Troubled Island
Encyclopedia
Troubled Island is an American
opera
in three acts composed by William Grant Still
(1895–1978), with a libretto
begun by poet Langston Hughes
(1902–1967) and completed by Verna Arvey
(1910–1987). She married the composer following their collaboration.
Set in Haiti
in 1791, Troubled Island portrays Jean Jacques Dessalines (1758–1806) and the corruption of his leadership in the Haitian revolution
. He declared himself as emperor of an independent Haiti but was assassinated by opponents. The opera premiered at the New York City Opera
on March 31, 1949, notably making it the first grand opera
composed by an African American
to be produced by a major company.
for the Baltimore Afro-American
. Arvey, a pianist and writer who never wrote a libretto before, completed the project in Hughes’ absence.
Troubled Island was completed in 1939, but Still faced problems in arranging for a production. Planned premieres in 1945 and 1948 at the New York City Opera
were withdrawn, but the company presented the world premiere of Troubled Island on March 31, 1949. It was the first time that the work of an African-American composer was presented by a major American opera company.
Although the leading roles of Dessalines and his wife Azelia were based on black Haitians, the opera company cast white opera stars Robert Weede
and Marie Powers
, who work dark make-up for the 1949 premiere. African-American bass-baritone
Lawrence Winters
took over the role of Dessalines from Weede for the second performance of the opera and continued in the role for the remainder of the production's run.
The premiere performance was greeted with 22 curtain calls. Critical reaction to the work ranged from mixed-to-negative. Time Magazine said, “Composer Still's music, sometimes lusciously scored, sometimes naively melodic, often had more prettiness than power. In all, Troubled Island had more of the souffle of operetta than the soup bone of opera.” John Briggs of the New York Post
opined, “one was never sure one was hearing a first-rate performance of an inferior work or a second-rate performance of a good one,” while Miles Kastendieck, writing for both the New York Journal-American and the Christian Science Monitor, said of Still’s music: “the result is a mixture of styles signifying talent and a feel for opera but achieving little more than a suggestion of it.”
Years later, Judith Still, the daughter of Still and Arvey, said that the New York critics intentionally panned Troubled Island due to racism. “Howard Taubmann (a critic and friend of Still) came to my father and said ‘Billy, because I’m your friend I think that I should tell you this – the critics have had a meeting to decide what to do about your opera. They think the colored boy has gone far enough and they have voted to pan your opera.’ And that was it. In those days, critics had that kind of influence.”
Following its premiere, New York City Opera staged two additional presentations, on April 1 and May 1 of 1949. To date, New York City Opera has never revived the work in full; however, a 60th-anniversary concert production of excerpts was presented by the company in March 2009 at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. The opera has not been seen widely outside these two productions.
Music of the United States
The music of the United States reflects the country's multi-ethnic population through a diverse array of styles. Among the country's most internationally-renowned genres are hip hop, blues, country, rhythm and blues, jazz, barbershop, pop, techno, and rock and roll. The United States has the...
opera
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
in three acts composed by William Grant Still
William Grant Still
William Grant Still was an African-American classical composer who wrote more than 150 compositions. He was the first African American to conduct a major American symphony orchestra, the first to have a symphony performed by a leading orchestra, the first to have an opera performed by a major...
(1895–1978), with a libretto
Libretto
A libretto is the text used in an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata, or musical. The term "libretto" is also sometimes used to refer to the text of major liturgical works, such as mass, requiem, and sacred cantata, or even the story line of a...
begun by poet Langston Hughes
Langston Hughes
James Mercer Langston Hughes was an American poet, social activist, novelist, playwright, and columnist. He was one of the earliest innovators of the then-new literary art form jazz poetry. Hughes is best known for his work during the Harlem Renaissance...
(1902–1967) and completed by Verna Arvey
Verna Arvey
Verna Arvey was an American librettist, pianist and writer who is best known for her musical collaborations with her husband, composer William Grant Still....
(1910–1987). She married the composer following their collaboration.
Set in Haiti
Haiti
Haiti , officially the Republic of Haiti , is a Caribbean country. It occupies the western, smaller portion of the island of Hispaniola, in the Greater Antillean archipelago, which it shares with the Dominican Republic. Ayiti was the indigenous Taíno or Amerindian name for the island...
in 1791, Troubled Island portrays Jean Jacques Dessalines (1758–1806) and the corruption of his leadership in the Haitian revolution
Haïtian Revolution
The Haitian Revolution was a period of conflict in the French colony of Saint-Domingue, which culminated in the elimination of slavery there and the founding of the Haitian republic...
. He declared himself as emperor of an independent Haiti but was assassinated by opponents. The opera premiered at the New York City Opera
New York City Opera
The New York City Opera is an American opera company located in New York City.The company, called "the people's opera" by New York Mayor Fiorello La Guardia, was founded in 1943 with the aim of making opera financially accessible to a wide audience, producing an innovative choice of repertory, and...
on March 31, 1949, notably making it the first grand opera
Grand Opera
Grand opera is a genre of 19th-century opera generally in four or five acts, characterised by large-scale casts and orchestras, and lavish and spectacular design and stage effects, normally with plots based on or around dramatic historic events...
composed by an African American
African American
African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...
to be produced by a major company.
Composition and production history
Still and Hughes began writing Troubled Island in 1936, but Hughes left the project the following year to cover the Spanish Civil WarSpanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil WarAlso known as The Crusade among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War among Carlists, and The Rebellion or Uprising among Republicans. was a major conflict fought in Spain from 17 July 1936 to 1 April 1939...
for the Baltimore Afro-American
Baltimore Afro-American
The Baltimore Afro-American, commonly known as The Afro, is a weekly newspaper published in Baltimore, Maryland, USA. It is the flagship newspaper of the Afro-American chain and the longest-running African-American family-owned newspaper in the United States.-History:The newspaper was founded in...
. Arvey, a pianist and writer who never wrote a libretto before, completed the project in Hughes’ absence.
Troubled Island was completed in 1939, but Still faced problems in arranging for a production. Planned premieres in 1945 and 1948 at the New York City Opera
New York City Opera
The New York City Opera is an American opera company located in New York City.The company, called "the people's opera" by New York Mayor Fiorello La Guardia, was founded in 1943 with the aim of making opera financially accessible to a wide audience, producing an innovative choice of repertory, and...
were withdrawn, but the company presented the world premiere of Troubled Island on March 31, 1949. It was the first time that the work of an African-American composer was presented by a major American opera company.
Although the leading roles of Dessalines and his wife Azelia were based on black Haitians, the opera company cast white opera stars Robert Weede
Robert Weede
-Biography:Born Robert Wiedefeld in Baltimore, Maryland, Weede studied voice at the Eastman School of Music and in Milan. He made his Metropolitan Opera debut in 1937, as Tonio in Pagliacci...
and Marie Powers
Marie Powers
Marie Powers was an American contralto who was best known for her performance as Madame Flora in Gian Carlo Menotti’s The Medium, a role that she played on stage, screen and television....
, who work dark make-up for the 1949 premiere. African-American bass-baritone
Bass-baritone
A bass-baritone is a high-lying bass or low-lying "classical" baritone voice type which shares certain qualities with the true baritone voice. The term arose in the late 19th century to describe the particular type of voice required to sing three Wagnerian roles: the Dutchman in Der fliegende...
Lawrence Winters
Lawrence Winters
Lawrence Winters , bass-baritone, was an African American opera singer who had an active international career from the mid 1940s through the mid 1960s. He was part of the first generation of black opera singers to achieve wide success and is viewed as part of an instrumental group of performers who...
took over the role of Dessalines from Weede for the second performance of the opera and continued in the role for the remainder of the production's run.
The premiere performance was greeted with 22 curtain calls. Critical reaction to the work ranged from mixed-to-negative. Time Magazine said, “Composer Still's music, sometimes lusciously scored, sometimes naively melodic, often had more prettiness than power. In all, Troubled Island had more of the souffle of operetta than the soup bone of opera.” John Briggs of the New York Post
New York Post
The New York Post is the 13th-oldest newspaper published in the United States and is generally acknowledged as the oldest to have been published continuously as a daily, although – as is the case with most other papers – its publication has been periodically interrupted by labor actions...
opined, “one was never sure one was hearing a first-rate performance of an inferior work or a second-rate performance of a good one,” while Miles Kastendieck, writing for both the New York Journal-American and the Christian Science Monitor, said of Still’s music: “the result is a mixture of styles signifying talent and a feel for opera but achieving little more than a suggestion of it.”
Years later, Judith Still, the daughter of Still and Arvey, said that the New York critics intentionally panned Troubled Island due to racism. “Howard Taubmann (a critic and friend of Still) came to my father and said ‘Billy, because I’m your friend I think that I should tell you this – the critics have had a meeting to decide what to do about your opera. They think the colored boy has gone far enough and they have voted to pan your opera.’ And that was it. In those days, critics had that kind of influence.”
Following its premiere, New York City Opera staged two additional presentations, on April 1 and May 1 of 1949. To date, New York City Opera has never revived the work in full; however, a 60th-anniversary concert production of excerpts was presented by the company in March 2009 at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. The opera has not been seen widely outside these two productions.
Roles
| Role | Voice type | Premiere Cast, March 31, 1949 (Conductor: - Laszlo Halasz Laszlo Halasz Laszlo Halasz was an American opera director, conductor, and pianist of Hungarian birth. In 1943 he was appointed the first director of the New York City Opera; a position he held through 1951... ) |
|---|---|---|
| Dessalines, a slave leader | baritone Baritone Baritone is a type of male singing voice that lies between the bass and tenor voices. It is the most common male voice. Originally from the Greek , meaning deep sounding, music for this voice is typically written in the range from the second F below middle C to the F above middle C Baritone (or... |
Robert Weede Robert Weede -Biography:Born Robert Wiedefeld in Baltimore, Maryland, Weede studied voice at the Eastman School of Music and in Milan. He made his Metropolitan Opera debut in 1937, as Tonio in Pagliacci... |
| Azelia, wife of Dessalines | contralto Contralto Contralto is the deepest female classical singing voice, with the lowest tessitura, falling between tenor and mezzo-soprano. It typically ranges between the F below middle C to the second G above middle C , although at the extremes some voices can reach the E below middle C or the second B above... |
Marie Powers Marie Powers Marie Powers was an American contralto who was best known for her performance as Madame Flora in Gian Carlo Menotti’s The Medium, a role that she played on stage, screen and television.... |
| Celeste, a slave mother | mezzo-soprano Mezzo-soprano A mezzo-soprano is a type of classical female singing voice whose range lies between the soprano and the contralto singing voices, usually extending from the A below middle C to the A two octaves above... |
Muriel OMalley |
| Popo, a slave | tenor Tenor The tenor is a type of male singing voice and is the highest male voice within the modal register. The typical tenor voice lies between C3, the C one octave below middle C, to the A above middle C in choral music, and up to high C in solo work. The low extreme for tenors is roughly B2... |
Nathaniel Sprinzena |
| Vuval, a mulatto | tenor | Richard Charles |
| Stenio, Vuval's cousin | baritone | Arthur Newman Arthur Newman Arthur Newman was an American operatic baritone and actor. He began his career as a stage actor in St. Louis in the early 1930s and in 1939 began an opera career... |
| Martel, an old man | bass | Oscar Natzka Oscar Natzka -Early life:Born as Franz Oscar Natzke at Wharepuhunga, North Island, New Zealand, he was the son of August Natzke , who had emigrated to New Zealand and settled in Otorohanga, and Emma Carter Natzke, of Christchurch, New Zealand, who was a singer.As a boy, the young Natzke worked... |
| Mamaloi, Voodoo Priestess | soprano Soprano A soprano is a voice type with a vocal range from approximately middle C to "high A" in choral music, or to "soprano C" or higher in operatic music. In four-part chorale style harmony, the soprano takes the highest part, which usually encompasses the melody... |
Ruth Stewart Ruth Stewart Ruth Stewart is an American operatic soprano. In 1943 she entered Columbia University as a voice major. She won two Fullbright scholarships which enabled her to study with Maria Pediconi in Rome... |
| Claire, the Mulatto Empress | soprano | Helena Bliss Helena Bliss Helena Bliss is a retired American actress and singer. A talented soprano, she actively performed in musicals, operettas, and operas in the United States, both on stage and on television and radio, from the 1930s through the 1950s... |
| The Steward | baritone | Edwin Dunning |
| The Chamberlain | bass | Richard Wentworth Richard Wentworth (bass-baritone) Richard Wentworth was an American operatic bass-baritone and musical theatre actor. In 1939 he joined Fortune Gallo's San Carlo Opera Company with which he portrayed some 89 roles through 1945. He made his Broadway debut in 1942 at the Alvin Theatre as Dr. Bartolo in Once Over Lightly, an... |
| The Messenger | tenor | William Stanz |
| The Fisherman | baritone | Edwin Dunning |
| The Mango Vendor | mezzo-soprano | Frances Bible Frances Bible Frances Lillian Bible was an American operatic mezzo-soprano who had a thirty long year career at the New York City Opera between 1948 and 1978. She also made a fair number of opera appearances with other companies throughout the United States, but only made a limited number of appearances abroad... |
| The Melon Vendor | soprano | Mary LeSawyer Mary LeSawyer Mary LeSawyer was an American opera singer of Ukrainian descent who had an active international career during the 1940s through the 1960s. A lyric soprano, LeSawyer studied opera at the Juilliard School before beginning her singing career... |
| The Herald | tenor | |
| 1st Servant | soprano | Dorothy MacNeil |
| 2nd servant | mezzo-soprano | Frances Bible |
| 3rd servant | contralto | Rosalind Nadell |
| Ragamuffin boys | mute | |
| Slaves, Voodoo attendants, servants, guests, courtiers, market women, fishermen, peasants, soldiers, dancers, drummers |
opera chorus | New York City Opera Chorus |
Further reading
- Soll, Beverly. (2005) "I Dream A World: The Operas of William Grant Still." Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press. ISBN 1-55728-789-9
- Still, Judith Anne and Lisa M. Headlee, Eds. (2006) " Just Tell The Story - Troubled Island." Flagstaff: The Master-Player Library. ISBN 1-877873-02-0
External links
- William Grant Still Music, site with comprehensive information about him and his music
- Interview, Transcript, African American Music Collection, University of MichiganUniversity of MichiganThe University of Michigan is a public research university located in Ann Arbor, Michigan in the United States. It is the state's oldest university and the flagship campus of the University of Michigan...