Deems Taylor, the renowned music critic for the New York Times, was the first composer approached by Giulio Gatti-Casazza (the manager of the Metropolitan Opera) in the late '20s, at the start of a veritable flurry of commissions of works by American composers that continued for about a decade, and also resulted in Met premieres by Howard Hanson and Louis Gruenberg. Taylor's first work, The King's Henchman (1927), was such a success that he was commissioned to write a second opera, for which he selected Peter Ibbetson, a ...
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Deems Taylor, the renowned music critic for the New York Times, was the first composer approached by Giulio Gatti-Casazza (the manager of the Metropolitan Opera) in the late '20s, at the start of a veritable flurry of commissions of works by American composers that continued for about a decade, and also resulted in Met premieres by Howard Hanson and Louis Gruenberg. Taylor's first work, The King's Henchman (1927), was such a success that he was commissioned to write a second opera, for which he selected Peter Ibbetson, a novel by George Du Maurier, as his source. The opera, which featured Lawrence Tibbett, Lucrezia Bori, Edward Johnson, and Marion Telva at its 1931 premiere, was also well received, and for over half a century held the record of having more performances at the Met than any other American opera. Taylor, who served as his own librettist, created an opera that is deeply moving and has genuine dramatic power, with an ending that's achingly poignant. It's skillfully and ingeniously...
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