Enough strength comes back to her for her to acclaim the sanctity of the sun. In its warmth and light—the expression of Nature's love—she sinks, as if to be absorbed by Nature, into the blossoming field that spreads about her. Again, as in the beginning, there is the choired tribute to warmth, light, love—the sun!
Partly sordid, partly ethereal in its exposition, the significance of this story has escaped Mascagni, save in the climax of the opening allegory of the work. Elsewhere he employs instruments associated by us with Oriental music, but the spirit of the Orient is lacking. In a score requiring subtlety of invention, skill in instrumentation, and, in general, the gift for poetic expression in music, these qualities are not. The scene of the mousmés in the first act with Iris's song to the flowers of her garden, "In pure stille" ( ); the vague, yet unmistakable hum of Japanese melody in the opening of Act II; and her narrative in the scene with Osaka in the same act, "Un dì al tempio" (One day at the temple)—these, with the hymn to the sun, are about the only passages that require mention.
LODOLETTA
Opera in three acts, by Mascagni. Words by Gioacchino Forzano, after Ouida's novel, Two Little Wooden Shoes. Produced, Rome, April 30, 1917. Metropolitan Opera House, New York, January 12, 1918, with Farrar (later in the season, Florence Easton) as Lodoletta, Caruso (Flammen), Amato (Giannotto), and Didur (Antonio).
Characters
| Lodoletta | Soprano |
| Flammen | Tenor |
| Franz | Bass |
| Giannotto | Baritone |
| Antonio | Bass |
| A Mad Woman | Mezzo-Soprano |
| Vannard | Mezzo-Soprano |
| Maud | Soprano |
| A Voice | Tenor |
A letter carrier, an old violinist.
Time—Second empire.
Place—A Dutch village.