All that fun stuff is the subject matter of this week's opera on SATO, The Ballad Of Baby Doe, a production of the Calgary Opera, starring Tracy Dahl (see photo) and John Fanning. It's the first professional Canadian production of the American opera (by Douglas Moore, with libretto by John LaTouche).
The Ballad Of Baby Doe, set in a silver mining town in Colorado circa 1880, is sometimes referred to as "a singers' opera" for its great melodies (which makes you wonder about some other works), and is also considered an American classic.
Please do keep reading for details of cast and characters as well as the plot synopsis, and information about the composer, Douglas Stuart Moore.
Photo by Trudie Lee
Cast and Characters
Commissioned by the Koussevitsky Foundation of the Library of Congress for the bicentennial of Columbia University, The Ballad of Baby Doe has become one of the most popular American operas of the modern day. The opera's characters are based on historical persons.
Horace Tabor, mayor of Leadville, baritone (John Fanning)
Augusta, his wife, mezzo soprano (Elizabeth Turnbull)
Mrs. Elizabeth ("Baby") Doe, soprano (Tracy Dahl)
Mama McCourt, her mother, mezzo soprano (Marcia Swanston)
William Jennings Bryan, presidential candidate, bass-baritone (John Avey)
Kate, soprano
Elizabeth Tabor, age 12, soprano
Silver Dollar Tabor, age 7, actor
Sarah, Mary, Emily, Effie, friends of Augusta
Sam, Bushy, Barney, Jacob, cronies of Tabor
Chester A. Arthur/Father Chapelle/Silver Miner/Hotel Clerk/Mayor/Stage Doorman, 2 tenors
Bouncer/Albert/Footman/Politician, baritone
Meg/Grown-Up Silver Dollar/Samantha, mezzo soprano
Washington dandies, dance hall girls, wedding guests, miners, etc.
Synopsis - The Ballad of Baby Doe
Act One
On a street in Leadville, Colorado in 1880, an old miner brags that the wealthy Horace Tabor wants to buy his silver mine, which he calls the “Matchless” Mine. Horace Tabor and his cronies emerge from the Tabor Opera House in an attempt to escape their wives and their boredom. Horace's wife, Augusta, and the wives of Horace's cronies find their husbands and scold them. Before joining Augusta inside the Opera House, Horace meets Elizabeth “Baby” Doe, who has just arrived in town and is looking for the Clarendon Hotel, where she will lodge.
Later that evening outside the Clarendon Horace hears Baby Doe singing through an open window. She appears at the window and offers the smitten Horace her hand to kiss before Augusta calls him inside.
Several months later while Augusta tidies Horace's desk in their apartment at the Clarendon she discovers a check made out to the Matchless Mine. She also finds a pair of white gloves, which the maid informs her are a gift from Horace to Baby Doe. Augusta confronts Horace about the Matchless Mine, which she believes to be an unwise investment, but he spurns her warnings. Augusta then produces the gloves, and Horace admits to his affair with Baby Doe. Enraged, Augusta vows to drive Baby Doe out of town.
Packed to depart from Leadville, Baby Doe writes her mother that her husband Harvey has left her, and that she feels it is wrong to stay with Horace Tabor, a married man. Augusta pays Baby Doe a visit, warning her that there will be trouble if she doesn't leave Horace. Baby Doe at first agrees, but, appalled by Augusta's apparent harshness toward Horace, decides to stay in Leadville with him.
A year later, Tabor has left Augusta and is living with Baby Doe. Her friends inform Augusta, now living in Denver, that Horace plans to divorce her. She swears to ruin him. Divorced from Augusta, Horace, recently appointed a U.S. Senator, celebrates his wedding to Baby Doe at a lavish reception in Washington, D.C. Many of the other senators' wives, disapproving of the couple, do not attend. Mama McCourt, Baby's mother, inadvertently reveals to the horrified guests that Baby is a divorced woman. The evening is saved from near-disaster when President Chester A. Arthur arrives and toasts the newlyweds.
Act Two
In 1893, at a ball given for Horace in Denver by the Governor of Colorado, Augusta's gossiping friends snub Baby. Baby explains to her mother that they are simply jealous that she and Horace are still so happy.
Two years later, Augusta visits Baby to warn her that Horace is in serious financial trouble. She urges Baby to convince Horace to abandon his investments in silver. When Baby tells Horace about Augusta's fears, Horace reassures her that all is well. Baby promises to stand by Horace and the Matchless Mine forever.
In 1896, confident that silver will make a comeback when William Jennings Bryan is elected President, Horace tries to convince his cronies to join him in backing the Matchless Mine. When they refuse, Horace accuses them of cowardice. Horace, Baby, and their two little daughters stage a rally for William Jennings Bryan outside the Matchless Mine.
Augusta hears that William Jennings Bryan has been defeated by William McKinley. Baby's mother, Mama McCourt, begs Augusta to rescue Tabor from his subsequent financial ruin, but Augusta refuses. Augusta, however, privately expresses her regret over her own severity and her failed marriage.
Horace Tabor, ruined and dying, appears on the stage of his opera house in Leadville. Baby arrives to comfort him in his last moments. She then goes to the entry of the Matchless Mine, where she keeps vigil until she is an old woman, and she too dies.
Composer
Douglas Stuart Moore
born: August 10th, 1893
Cutchogue, Long Island, New York
died: July 25th, 1969
Greenport, Long Island, New York
Composer, educator, author.
Moore studied with Horatio Parker at Yale, from which he graduated in 1917. He served in the Navy as a Lieutenant, J.G., after which he went to Paris to devote his time to music. While there, he was a student of Vincent D'Indy, Charles Tournemire and Nadia Boulanger. Moore went to Cleveland in 1921 as Director of Music at the Cleveland Museum of Art, during which he studied with Ernest Bloch at the Cleveland Institute of Music, and performed in plays at the Cleveland Playhouse.
Four Museum Pieces, Moore's first serious work (about four items in the Cleveland Art Museum's collection), in its orchestrated version, was first performed by the Cleveland Orchestra with Moore conducting. It won him a Pulitzer Traveling Fellowship, in 1926, allowing him to return to Europe to study with Boulanger.
Also in 1926, Moore was invited to join the music faculty at Columbia University, where he remained until his retirement in 1962. Moore was Chairman of the Columbia Dept. of Music from 1940 to 1962, as well as president of the American Academy of Arts and Letters from 1953 to 1956, director of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) from 1957 to 1960, and winner of the Pulitzer Prize in 1951 for his opera Giants in the Earth. Moore wrote for the theater, film, ballet and orchestra. But his greatest fame came through his operas, and two in particular--The Devil and Daniel Webster, from 1938 and The Ballad of Baby Doe, premiered in 1956. Revered in his home town, he is honored each year with the Douglas Moore Memorial Concert, which takes place on or near his birth date on the town green in Cutchogue.
