Triple-Sec

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This article is about the Marc Blitzstein opera. For the liqueur, see Triple sec.

Triple-Sec
Opera by Marc Blitzstein
Blitzstein in 1937
LibrettistRonald Jeans
LanguageEnglish
Premiere
6 May 1929 (1929-05-06)
The Bellevue-Stratford Hotel Ballroom, Philadelphia

Triple-Sec is an English language American opera in one act composed by Marc Blitzstein with a libretto by Ronald Jeans.[1] The first performance of the comic opera was in 1929 in the composer's hometown of Philadelphia.[2]

Triple-Sec, the composer's first opera, has a running time of fifteen minutes.[3] The opera was Blitzstein's first success as a composer.[4] Blitzstein 's biographer Eric Gordon wrote "what gives the piece interest is not its story. Nor is Blitzstein's music inherently so attractive—all conversational recitative with no arias or set pieces, composed on a rakish idiom of tonal ambiguity to a chamber orchestra accompaniment. It is the Dadaist staging that makes the opera work."[5]

Blitzstein told the Daily Worker in 1941 that the opera "was one of those screwy modernist things in which, through stage devices, the audience is supposed to get drunk. It had a philosophy. I was slamming the smug people and traditions I had been brought up with."[6]

Synopsis

Texas Guinan, model for the Hostess

In a prologue in front of the curtain, the Hostess (modeled on Texas Guinan) introduces the work, speaking to a dinner theater audience that has had too much to drink.[7][8]

Setting: The library of the townhouse of Lord Rupert Silverside.

Lord Silverside's maid Hopkins and his butler Perkins are discussing the forthcoming wedding of their employer as they tidy up the library. The Stranger appears, wanting to speak to Lord Silverside. The domestics ask the Stranger to leave. Lord Silverside arrives with his fiancée, Lady Betty. The Stranger reveals she is already married to Lord Silverside. Lady Betty faints at this revelation. The opera ends while efforts are made to revive Lady Betty.[5]

Composition

Blitzstein attended a production in Philadelphian of Paul Hindemith's opera Hin und zurück (Back and Forth) in 1928, writing a review of it for Modern Music.[9] Blitzstein modeled Triple-Sec after Hindemith's opera.[10] The opera was written in the summer of 1928 while Blitzstein was resident at the MacDowell Colony in Peterborough, New Hampshire.[11]

"Part way through there are suddenly two of each character. As the vision of the audience becomes more imperfectly focused there are three identical Lady Bettys and three maids named Hopkins. By the time the curtain is ready to fall, there are seven named Perkins."[12]

The opera is scored for one violin, one viola, one double bass, two clarinets, one bassoon, one trumpet, one trombone, timpani, snare drum, xylophone, ratchet, bass drum, woodblock, cowbell, tambourine, and piano.[13]

The piano–vocal score was published at Mainz in February 1931 by the German music publisher B. Schott's Söhne.[14] The holographic score is held by the New York Public Library.[15]

Performances

The Bellevue-Stratfird Hotel in 1976

Triple-Sec premiered May 6, 1929, in the ballroom of the Bellevue-Stratford Hotel in Philadelphia, conducted by Alexander Smallens.[2] James Light directed and Louis Simon designed the costumes.[16] Ruth Montague was the Hostess, Ethel Niethammer was Perkins the maid, Ralph Jusko was Hopkins the butler, Maybelle Marston was the Stranger, Albert Mahler was Lord Rupert Silverside, and Irene Williams was Lady Betty.[16] The Society for Contemporary Music sponsored the program, which included Alfredo Casella's Pupazzetti and Arnold Schoenberg's Pierrot lunaire.[16] The Philadelphia Record review said it was "not so funny" (even if the audience laughed) and was "crude . . . its extravagance rather pureile and its origins may be traced to Stravinsky and the Metropolitan's freak opera Jonny spielt auf," which had played at the Met in January 1929.[17] The Musical Leader wrote "the music was extremely successful–vulgar, dissonant, rhythmically effective and well orchestrated. it had just the streak of commonplace American jazz treated with a highly sophisticated modern technic and a successful sense of humor. it demonstrated indisputably the fact that Marc Blitzstein has talent."[18]

While visiting Germany in 1929, his publishers assured him a German production was likely and Blitzstein met with representatives of Darmstadt's opera–but no production occurred in Germany until 2015.[19]

The third version of the revue Garrick Gaieties brought Triple-Sec to Broadway in 1930 as the first segment in the second act.[14] Directed by Philip Loeb, the show opened at the Guild Theatre on June 4.[20] The cast included Ruth Montague as the Hostess, Jane Sherman as Perkins, James Norris as Hopkins, Ray Heatherton as Lord Rupert Silverside, Ruth Chorpenning as the Stranger, and Imogene Coca as the third Lady Betty.[21] Steven Suskin wrote the show ran 170 performances, being "favorably received despite its avant-garde nature"; yet The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians said both the show and the opera were "critical failures."[22][23] Garrick closed October 8, 1930.[24]

Triple-Sec was revived by Richard Flusser's After Dinner Opera Company on June 7, 1950, at the Master Theatre, Riverside Drive at 103rd Street in New York City.[25] The company's four performances were on a triple bill with Johann Sebastian Bach's Coffee Cantata staged as an opera called Grounds for Divorce and Lukas Foss's opera The Jumping Frog of Calaveras County, which had premiered earlier that year at Indiana University.[26] Musical America said Triple-Sec was "so zestful and so well written that it has not dated at all."[27] Flusser's company then performed Triple-Sec on college campuses.[28]

Triple-Sec was performed at the 1951 Berkshire Music Festival at Tanglewood.[29] The Juilliard Opera Theatre performed the opera the same year.[30] Gustav Meier conducted a performance during the 1958 Berkshire Music Festival as part of an all-Blitzstein program on July 25.[31] The New School's Opera Workshop, directed by Flusser and Emanuel Levenson, presented the opera on May 26, 1967.[32]

The European premiere was in Berlin on March 14, 2015, produced by the Konzerthaus Berlin and the Komische Oper Berlin and given at the Konzerthaus.[33] Evan Christ conducted.[34] The production was part of the Festival Mythos shown on a double-bill with George Gershwin's jazz opera Blue Monday.[19]

The Curtis Institute of Music, Blitzstein's alma mater, on November 11, 2021, gave a performance on a double-bill with Gian Carlo Menotti's 1946 opera The Medium.[29] WHYY-TV's "On Stage with Curtis" broadcast a program about the staging of this production.[35] Curtis again gave the two operas on February 10, 2024.[36] Joseph Mechavich conducted and Alek Shrader directed.[37] In April 2024, the Mannes School of Music at The New School presented Triple-Sec, its inspiration Hin und zurück, and six other short operas at Ernst C. Stiefel Hall in Manhattan.[38]

Roles

Imogene Coca, one of the Lady Bettys in the 1930 production
Roles, voice types, 1928 Philadelphia premiere, 1930 Broadway
Role Voice type[29] Philadelphia, 1928
Director: James Light
Conductor: Alexander Smallens[16] 		Broadway, 1930
Director: Philip Loeb
Musical Direction: Tom Jones[39]
Hostess alto Ruth Montague Ruth Montague
Perkins I (maid) soprano Ethel Niethammer Jane Sherman
Hopkins I (butler) baritone Ralph Jusko James Norris
Lord Silverside tenor Albert Mahler Ray Heatherton
Stranger I mezzo-soprano Maybelle Marston Ruth Chorpenning
Lady Betty I soprano Irene Williams Evelyn LaTour
Hopkins II bass-baritone Donald Stewart
Stranger II alto Velma Vavra
Lord Silverside II tenor Ted Fetter
Lady Betty II soprano Thelma Tipson
Lady Betty III mezzo-soprano Imogene Coca

References

  1. ^ Griffel, Margaret Ross (2013). Operas in English: A Dictionary. Vol. 1 (Revised ed.). Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press. p. 507. ISBN 9780810883253. Retrieved March 9, 2025.
  2. ^ a b Griffel 2013, p. 307.
  3. ^ Gordon, Eric A. (1989). Mark the Music: The Life and Work of Marc Blitzstein. New York: St. Martin's Press. p. 38. ISBN 0312026072. Retrieved March 9, 2025.
  4. ^ Pollack, Howard (2012). Marc Blitzstein: His Life, His Work, His World. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 55. ISBN 9780199977086. Retrieved March 9, 2025.
  5. ^ a b Gordon 1989, p. 38.
  6. ^ Glenn, Charles (July 5, 1941). "Hollywood Meets Blitzstein: Noted Composer Receives Yes for Answer to His Appeal for Support of Progressive Music". Daily Worker. Vol. 18, no. 160. New York: Freedom of the Press Company. p. 7. Retrieved March 9, 2025.
  7. ^ Pollack 2012, p. 55.
  8. ^ Wlaschin, Ken (2024). Encyclopedia of American Opera. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland. p. 397. ISBN 9781476612386. Retrieved March 9, 2025.
  9. ^ Blitzstein, Marc (May–June 1928). "Hin und zurück in Philadelphia". Modern Music. 5 (4). New York: League of Composers: 34–36. Retrieved March 9, 2025.
  10. ^ Gabriel, John (2019). "There and Back Again: Zeitoper and the Transatlantic Search for a Uniquely American Opera in the 1920s". Journal of the Society for American Music. 13 (2): 195–215. doi:10.1017/S1752196319000075.
  11. ^ Gabriel 2019, p. 197.
  12. ^ Smith, Cecil (June 1950). "Jumping Frog Shares Bill with Bach and Blitzstein". Musical America. Vol. 70, no. 7. New York. pp. 11, 35. Retrieved March 9, 2025.
  13. ^ "Triple-Sec" (score). Mainz, Germany: Schott Music. 2015a. Retrieved March 9, 2025.
  14. ^ a b Pollack 2012, p. 58.
  15. ^ Griffel 2013, p. 507.
  16. ^ a b c d Pollack 2012, p. 57.
  17. ^ Craven, H. T. (May 7, 1929). "Marc Blitzstein's Operatic Satire Rocks Ballroom". Philadelphia Record., quoted in Gordon 1989, p. 45.
  18. ^ "New Opera Farce by American Artist with Revolutionary Ideas". The Musical Leader. Vol. 56, no. 20. Chicago: Florence French. May 16, 1929. p. 10. Retrieved March 9, 2025.
  19. ^ a b Gabriel 2019, p. 198.
  20. ^ Norton, Richard C. (2002). A Chronology of American Musical Theater. Vol. 2. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 612–13. ISBN 9780195088885. Retrieved March 9, 2025.
  21. ^ Dietz, Dan (2018). The Complete Book of 1930s Broadway Musicals. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield. p. 40. ISBN 9781538102770. Retrieved March 9, 2025.
  22. ^ Suskin, Steven (1986). Show Tunes, 1905-1985: The Songs, Shows, and Careers of Broadway's Major Composers (1st ed.). New York: Dodd, Mead. p. 318. Retrieved March 9, 2025.
  23. ^ Dietz, Robert J. (1980). "Marc Blitzstein". In Sadie, Stanley (ed.). The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. Vol. 2. London: Macmillan. p. 795. ISBN 0333231112. Retrieved March 9, 2025.
  24. ^ Dietz 2018, p. 39.
  25. ^ C.H. (June 8, 1950). "3 One-Act Operas Given Here: Works by Bach, Blitzstein, and Foss Offered". The New York Times. p. 37. Retrieved March 9, 2025.
  26. ^ Smith 1950, p. 11.
  27. ^ Smith 1950, p. 35.
  28. ^ Gordon 1989, p. 347.
  29. ^ a b c Schott Music 2015a.
  30. ^ Lehrman, Leonard (2005). Marc Blitzstein: A Bio-Bibliography. Bio-bibliographies in Music, no. 99. Westport, Connecticut: Praeger. p. 179. ISBN 0313300275.
  31. ^ Gordon 1989, p. 443.
  32. ^ Hughes, Allen (May 27, 1967). "New School Opera Workshop Offers Blitzstein's 'Triple Sec'". The New York Times. p. 17. Retrieved March 14, 2025.
  33. ^ "Intoxicating opera: European premiere of Marc Blitzstein's Triple-Sec". Mainz, Germany: Schott Music. March 12, 2015b. Archived from the original on April 7, 2019. Retrieved March 11, 2025.
  34. ^ Schott Music 2015b.
  35. ^ WHYY-TV (January 20, 2023). "On Stage with Curtis: Behind the Scenes of The Medium and Triple-Sec, season 17, episode 12". PBS. Retrieved March 9, 2025.
  36. ^ "Triple-Sec/The Medium". Philadelphia: Curtis Institute of Music. 2024. Retrieved March 9, 2025.
  37. ^ Curtis 2024.
  38. ^ Mannes School of Music (2024). "Flashpoints~the Mannes festival of short operas". The New School Events. New York: The New School. Retrieved March 14, 2025.
  39. ^ Dietz 2018, p. 40.