U.S. Opera at Monte Carlo

U. S. Opera at Monte Carlo

For the first time in the history of music a full-length opera composed by an American, on a libretto written by an American, was produced in Europe. Fay-Yen-Fah ws the work, Monte Carlo the scene, Composer Joseph Redding, Poet Templeton Crocker (both of California) the Americans. In the Monte Carlo Opera House, which is not large, sat Mrs. Clans A. Spreckels of San Francisco, Lily Langtry, Yvonne-Printemps, the Duke of Connaught, the Count and Countess Vignal, Jean de Reszke, Lady Waterlow, Princess Radziwill and some 400 others. They listened to a score which is modern without eccentricity, melodious without stickiness, followed the poetic story of a Chinese beauty damned for loving too well, beheld scenes that were "lavish," "fascinating."

Said Producer Raoul Gunzbourg: "Crocker is a great poet, at times approaching Alfred de Vigny. Redding is an original. . . . This is no postiche. It is the first absolutely Eastern music to an Eastern theme. Madame Butterfly is Italian."