Cleopatra's Night
Music by Henry Kimball Hadley · libretto by Alice Leal Pollock · premiered 1920
Cleopatra's Night is a short opera in two acts by American composer Henry Kimball Hadley. Its libretto is by Alice Leal Pollock based on the 1838 short story "One of Cleopatra's Nights" by French author Théophile Gautier. The opera premiered at the Metropolitan Opera on January 31, 1920. The opera was revived the following season, and was broadcast on NBC radio in 1929. Cleopatra's Night is written in an eclectic late romantic style, influenced both by the dramatic lyricism of the verismo movement and the rich orchestral approach employed by Wagner and Richard Strauss. The opera's first production was designed by Norman Bel Geddes. Frances Alda sang the title role, while tenor Orville Harrold sang the role of Meïamoun. Gennaro Papi conducted the premiere, though Hadley took the baton for the sixth and final performance of the season, becoming the first American composer to conduct his own opera at the Met.
The opera was brought back the following season for three further performances.
Critical reception was generally good, with Henry T. Finck proclaiming it the best of ten American operas that had so far appeared at the Met.
Text from the Wikipedia article "Cleopatra", licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
About the Composer
Henry Kimball Hadley (20 December 1871 – 6 September 1937) was an American composer and conductor.
Text from the Wikipedia article "Henry Kimball Hadley", licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Other Operas by Henry Kimball Hadley
- Azora, the Daughter of Montezuma (1917)
- Bianca (1917)
- A Night in Old Paris (1924)