The opera had its first performance on any stage at the Court Theatre, Dresden, May 29, 1901. Before being sung in New York it was heard in Cracow, Lemberg, Zurich, and Cologne.
The scene is laid among the Tatra mountains, between Galicia and Hungary. The story illustrates the gypsy's wanderlust. The plot is borrowed from a Polish romance. Manru has won the love of a Galician girl, Ulana, and married her gypsy fashion. After a time she returns to her native village among the Tatra mountains, seeking her mother's help and forgiveness. But her mother curses her, and she is the object of the villagers' scorn. They taunt her with a song which celebrates the inconstancy of all gypsies under the spell of the full moon. As she has already noticed signs of uneasiness in her husband, Ulana seeks the help of Urok, a dwarf, who loves her and who is said to be a sorcerer. He gives her a magic draught by means of which she wins back Manru for a time. Alone in the mountains, however, the influence of the moon, the charm of gypsy music, and the fascinations of a gypsy girl are too strong for him. He rejoins his companions. Oros, the gypsy chief, himself in love with the maiden of Manru's fancy, opposes her reinstatement in the band. But through the influence of Jagu, a gypsy fiddler, his wishes are overruled and Manru is made chief in Oros's place. The deposed chief revenges himself by hurling his successful rival down a precipice, a second after the distraught Ulana has thrown herself into a mountain lake.
[American Opera]
No really distinguished achievement has as yet been reached in the world of American opera. Various reasons are given for the delinquency. Some say that American composers are without that sense of the theatre so apparent in the composers of the modern Italian school. But whatever the reasons, the fact remains inalterably true.
The Metropolitan has housed several worthy efforts. Two of the most successful were Mr. Parker's "Mona" and Mr. Damrosch's "Cyrano de Bergerac." After much fulsome praise had been bestowed upon both, however, these operas were promptly shelved. Others have taken their place. But the writer of a truly great American opera has yet to make his appearance.
THE SACRIFICE
OPERA in three acts by Frederick Shepherd Converse.