Montezuma (opera)

This article is about the opera by Roger Sessions. For other uses of Montezuma, including other operas of the same name by Graun and others, see Montezuma (disambiguation).

Montezuma is an opera in three acts by the American composer Roger Sessions, with an English libretto by Giuseppe Antonio Borgese that incorporates bits of the Aztec language, Nahuatl, as well as Spanish, Latin, and French.^[1]

Performance history

Montezuma was first performed on 19 April 1964 at the Deutsche Oper in Berlin, in a German translation.

The American premiere (and the first performance with the original English libretto) was given on 31 March 1976 by the Opera Company of Boston, conducted by Sarah Caldwell. The cast included Richard Lewis (Montezuma), Alexander Stevenson (Bernal Díaz del Castillo, the Young), Donald Gramm (Bernal Díaz del Castillo, the Old), Brent Ellis (Cortez), Phyllis Bryn-Julson (Malinche), Alan Crofoot (Jerónimo Aguilar/veteran), and Eunice Alberts as Cuaximatl.^[2]

The New York City premiere was given in February, 1982 by the Juilliard American Opera Center, conducted by Frederik Prausnitz.^[3] Bernal was sung by Robert Keefe, Cortez by James Dietsch, Alvarado by Cornelius Sullivan, Montezuma by Robert Grayson, and Malinche by Hei-Kyung Hong.^[4] The scenery was designed by Ming Cho Lee and the lighting was by Beverly Emmons.

Roles

Role	Voice type	Premiere Cast 19 April 1964[5] (Conductor: Heinrich Hollreiser)
Bernal Díaz del Castillo, the Old	bass	Ernst Krukowski
Bernal Díaz del Castillo, the Young	tenor	Karl Ernst Mercker
Cacamatzin	tenor	Martin Vantin
Cuauhtemoc[6]	baritone	Barry McDaniel
Cuaximatl	mezzo-soprano	Yonako Nagano
Fray Olmedo de la Merced	bass	Manfred Röhrl
Guidela	baritone
Hernán Cortez	baritone	William Dooley
Itlamal	soprano	Marina Türke
Malinche	soprano	Annabelle Bernard
Jeronimo Aguilar	baritone	Walter Dicks
Montezuma	tenor	Helmut Melchert
Netzahualcoyotl	bass	Martti Talvela
Passer-by 1	baritone	Wilhelm Lang
Passer-by 2	baritone	Robert Koffmane
Pedro de Alvarado	tenor	Loren Driscoll
A Soldier of Cortez's Army	tenor	Cornelis van Dijk
Teuhtlilli, an ambassador of Montezuma	tenor	Helmut Krebs
Veteran	baritone	Hanns Heinz Nissen

Reception

Former British Prime Minister Edward Heath, after hearing the US premiere in Boston in 1976, said "I found it fascinating. … I liked the subject—one of the few instances of an important event in history where the British played no part. In the tragedy of Montezuma we share no responsibility".^[7]

Notes

1. ^ Steinberg 1976, 15.
2. ^ Kessler 2008, 232-33.
3. ^ Prausnitz 2002, 292.
4. ^ Olmstead 2008, 329.
5. ^ "Program of first performance, Berlin, April 19, 1964", reprinted in the preface to the vocal score of the opera (New York: Marks Music Corporation, 1965); www.amadeusonline.net
6. ^ The spelling throughout the score and in the German cast list. The English cast list in the score misspells the name "Cuanuhtemoc". Olmstead 1985 consistently has "Cuahetemoc"; in Olmstead 2008, 335–37, the name is spelled as in the score.
7. ^ Soria 1976, MA-5.

Sources

• Anon. 1964. 'American Opera Staged in Berlin First'. The Times (6 May).
• Brody, Martin. 1992. 'Montezuma (ii)' in The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, ed. Stanley Sadie (London) ISBN 0-333-73432-7
• Davies, Peter Maxwell. 1964a. 'Sessions's Opera Stirs Berliners: "Montezuma" Is Greeted by Violent Reactions'. New York Times (21 April).
• Davies, Peter Maxwell. 1964b. '"Montezuma" Creates a Stir in Berlin'. New York Times (3 May).
• Davis, Peter G. 1982. 'Montezuma's Revenge'. New York Magazine (8 March): 89.
• Harbison, John. 1977. "Roger Sessions and Montezuma". Tempo, new series, no. 121 (June): 2–5.
• Kessler, Daniel. 2008. Sarah Caldwell: The First Woman of Opera. Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press. ISBN 9780810859470 (cloth) ISBN 9780810861107 (pbk).
• Mason, Charles Norman. 1982. 'A Comprehensive Analysis of Roger Sessions' Opera Montezuma'. DMA diss. Urbana-Champaign: University of Illinois.
• Olmstead, Andrea. 1985. 'The Plum'd Serpent: Antonio Borgese's and Roger Sessions's Montezuma'. Tempo, new series, no. 152 (March): 13–22.
• Olmstead, Andrea. 2008. Roger Sessions: A Biography. New York: Routledge. ISBN 9780415977135 (hardback) ISBN 9780415977142 (pbk.) ISBN 9780203931479 (ebook)
• Porter, Andrew. 1978. 'The Matter of Mexico', in his Music of Three Seasons: 1974-1977, 337–44. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux.
• Porter, Andrew. 1982. 'A Magnificent Epic'. The New Yorker (March): 128 & 132.
• Prausnitz, Frederik. 2002. Roger Sessions: How a "Difficult" Composer Got That Way. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0195108922
• Smith, Patrick J. 1976. 'Boston Opera: "Montezuma"'. High Fidelity/Musical America 26, no. 7 (July): MA-24.
• Soria, Dorle J. 1976. 'Artist Life'. High Fidelity/Musical America 26, no. 7 (July): MA-5 & MA-35.
• Steinberg, Michael. 1976. 'Enter Montezuma: Roger Sessions' Complex Opera Finally Gets Its U.S. Premiere in Boston—A Dozen Years after Its World Premiere in Berlin'. Opera News 40, no. 19 (April 3): 10–16.