Wed, Oct 3, 1951
A travelling troupe of players comes to the tiny Calabrian town where Nedda, Canio's wife, is reunited with her lover, Silvio. Tonio, the repulsive man of duties of the troupe, is also in love with Nedda. When he discovers her in the arms of her lover, he runs and gets Canio, the jealous husband. Silvio escapes before his identity is disclosed. Canio accuses his wife of infidelity, but it is now play time and the show must go on. The theme of the play is the same one that has taken place in real life. When Canio comes on the stage acting his part of the enraged husband, his true emotion overcomes him and, in reality, he again pleads with Nedda to disclose the name of her lover. When she will not, Canio in a fit of jealousy grabs a knife and kills her. As she is dying, she calls out to Silvio, who leaps onto the stage and Tonio kills him. Canio collapses on the stage and the curtain falls. At the conclusion of the opera, Howard Taubman, music critic of The New York times, is interviewed by cast members about his trip to Europe in the summer of 1951, during which he covered musical events.
Sun, Dec 23, 1951
Amahl, a crippled boy, and his mother live in poverty among shepherds. One night the three kings, King Caspar, King Melchior, and King Balthazar, on their way to Bethlehem to pay homage to the Newborn Child, stop for shelter at the crude hut where Amahl and his mother live. They are given hospitality and are entertained by the neighboring shepherds. The mother envies the gold and gifts being brought to this Child whom the kings do not even know. She tries to steal some for her own child. Then the kings explain that their Child is about to bring new light into the world. The mother repents, and, in a gesture of innocent generosity, Amahl offers his homemade crutch as a gift to the Child. He is miraculously cured of his lameness and follows the kings to Bethlehem to give thanks for the miracle.
Wed, Jan 2, 1952
Around 1830 in St. Petersburg, Gherman is an army captain, obsessed with gambling but too poor to risk losing money. He hears that old Countess Anna, called the Queen of Spades, possesses a secret to three winning cards. He makes love to her niece, Lisa, gets into the house and demands the secret at gun point. The countess dies of fright and Lisa drowns herself. Gherman goes into seclusion and the ghost of the countess appears with the secret, the three, the seven and the ace. He tries it and wins the first two, but what he thinks is the ace turns up as the queen of spades and Gherman goes mad.
Wed, Feb 13, 1952
This one-act melodrama is about Michel, a barge captain, and Georgette, his wife. Since her child died, she has turned from her husband and fallen in love with Lucien, a sailor. Michel tries to discover the trouble and guesses the truth when he finds Lucien sneaking on board at night and kills him. Georgette emerges from her cabin and says she is frightened and wishes to sit with him wrapped in his cloak as she used to. At the end of the opera, José Limon and his company dance to the slow movement of the Concerto Grosso in D minor by Antonio Vivaldi.