Gallantry
Music by Douglas Moore · libretto by Arnold Sundgaard · premiered 1958
Gallantry is a one-act opera by composer Douglas Moore. The work is a parody of soap opera, complete with sung commercial interruptions. The work uses an English-language libretto by Arnold Sundgaard.
The opera premiered in a double bill with Dominick Argento's The Boor on March 19, 1958, in New York City at the former Brander Matthews Theater on 117th Street, located between Amsterdam Avenue and Morningside Drive. It was produced by Columbia University School of Music with a student cast. It has been staged over more than forty years by other university opera programs in the United States and Canada. The first professional opera company to stage Gallantry was the Detroit Opera, which presented the work in a double bill with Gian Carlo Menotti's The Medium in January 1962. Gallantry was adapted by Moore for television and was broadcast by CBS on August 30, 1962, in a program which also included a presentation of Wallingford Riegger's ballet Parallels. The production was produced by Pamela Illott, directed by Martin Carr, hosted by Jan Peerce, and featured the CBS Symphony Orchestra. It starred Laurel Hurley as the Nurse, Ron Holgate as the Surgeon, Charles Anthony as the Patient, and Martha Wright as the Announcer. The opera was staged at the 1967 Florida International Music Festival in Daytona Beach with Metropolitan Opera performers Carol Courtman, Julian Patrick, and Enrico Di Giuseppe. The opera was subsequently staged by the Canadian Opera Company (1977) and the Lake George Opera (1986). Since the late 20th century, the opera has been performed by several chamber opera ensembles, with productions being staged by the American Chamber Opera Company (1988), A Small Company In America (1990), the New York Chamber Ensemble (1991), and Pocket Opera (2000).
Text from the Wikipedia article "Gallantry (opera)", licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
About the Composer
Douglas Stuart Moore (August 10, 1893 – July 25, 1969) was an American composer, songwriter, organist, pianist, conductor, educator, actor, and author. A composer who mainly wrote works with an American subject, his music is generally characterized by lyricism in a popular or conservative style which generally eschewed the more experimental progressive trends of musical modernism. Composer Virgil Thomson described Moore as a neoromantic composer who was influenced by American folk music. While several of his works enjoyed popularity during his lifetime, only his folk opera The Ballad of Baby Doe (1956) has remained well known into the 21st century. Moore first created music while a student…
Text from the Wikipedia article "Douglas Moore", licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Other Operas by Douglas Moore
- Giants in the Earth (1951)
- Carry Nation (1966)