Now that the feasting and the parades are past, it’s time to look beneath the quaint images of idealized Pilgrims to the dark underbelly of Puritan intolerance, fanaticism and repression. But that doesn’t mean the lesson has to be a bitter pill.
Join me tomorrow for Sunday Morning Opera with Sandy, as once again I sit in for host Sandy Steiglitz to present Howard Hanson’s “Merry Mount.” Hanson cloaks his libretto – by Richard Stokes, loosely based upon Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story, “The May-Pole of Merry Mount” – in the romantic idiom so characteristic of this composer of the “Romantic Symphony” (Hanson’s Symphony No. 2). No expense was spared for the work’s lavish premiere, at New York’s Metropolitan Opera, despite its having been mounted at the height of the Great Depression. No doubt Wrestling Bradford, the Puritan minister originally portrayed by Lawrence Tibbett, would not have approved.
Coverage of the rehearsals in the New York Times questioned whether the candor and blunt Anglo-Saxonisms of the English libretto would slip past the censors. The plot seethes with sexual obsession and demonology. In fact, a good portion of Act II is set in Hell. Even so, there are stirring melodies and catchy tunes in abundance. The “Maypole Dances” are downright Polovtsian in their colorful excess.
If the press is anything to go by, the opera was a smash. At its premiere in 1934, “Merry Mount” received no less than 50 curtain calls, with a headline in the Times proclaiming, “Reception of Hanson-Stokes Opera Most Enthusiastic of 10 Years at Metropolitan.” Yet, despite its initial success, the work is never done. It was dropped from the Met repertoire following the 1933-34 season and has rarely been heard since.
Tastes changed. “Merry Mount” is never going to compete with “Carmen,” but I believe the pendulum has swung far enough that its voluptuous romanticism can again be enjoyed without a trace of Hawthornian guilt. We’ll be listening to a recording made from performances mounted in 1996, with soprano Lauren Flanigan (Lady Marigold Sandys), tenor Walter MacNeil (Sir Gower Lackland), baritone Richard Zeller (Wrestling Bradford), and bass Charles Robert Austin (Praise-God Tewke). The Seattle Symphony & Chorale are conducted by Gerard Schwarz.
Before the morning is out, we’ll also have a chance to sample from Tibbett’s original characterization.
Tune in tomorrow to see what all the fuss was about, with “Merry Mount,” on “Sunday Morning Opera,” from 7 to 10:00 EST, on WPRB 103.3 FM and at wprb.com.
Learn about the historical Merrymount here:
The Maypole That Infuriated the Puritans
