Lyric Theatre

Though 16 efforts at native opera have had premieres at Manhattan's Metropolitan Opera House, horse operas (movie Westerns) remain preeminently the American taste. U. S. composers keep at it, however, and last week a new U. S. opera, The Devil and Daniel Webster, was presented at Manhattan's Martin Beck Theatre. Librettist: Poet Stephen Vincent Benet. Composer: Douglas Moore. Producer: Robert Edmond Jones.

A kind of folksy Faustus, Mr. Benet's fable relates how a New Hampshire farmer, in return for ten years of prosperity, sold his soul to the devil. To his wedding in 1841 come Secretary of State Daniel Webster (to kiss the bride) and the Devil (to have his due). Neighbor Webster, the great lawyer, defends Farmer Stone before a special jury of villains out of Hell and U. S. history, wins an acquittal by touching their memories of Freedom.

In the sails of this action, the Moore score varies from lovelorn luffing to a spanking breeze. Its heartiest melodic moment is Daniel Webster's song:

I've got a bull, King Stephen,

With a kick like a cannon ball.

But he acts like a sucking turtledove

When I go into his stall. . . .

Critics applauded the composer for leaving pithy dialogue to be spoken instead of sung, for his generally apt orchestration and unobtrusive transitions. Like Poet Benet's verses, the music is homespun to a turn. Far less spontaneous and intense than The Cradle Will Rock (TIME June 28,1937), No. 1 operatic experiment with topical U. S. material, The Devil and Daniel Webster is well staged and occasionally rises above self-conscious Americanism.

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The Benet-Moore composition was the first offering of a new producing organization, the American Lyric Theatre. A year ago nothing but a glint in the eye of Musician Lee Pattison, the Theatre is now allied with the League of Composers and backed by a list of rich sponsors as long as its own honorable intentions. These include creating, cultivating, providing, stimulating and encouraging U. S. musical drama and ballet.

Balletomanes were charmed by the curtain raiser to the Benet-Moore opera. Called Filling Station, it was a fantasy danced by the Ballet Caravan to polished music by Virgil Thomson. This week the American Lyric Theatre presents more ballet and another light opera, Susanna, Don't You Cry, constructed around the beloved melodies of Stephen Foster.

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