Metropolitan Opera Archives

Comedy of the most mirthful vein has evidently found a foothold in the Metropolitan Opera House. In Leo Blech's one-act opera, " Versiegelt" given there for the first time in America yesterday afternoon, there was added to the repertory one of the lightest trifles that has ever found a shelter under that monumental roof. It is a contribution to the same genre of comedy in music that is represented by the operas of Wolf-Ferrari, so recently heard here, though it is widely removed from them in style and spirit It Is an embodiment of the comic spirit as it flourishes to the north of the Alps rather than in the more volatile minds of Italy. German humor is under suspicion outside of its native land, and German musicians, as well as playwrights are supposed to use a heavier hand than is wielded by their brethren of the south. But Leo Blech and his collaborators, Richard Batka and Pordes Mile, have evolved in "Versiegelt " a trifle whose specific gravity could not well be less. Its comedy is thoroughly Teutonic, moving in an atmosphere of burgess life in a small German town in the thirties of the last century, a little Philistia.

"Versiegelt " turns on a theatrical device that has been common property of playwrights from immemorial antiquity. When the Widow Willmers's wardrobe is set up in the Widow Gertrud's room, ostensibly to avoid being sold for taxes, nobody can have any doubt that it is to be the hiding place of one or more persons as a means of rescue from some embarrassing situation, with the probability of greater embarrassment to come. It happens to be the burgomaster making love to the fair Widow Gertrud who first finds refuge in it from the interruption of his own bailiff, and a search for this taxable chattel, which, when found, is promptly and legally "sealed up," with the burgomaster inside. Here is the opportunity for his daughter and the young city clerk, whom he has thwarted in their love, to extort his signature to a marriage contract. Being released, he orders the young couple into it and they go without argument, for an opportunity to be undisturbed and alone. It is now only a matter of a short time for a holiday throng to gather witness the burgomaster's discomfiture when he is released suitably amazed at finding 'the prisoner to be not he but the betrothed couple.

This is unquestionably elementary farce, as it is harmless fooling. It is given a certain color and picturesqueness by being put into the good old times of 1830, with its flamboyant costumes, and by the introduction of such thoroughly Teutonic types as the vain and pompous bailiff, the sentimental widow, the sentimental burgomaster, the sentimental lovers. Its atmosphere is not very rarefied, its wit is rather laboriously brought to the point, which is not of a fineness to escape the least observant. Some of its details are developed at too great length. The Batka-Milo method is not in the remotest degree allusive, and it leaves nothing whatever to the imagination of the listener.

The little piece would be less than nothing without Blech's music, which is singularly successful of its type, and lends is certain amount of distinction to what would otherwise be hopeless banality. This music is written with remarkable dexterity, with a light touch, with real skill, and at times originality in the treatment of the orchestra, if not in the texture of its ideas. " Versiegelt " is a conversation opera," and the music lightly and delicately accompanies, underlines, and accentuates a steady stream of talk and chatter. Occasionally it has an opportunity to expand into a little broader flow. A duet of the lovers in one of the early scenes is such a passage, though it misses some of the effect it might have through an excess of unison treatment. There is a scene between Frau Gertrud and the Burgomaster, in which the music comes more fully into its own, and in which there are pages of real charm. Frau Gertrud considers the blissful possibility of becoming the Frau Burgermeisterin in a solo that is skillfully devised, though with perhaps somewhat more of skill than of melodic invention.

There are some excellent ensembles. The chattering quartets-two of them-of the three women and Bertel, the young lover, are admirably constructed with humorous, and, at the same time, musical effect, and the trio of a similar [?] in which the widows and the Unita take part, in a breathless pianissimo, is very adroit.

So far as the purely musical quality of this little work is concerned, it cannot be called highly original or highly individual. What the attentive listener will chiefly admire in it is its expertness. There is real wit in many little details of the score, which is written throughout with an art that conceals art. The writing for orchestra has the skill of one deeply versed in the secrets of modern orchestration and who knows how to obtain innumerable delicate effects of color and humorous suggestion with a fleet and transparent treatment. It is lamentably true, however, and must once more be said, that this music does not produce its own proper effect in an opera house of this size. Many of the composer's most felicitous passages fail to make their way solely for this reason.

On the other hand, "Versiegelt" is something that depends wholly on the skill with which it is presented; and in this respect more could scarcely be done in its behalf than Mr. Hertz and the artists concerned in its performance have done. In vivacity, finish, and lightness of touch this performance is admirable. Foremost among those who deserve credit is Mme. Gadski, who shows a new side of her art in the address, the mischievous humor and vocal charm with which she enacts the part of Frau Gertrud. Fittingly associated with her is Mme. Mattfeld as Frau Wellmers. Mme. Bella Alten has a part quite fitting for her in the somewhat saucy and wayward daughter of the Burgomaster, Else, and Messrs. Jadlowker and Weil are appropriately cast as Bertel and Burgomaster Braun, respectively. Mr. Goritz has such a part as he delights in in Lampe, the voluble and self-important factotum, of which he has developed the grotesque and characteristic features in a manner peculiar to himself. His singing voice is not much called for in this, but his rapidity of utterance in his "patter" songs is strained to the utmost.

Mr. Hertz wins new laurels through the fine finish and brilliancy of his production of this work. It did not seem altogether clear that there was much enthusiasm bestowed upon "Versiegelt" by the large matinee audience; but there was hearty applause for all the singers, who were recalled a number of times, and a special round of it for Mr. Hertz when he finally joined them before the curtain.

After "Versiegelt," which plays hardly more than an hour, there was a performance of "Pagliacci," in which Mme. Destinn and Messrs.. Caruso and Amato took part. There was no room for question as to the enthusiasm there.

Search by season: 1911-12

Search by title: Versiegelt, Pagliacci,

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