Met Opera Staged L'Orfeo April 1912 as Second Orfeo and Euridice Opera

Summary: Met Opera staged L'Orfeo April 1912 as the second Orfeo and Euridice opera in the opera company's repertoire, 27 years 3 days after Orfeo ed Euridice

ca. 1508 oil on canvas of Orpheus and Euridice created by Venetian Renaissance painter Tiziano "Titan" Vecellio (1488/1490-Aug. 27, 1576) almost a century before Monteverdi's L'Orfeo (1607), shows Euridice's two deaths, first by snakebite (left) and second by Orpheus's backward glance during his Underworld rescue attempt (right); Accademia Carrara (Accademia Carrara di Belle Arti di Bergamo), Lombardy, northwestern Italy: Web Gallery of Art, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Met Opera staged L'Orfeo April 1912 as the second Orfeo ed Euridice opera in the opera company's repertoire, 27 years 3 days after the Met's premiere of Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice.

The United States premiere of L'Orfeo by Italian composer Claudio Monteverdi (May 9, 1567-Nov. 29, 1643) took place Sunday, April 14, 1912. The Greek myth-themed opera was performed in concert form and was sung in English instead of the opera's original Italian. L'Orfeo received one performance in the 1911-1912 season. After its premiere, the opera disappeared from Met Opera's repertoire. L'Orfeo's solitary performance stands as Met Opera's only representative of an opera by Monteverdi.

L'Orfeo's United States premiere occurred nine days after Met Opera's 29th performance, Friday, April 5, of the opera company's first opera about Orpheus and Euridice, Orfeo ed Euridice by German classical composer Christoph von Gluck (July 2, 1714-Nov. 15, 1787). The Metropolitan Opera premiere of Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice, which had taken place Saturday, April 11, 1885, preceded the opera company's premiere of L'Orfeo by 27 years 3 days.

Josef Pasternack (July 7, 1881-April 29, 1940) conducted L'Orfeo's United States premiere. The Polish conductor had made his Met Opera debut Monday, March 13, 1911, in the Ballet Divertissement in the opera company's 89th performance of Il Trovatore by Italian opera composer Giuseppe Verdi (Oct. 10, 1813-Jan. 27, 1901). The Metropolitan Opera Archives Database (MetOpera Database) notes Josef Pasternack's conductorship of L'Orfeo as the maestro's last Met Opera performance.

Hermann Weil (Sept. 25, 1876-July 6, 1949) sang the male title role of Orfeo, whose wedding day precipitates the opera's plot. The German operatic baritone had made his Met Opera debut Friday, Nov. 17, 1911, as Kurwenal in the opera house's 110th performance of Wagner's Tristan und Isolde.

Rita Fornia (July 17, 1878-Oct 27, 1922) sang the female title role of Euridice, whose failed rescue by Orpheus strands her in the Underworld. The American mezzo-soprano and coloratura soprano had made her Met Opera debut Friday, Dec. 6, 1907, as a Geisha in the Metropolitan Opera premiere of Iris by Italian opera composer Pietro Mascagni (Dec. 7, 1863-Aug. 2, 1945).

Maria Duchène (Dec. 5, 1883-April 2, 1947) sang triple roles as Proserpina, the Underworld's Queen who favors Euridice's rescue by Orpheus; as the Messenger, who informs Orfeo of Euridice's fatal snakebite; and as the spirit of Music. The French mezzo-soprano had made her Met Opera debut Saturday, March 16, 1912, as La Cieca in the opera company's 52nd performance of La Gioconda by 19th-century Italian opera composer Amilcare Ponchielli (Aug. 31, 1834-Jan. 16, 1886).

Basil Ruysdael, stage name of Basil Spaulding Millspaugh (July 24, 1878-Oct. 10, 1960), sang Caronte, the Underworld's ferryman. The American film actor and operatic bass-baritone had made his Met Opera debut Friday, Nov. 18, 1910, as Hunding in the opera company's 141st performance of Die Walküre by German Romantic era composer-librettist Richard Wagner (May 22, 1813-Feb. 13, 1883).

Herbert Witherspoon (July 21, 1873-May 10, 1935) sang Plutone, who conditions Orfeo's rescue of Euridice upon no backward glances. The American operatic bass had made his Met Opera debut Thursday, Nov. 26, 1908, as Titurel in the opera company's 46th performance of Wagner's Parsifal.

Anna Case (Oct. 29, 1887-Jan. 7, 1984) sang dual roles as a Nymph and as a Shepherd. The American operatic soprano had made her Met Opera debut Monday, Nov. 15, 1909, as a Page in the opera company's 169th performance of Wagner's Tannhäuser.

Monteverdi's L'Orfeo contrasts with the happy ending offered by its predecessor, Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice, in Met Opera's repertoire of operas about Orpheus and Euridice. After Orfeo's failed rescue of Euridice from the Underworld, Monteverdi's Orfeo accepts the invitation of his father, the god Apollo, to join him in the heavens for appreciation of Euridice's starry likenesses. Contrastingly, Orfeo and Euridice enjoy an Earthly reunion via Amore the Cupid's restoration of Euridice to life.

The takeaways for Met Opera's April 1912 staging of L'Orfeo as the opera company's second Orfeo and Euridice opera are that the Metropolitan Opera's United States premiere of Monteverdi's L'Orfeo occurred nine days after the 29th performance of Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice, the opera company's first Orfeo and Euridice opera; that Monteverdi's L'Orfeo has not survived the solitary performance of its premiere season, 1911-1912; that L'Orfeo's solitary performance represents the only instance of a Monteverdi opera in the opera company's repertoire; and that Monteverdi's Orfeo finds solace in discerning Euridice's starry likenesses whereas Gluck's happy Orfeo ed Euridice reunites the couple in the land of the living.

ca. 1630 oil on canvas of Claudio Monteverdi, created ca. 1630 (23 years after Monteverdi's L'Orfeo) by Italian Baroque painter Bernardo Strozzi (c. 1581-Aug. 2, 1644); Tiroler Landesmuseum (Tyrolean State Museum), Kunstgeschichtliche Sammlungen, Innsbruck, Tyrol, western Austria: Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

ca. 1508 oil on canvas of Orpheus and Euridice created by Venetian Renaissance painter Tiziano "Titan" Vecellio (1488/1490-Aug. 27, 1576) almost a century before Monteverdi's L'Orfeo (1607), shows Euridice's two deaths, first by snakebite (left) and second by Orpheus's backward glance during his Underworld rescue attempt (right); Accademia Carrara (Accademia Carrara di Belle Arti di Bergamo), Lombardy, northwestern Italy: Web Gallery of Art, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Titian_-_Orpheus_and_Eurydice_-_WGA22856.jpg

ca. 1630 oil on canvas of Claudio Monteverdi, created ca. 1630 (23 years after Monteverdi's L'Orfeo) by Italian Baroque painter Bernardo Strozzi (c. 1581-Aug. 2, 1644); Tiroler Landesmuseum (Tyrolean State Museum), Kunstgeschichtliche Sammlungen, Innsbruck, Tyrol, western Austria: Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bernardo_Strozzi_-_Claudio_Monteverdi_(c.1630).jpg

For further information:

Arakelyan, Ashot. "Hermann Weil (Baritone) (Mühlburg 1876-New York 1949)." Forgotten Opera Singers. March 24, 2014.
Available @ http://forgottenoperasingers.blogspot.com/2014/03/hermann-weil-baritone-muhlburg-1876-new.html

"Debut: Herbert Witherspoon." MetOpera Database > [Met Performance] CID: 42130 Parsifal {46} Matinee ed. Metropolitan Opera House: 11/26/1908.
Available @ http://archives.metoperafamily.org/archives/scripts/cgiip.exe/WService=BibSpeed/fullcit.w?xCID=42130

"Debut: Hermann Weil." MetOpera Database > [Met Performance] CID: 52040 Tristan und Isolde {110} Metropolitan Opera House: 11/17/1911.
Available @ http://archives.metoperafamily.org/archives/scripts/cgiip.exe/WService=BibSpeed/fullcit.w?xCID=52040

"Debut: Josef Pasternack." MetOpera Database > [Met Performance] CID: 50470 Il Trovatore {89} Ballet Divertissement. Metropolitan Opera House: 03/13/1911.
Available @ http://archives.metoperafamily.org/archives/scripts/cgiip.exe/WService=BibSpeed/fullcit.w?xCID=50470

"Debut: Maria Duchène." MetOpera Database > [Met Performance] CID: 53590 La Gioconda {52} Matinee ed. Metropolitan Opera House: 03/16/1912.
Available @ http://archives.metoperafamily.org/archives/scripts/cgiip.exe/WService=BibSpeed/fullcit.w?xCID=53590

"Debut: Rita Fornia, Miss Jirasek." MetOpera Database > [Met Performance] CID: 40190 Metropolitan Opera Premiere Iris {1} Metropolitan Opera House: 12/6/1907.
Available @ http://archives.metoperafamily.org/archives/scripts/cgiip.exe/WService=BibSpeed/fullcit.w?xCID=40190

"Debuts: Anna Case, Clarence Whitehill." MetOpera Database > [Met Performance] CID: 45050 Tannhäuser {169} Academy of Music, Brooklyn, New York: 11/15/1909.
Available @ http://archives.metoperafamily.org/archives/scripts/cgiip.exe/WService=BibSpeed/fullcit.w?xCID=45050

"Debuts: Lucie Weidt, Basil Ruysdael." MetOpera Database > [Met Performance] CID: 49040 Die Walküre {141} Metropolitan Opera House: 11/18/1910.
Available @ http://archives.metoperafamily.org/archives/scripts/cgiip.exe/WService=BibSpeed/fullcit.w?xCID=49040

Marriner, Derdriu. "Met Opera First Staged Greek Myth of Orfeo ed Euridice in April 1885." Earth and Space News. Monday, Oct. 18, 2021.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2021/08/met-opera-first-staged-greek-myth-of.html

Marriner, Derdriu. "Met Opera Most Recently Staged Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice in 2019-2020." Earth and Space News. Monday, Oct. 25, 2021.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2021/10/met-opera-most-recently-staged-glucks.html

“Metropolitan Opera Premiere: Orfeo ed Euridice.” MetOpera Database > [Met Performance] CID: 3930 Metropolitan Opera Premiere Orfeo ed Euridice {1} Boston Theatre, Boston, Massachusetts: 04/11/1885.
Available @ http://archives.metoperafamily.org/archives/scripts/cgiip.exe/WService=BibSpeed/fullcit.w?xCID=3930

"United States Premiere: L'Orfeo." MetOpera Database > [Met Concert/Gala] CID: 53970 United States Premiere Twenty-second And Last Sunday Night Concert / L'Orfeo {1} Metropolitan Opera House: 04/14/1912.
Available @ http://archives.metoperafamily.org/archives/scripts/cgiip.exe/WService=BibSpeed/fullcit.w?xCID=53970