Abstract: During the spring of 1917, New York's Metropolitan Opera lavishly launched the premiere performances of Reginald de Koven and Percy MacKaye's The Canterbury Pilgrims.1 One of the first full-length American grand operas to appear on the Metropolitan's stage, the opera received primarily lukewarm reviews: it seemed neither very grand nor very American. Sung in English by a largely German cast, the opera was frequently critiqued for being no more intelligible to the audience than an opera in German or Italian.2 The only English words universally recognized by the audience were in Act Two, when the German-accented "Vife of Bat" cried "Shud upp-phh!"3 On the evening of the fifth performance, however, the audience was probably less concerned than before about discerning the fine points of the pilgrims' journey to Canterbury, preoccupied instead with the news due from the White House at any minute.KeywordsAmerican DramaAmerican AudienceCanterbury TaleCivic InstitutionMetropolitan OpusThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
Publication Year: 2007
Publication Date: 2007-01-01
Language: en
Type: book-chapter
Indexed In: ['crossref']
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