The Saint of Bleecker Street “A New Music Drama”

Libretto and Music: Gian-Carlo Menotti Direction: Gian-Carlo Menotti (production “supervised” by Lincoln Kirstein; Bill Butler, Assistant Director); Producer: Chandler Cowles; Scenery and Costumes: Robert Randolph; Lighting: Jean Rosenthal; Musical Direction: Thomas Schippers (conducting the Equinox Symphony Orchestra) Cast: Catherine Akos (Assunta), Maria Di Gerlando (Carmela), Maria Marlo (Mara Corona), Ernesto Gonzales (Her Dumb Son), Leon Lishner (Don Marco), Virginia Copeland (Annina), David Poleri (Michele), Gloria Lane (Desideria), David Aiken (Salvatore), Lucy Becque (Concettina), Elizabeth Carron (An Old Woman), Russell Goodwin (Bartender), Keith Kaldenberg (First Guest), John Reardon (Second Guest), Dorothy Krebill (A Nun), Robert Barry (A Young Priest); Neighbors, Friends, Policemen, etc.: Theodora Brandon, Betsy Bridge, Lorraine Bridges, Elizabeth Carron, Doris Davis, Mignon Dunn, Elizabeth Dunning, Joyce Duskin, Elaine Galante, Jeanne Grant, Mary Hensley, Carol Jones, Dorothy Krebill, Leslie MacLennan, Bessie Mijanovich, Doris Okerson, Francesca Roberto, Donna Sanders, Robert Barry, Michael Bulzomi, Richard Cassily, Rico Froelich, Russell Goodwin, Gary Gordon, Don Grobe, Fred Jones, Keith Kaldenberg, Chester Ludgin, William MacCully, Michael MacLennan, Dan Merriman, John Reardon, Reid Shelton, Alan Smith, Robert Watts; Note: On opening night, the roles of Annina and Michele were sung by Virginia Copeland and David Poleri, respectively; after the opening, they alternated in these roles with Gabrielle Ruggiero and Davis Cunningham. Gian-Carlo Menotti’s powerful opera The Saint of Bleecker Street centers on sickly young Annina (Virginia Copeland) who has religious visions, healing powers, and the mark of stigmata, and her atheist brother, Michele (David Poleri), who sees religion and Annina’s desire to become a nun as emblematic of an Old-World culture not in keeping with modern-day America. Their differing views erupt in the opera’s most vivid sequence during Little Italy’s San Gennaro festival. The devout Catholics of the ghetto revere Annina and claim her as part of their Good Friday procession. When Michele forbids Annina to join them, they beat him, handcuff him to a chain link fence in crucifix fashion, and carry Annina off to the festival. Later, at the wedding of Annina’s best friend Carmela (Maria Di Gerlando), Michele’s sluttish girlfriend Desideria (Gloria Lane) accuses him of having incestuous desires for his sister. As a result of her accusation, Michele stabs her to death and becomes a fugitive from the law. As Annina’s health fails, Michele sees her for the last time. On her deathbed, she’s given a special dispensation by the Church to become a nun and thus in her last moments becomes a Bride of Christ. Some find Menotti’s libretto melodramatic and his music watered-down Puccini, but in truth his was an alternately touching and rousing “operatic” story that wedded religious mysticism, murder, jealousy, and a semi-incestuous relationship between the two main characters into a powerful and lyrical score that captured the passions of the characters and the milieu of New York’s Little Italy with its San Gennaro street festival, an Italian wedding, garbage-strewn subway stations, and deserted street corners (the insinuating “subway” music at the beginning of the third act was particularly atmospheric). Brooks Atkinson in the New York Times said the “music drama” (as Menotti so designated it) was the “most powerful drama of the season,” and John Chapman in the Daily News found it “wonderful musical theatre.” The singing of the principals and the huge chorus was praised, and Thomas Schippers brilliantly conducted a huge sixty-piece orchestra, apparently a record number of musicians for a Broadway production. (Although Schippers conducted the opening night performance and for those immediately following, Samuel Krachmalnick took over the baton in January and was the conductor for the remainder of the Broadway run.) The work won the New York Drama Critics’ Award for Best Musical of the 1954–1955 season and the 1955 Pulitzer Prize for music. Walter Kerr in the New York Herald Tribune wrote that “technically” the opera was a “powerhouse,” but was “emotionally” remote and so despite the “anguished” tension of the characters they were “strangely impersonal.” But he praised the “angry vitality” of the story and said the music offered a “full and unembarrassed statement.” He also noted that Robert Randolph’s scenery (which took its inspiration from the paintings of George Tooker) was “clean, simple and evocative.” Robert Coleman in the Daily Mirror noted the work was of the “verismo” (realistic) school of opera and he praised the “deeply moving” and “nerve-shattering” story of the “clashes of characters and philosophies”; William Hawkins in the New York World-Telegram and Sun said Menotti’s “fantastic sense of the theatrical” spun “the web of story into a rich and complex fabric” that created

Music

Gian-Carlo Menotti