds the distinction
of
the first performance on stage."
I have some questions for you:
1. Do we have to translate the scripts and libretti from Italian to English?
2. Wagner does count as "Pennsylvania Dutch"?
Again, I remain your obedient servant,
J. L. S.
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