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[Met Performance] CID:5310

United States Premiere (Das Goldene Kreuz)

Das Goldene Kreuz
Vienna Waltzes
Metropolitan Opera House, Fri, November 19, 1886

Debut : Florence Braithwaite, Miss Harrison, Miss Forstner, Miss Tondini, Miss Watkins, Miss Miller, Fanny Quick, Miss Thomas, Grace Leaver, Miss Story, Miss Louie, Louis Frappert







Das Goldene Kreuz received four performances this season.
Choreography realized by Giovanni Ambroggio
The program states that the music for Vienna Waltzes was arranged by Joseph Bayer and rearranged and adapted by Walter Damrosch. During the 09-10 season, another version of Vienna Waltzes was staged by the company that attributed the composition of the music to Bayer; this later version had choreography by Ottokar Bartik.
Vienna Waltzes received five performances this season.

Review 1:

Review in The New York Times :

METROPOLITAN OPERA HOUSE

The first performance in this country of Brull's "Goldone Kreuz," and of a new ballet entitled "The Vienna Waltzes," was witnessed at the Metropolitan Opera House last evening by an overflowing audience. Notwithstanding the delay that deferred the [first] scene of the opera until close upon 9 o'clock, and brought on the concluding tableaus of the ballets at so late an hour that anything like a detailed account of this part of the representation must, for the present, be deferred, the spectators all remained until the final grouping was revealed on the stage and the last note sounded in the orchestra. "Der Goldene Kreuz," which has been known in Germany these 10 years, is founded, as to its story, upon a French domestic drama entitled "Catherine, ou la croix d'or," by Brazier and M?lesville. The period in which the action is carried on is that of the great wars of the First Empire and the scene is laid in France. Colas and his sister Christina live happily, with their cousin Theresa, in an inn left them by their parents. Colas falls in love with Theresa and the [first] incidents indicate that the wedding of the young couple is on the point of being celebrated. As fate will have it, Bombardon, a recruiting Sergeant, turns up simultaneously with the priest, and Colas draws an unlucky number and is summoned to the front. Christina, in despair at the prospect of losing her brother, after resorting to every expedient to procure him a substitute, promises to wed whomsoever shall take his place in the ranks. Goutran d'Auere, a nobleman who travels incognito, and who has determined to enlist in order to forget, in active, service, numerous disappointments in love, offers himself to the recruiting Sergeant as Colas's substitute. The offer is accepted, Sergeant Bombardon receives from Christina a golden cross, the bearer of which is to wed when he presents himself to her within two years, and the first act of the opera ends happily. In the second Gontrau, home from the wars, is tenderly cared for by Christina. Christina has never seen Colas's substitute and little suspects that the young man she has helped restore to health is the one to whom her hand is pledged. Her interest in Gontrau speedily ripens into love, but as the maiden proclaims her resolve to keep her vow, and as Gontrau cannot show the golden cross which he had confided, when he thought he lay dying on the field, to Sergeant Bombardon who has long been missing, a cheerful d?nouement to the romance can scarcely be looked for. Just at the right moment, however, Sergeant Bombardon appears once more, the golden cross is delivered to its owner. and the curtain falls upon a picture of general felicity. Herr Briill's music to this not uninteresting domestic drama is of the old-fashioned opera comique type, best represented in Germany by L?rtzing and that composer's contemporaries. Judging from a single hearing, it does not seem that Herr Brull is possessed of remarkable creative power; his themes. however, are alternately graceful and spirited, his instrumentation, when the score is entrusted to an orchestra of rather reduced proportions, is thoroughly adapted to the subject in hand, and the concerted pieces, and especially the finales, are admirably treated. The music to "Der Goldene Kreuz" is, in fact, illustrative and descriptive, accompanying and emphasizing most happily a series of well chosen situations of no deep emotional significance; it must, therefore, be considered and praised rather as a whole than on account of a few detached numbers. Some of these, however, were singled out and applauded with particular warmth last night. In the first act the plaintive lied allotted to Gontran, Bombardon's semi-martial song, with its catching retrain, a brief quartet, and a varied and capitally developed finale elicited tokens of general approval; in the second act a pretty quartet and some subsequent concerted music, a melodious duet between Gontran and Theresa, and Bombardon's final song, which reminds one vaguely of Schumann's "Two Grenadiers," diffused most pleasure. The cast of the opera included Herren Alvary, Von Milde, and Fischer, Frau Seidl-Krauss and Fr?ulein Von Januchowsky. Herr Fischer's Bonbardon was a notably good personation, and the basso's last lied was sung with so much genuine feeling and expression that, betwixt the sentiment pervading the measures and the interpreter's art, it may be set down as the most impressive number of the score. The work of the remaining artists was at all points satisfactory, Frau Seidl-Krauss speedily overcoming the, nervousness following the alarm of fire given au hour or so before the opera began. "Der Goldene Kreuz" was, as a matter of course, handsomely set, and both chorus and orchestra, under Mr. Damrosch, were in first rate form. It was quite 11 when the first scene of "The Vienna Waltzes" was disclosed and detailed comment upon the ballet must, as mentioned above, be withheld for a day or two. The terpsichorean spectacle is divided into three tableaus and is intended to illustrate the development of the dance from the year 1770 down to the present period. In its slightly modified form - some necessary changes having been made by Mr. Walter Damrosh - its story may be summarized follows: The first act progresses in the days of Joseph II and its music introduces several dances of the period, an ancient Dance of Haydn's being among them. The second act depicts a Viennese wedding in 1820, and its incidents embrace a shepherdesses' pas de cinch, a gavotte, and a comic "Polster Tanz." The third act embodies dances of all nations: A Spanish dance by Saint-S?ens, a French "serenade" by Burgmein; a German waltz by Schubert, a hornpipe and a Virginia reel, the medley concluding with Strauss's "Morgenbl?tter." Between the acts the orchestra performs waltzes by Loaner, (1840.) by Strauss. Sr., (1842) and by Johann Strauss, (1868-72.) In "The Vienna Waltzes" Mine. Cavalazzi and Fr?ulein Leonhardt were last evening the premieres danseuses, the ballet came out in full force, an endless series of showy and characteristic costumes delighted the spectators, and lively amusement was afforded by several comic incidents introduced at different stages of the proceedings.

Search by season: 1886-87

Search by title: Das Goldene Kreuz, Vienna Waltzes,



Met careers

• Walter Damrosch [Conductor]
• Auguste Seidl-Kraus [Christine]
• Max Alvary [Gontran]
• Georgine Von Januschowsky [Therese]
• Rudolph Von Milde [Nicholas]
• Emil Fischer [Bombardon]
• Mr. Van Hell [Director]
• Florence Braithwaite [Kathi]
• Miss Leonhardt [Leopold]
• Miss Harrison [Dance]
• Miss Forstner [Dance]
• Miss Tondini [Dance]
• Miss Watkins [Dance]
• Miss Miller [Dance]
• Fanny Quick [Dance]
• Miss Thomas [Dance]
• Malvina Cavalazzi [Dance]
• Grace Leaver [Dance]
• Miss Tully [Dance]
• Miss Story [Dance]
• Miss Louie [Dance]
• Louis Frappert [Choreographer]
• Giovanni Ambroggio [Choreographer]