Merry Mount (opera)

Lore & Background

The libretto was written without a composer in mind; Stokes conducted research into Puritan fanaticism, sexual obsession, and demonology. Upon completion, he found Howard Hanson, who was new to opera composition but respected as an elder statesman of American classical music. The Metropolitan Opera commissioned the work, making Merry Mount the sixteenth American opera presented during Giulio Gatti-Casazza's tenure as company director. The blunt language of the libretto surprised many, with The New York Times noting that rehearsals found singers wondering whether modern censorship would approve the candor of the 'plain English' used by the Pilgrim Fathers.

Reader's Guide

Merry Mount holds significance as Howard Hanson's only opera and as a notable American work commissioned by the Metropolitan Opera. Its world stage premiere on February 10, 1934, received a total of fifty curtain calls, still a house record. Despite this initial success, the opera was performed only eight more times that season and never returned to the Met's repertory; subsequent performances have been scarce. The opera's libretto, noted for its candid language, and its lavish production during the Great Depression, underscore its unique place in American operatic history. The cast included prominent singers such as Lawrence Tibbett, Gladys Swarthout, Göta Ljungberg, and Edward Johnson.

Did You Know?

• The opera received fifty curtain calls at its world stage premiere, a house record for the Metropolitan Opera.
• The world stage premiere was broadcast nationally as part of the Met's weekly radio series, with Milton Cross as announcer.
• The opera was the sixteenth American opera presented at the Met during Giulio Gatti-Casazza's tenure.

Commission and Creative Origins

Richard Stokes wrote the libretto for Merry Mount without any composer in mind, having first conducted extensive research into Puritan fanaticism, sexual obsession, and demonology. He discovered that these obsessions often reached pathological extremes, typically culminating in death as either punishment or redemption for those caught in their grip. While he drew his title from Nathaniel Hawthorne's 1837 short story "The May-Pole of Merry Mount" from Twice-Told Tales, Stokes crafted an entirely original text that some critics likened to The Scarlet Letter. Only after completing the libretto did he seek a composer, ultimately landing on Howard Hanson. Though Hanson had never written an opera before, his substantial body of choral work and his standing as a respected elder figure in American classical music convinced the Metropolitan Opera to commission the piece. The work became the fifteenth American opera staged at the Met and the second-to-last during Giulio Gatti-Casazza's tenure as company director.

Premieres and Performance Legacy

Merry Mount first sounded its notes on May 20, 1933, in a concert performance at Hill Auditorium in Ann Arbor, Michigan, as part of the University Musical Society's fortieth annual May Festival. Howard Hanson himself conducted the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and the cast featured Leonora Corona, Rose Bampton, Frederick Jagel, Chase Baromeo, John Charles Thomas, and George Galvani. The full stage premiere followed at the Metropolitan Opera on February 10, 1934, a Saturday matinée broadcast nationally over radio with Milton Cross serving as announcer. Tullio Serafin conducted that historic performance. The audience responded with an extraordinary fifty curtain calls, a record that still stands at the house. Despite this initial triumph, the opera was performed just eight more times that season and never re-entered the Met's repertory. Subsequent stagings have remained rare, leaving Merry Mount as one of the most underperformed American operas of the twentieth century.

The Metropolitan Production and Cast

Despite the financial austerity the Great Depression imposed on the Metropolitan Opera, the company mounted a lavish production of Merry Mount with a richly assembled cast. Lawrence Tibbett, already a familiar presence to New York audiences through his work in American opera, took the central role of Wrestling Bradford, the Puritan minister. His betrothed, Plentiful Tewke, was sung by Gladys Swarthout, whose fame rested primarily in the French repertory. The Cavalier lovers, Lady Marigold Sandys and Sir Gower Lackland, were assigned to Swedish soprano Göta Ljungberg, known chiefly as a Wagnerian artist, and Canadian tenor Edward Johnson, who had served as the company's principal tenor since 1922. The production's language also drew attention: The New York Times noted during rehearsals that the "plain English" spoken by the Puritan characters, including a series of blunt Anglo-Saxon epithets directed at a woman called a sinner, raised questions about whether modern censorship would approve such candor on stage.

Plot and Dramatic World

Set in the Massachusetts Bay Colony during the seventeenth century, Merry Mount unfolds its drama on a Sabbath afternoon in May. The opera opens with a congregation gathered in a meeting house that doubles as a fortified structure, complete with cannon embrasures and a parapet. Their minister, Wrestling Bradford, delivers a fiery sermon denouncing Satan, Indians, and all unbelievers, while his betrothed Plentiful Tewke watches anxiously, having dared to adorn her plain grey gown with a flame-colored ribbon. The action then turns to the human cost of Bradford's zeal: Desire Annable, mother of an illegitimate child, is released from the stocks after Bradford tells her to "go and sin no more," only to be shunned by the community. Jonathan Banks, a Shaker who denies the minister's faith, is freed from the pillory only to be beaten by the crowd. These scenes establish the opera's central tension between rigid religious authority and the human desires it seeks to suppress.

Gallery