''The Last Savage'' is an

opera Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a librett ...

in three acts by composer

Gian Carlo Menotti Gian Carlo Menotti (, ; July 7, 1911 – February 1, 2007) was an Italian composer, librettist, director, and playwright who is primarily known for his output of 25 operas. Although he often referred to himself as an American composer, he kept h ...

. Menotti wrote his own

libretto A libretto (Italian for "booklet") is the text used in, or intended for, an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata or Musical theatre, musical. The term ''libretto'' is also sometimes used to refer to the t ...

, originally in the

Italian language Italian (''italiano'' or ) is a Romance language of the Indo-European language family that evolved from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire. Together with Sardinian, Italian is the least divergent language from Latin. Spoken by about 85 m ...

(''L'ultimo selvaggio''). The opera was translated into French (''Le dernier sauvage'') by Jean-Pierre Marty for the work's first (private) performance at the

Opéra-Comique The Opéra-Comique is a Paris opera company which was founded around 1714 by some of the popular theatres of the Parisian fairs. In 1762 the company was merged with – and for a time took the name of – its chief rival, the Comédie-Italienne ...

in Paris on 21 October 1963, followed the next day by the public premiere. George Mead translated the work into English for the opera's American premiere at the

Metropolitan Opera The Metropolitan Opera (commonly known as the Met) is an American opera company based in New York City, resident at the Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center, currently situated on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. The company is operat ...

the following year. The opera was originally intended for the larger Paris Opéra, and the title was changed from ''The Last Superman'' to ''The Wild Man'' then to its final form. Menotti returned to his own Italian language in composing the libretto, but the premiere was in French; Menotti was also the producer of the premiere production. ''Opera'' magazine congratulated him and the conductor for "a beautifully thought-out and executed performance" which was "enormously applauded with one solitary boo-er". However, ''The Last Savage'' was harshly ridiculed by French music critics, continuing a succession of critical failures for Menotti which began with ''

The Unicorn, the Gorgon, and the Manticore ''The Unicorn, the Gorgon and the Manticore or The Three Sundays of a Poet'' is a "madrigal fable" for chorus, ten dancers and nine instruments with music and original libretto by Gian Carlo Menotti. Based on the 16th-century Italian madrigal come ...

'' (1956). The French daily newspaper ''

Le Figaro ''Le Figaro'' () is a French daily morning newspaper founded in 1826. It is headquartered on Boulevard Haussmann in the 9th arrondissement of Paris. The oldest national newspaper in France, ''Le Figaro'' is one of three French newspapers of reco ...

'' went so far as to describe the work as "A Misery".

Performance history

Despite the response from the French public, Menotti hoped that the opera would get a warmer reception at its American premiere at the

in New York City on 23 January 1964."Opera: A Banal Savage"
''

Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to ...

'', 31 January 1964 This presentation boasted a highly elaborate set by

Beni Montresor Beni Montresor (31 March 1926 – 11 October 2001) was a versatile Italian artist, opera and film director, set designer, author and children's book illustrator. He won the 1965 Caldecott Medal for U.S. picture book illustration, recognizing '' ...

, star billing, and was performed in English using a translation by

George Mead George Mead or Meade may refer to: * George Meade (merchant) (1741–1808), American merchant and grandfather of George Meade * George Meade (1815–1872), United States Army officer and civil engineer * George Herbert Mead (1863–1931), American p ...

. Conductor

Thomas Schippers Thomas Schippers (9 March 1930 – 16 December 1977) was an American conductor. He was highly regarded for his work in opera. Biography Of Dutch ancestry and son of the owner of a large appliance store, Schippers was born in Portage, Michigan ...

led the Met cast, which included George London as Abdul,

Roberta Peters Roberta Peters (May 4, 1930 – January 18, 2017) was an American coloratura soprano. One of the most prominent American singers to achieve lasting fame and success in opera, Peters is noted for her 35-year association with the Metropolitan Oper ...

as Kitty,

Teresa Stratas Teresa Stratas (born May 26, 1938) is a retired operatic soprano from Canada of Greek descent. She is especially well known for her award-winning recording of Alban Berg's ''Lulu''. Early life and career Stratas was born Anastasia Stratakis to ...

as Sardula,

Nicolai Gedda Harry Gustaf Nikolai Gädda, known professionally as Nicolai Gedda (11 July 1925 – 8 January 2017), was a Swedish operatic tenor. Debuting in 1951, Gedda had a long and successful career in opera until the age of 77 in June 2003, when he made h ...

as Kodanda,

Ezio Flagello Ezio Domenico Flagello (January 28, 1931 – March 19, 2009) was born in New York City to Italian Americans. He sang at the Metropolitan Opera from 1957 to 1984; a bass particularly associated with the Italian repertory. Career Flagello firs ...

as Maharajah,

Lili Chookasian Lili Chookasian (August 1, 1921April 9, 2012) was an American contralto of Armenian ethnicity, who appeared with many of the world's major symphony orchestras and opera houses. She began her career in the 1940s as a concert singer but did not d ...

as Maharanee, and

Morley Meredith Morley may refer to: Places England * Morley, Norfolk, a civil parish * Morley, Derbyshire, a civil parish * Morley, Cheshire, a village * Morley, County Durham, a village * Morley, West Yorkshire, a suburban town of Leeds and civil parish * ...

as Scattergood. Though the quality of the singing was praised by critics, New York's response to the opera was negative. Four months later, the work was first performed in the original Italian at

La Fenice Teatro La Fenice (, "The Phoenix") is an opera house in Venice, Italy. It is one of "the most famous and renowned landmarks in the history of Italian theatre" and in the history of opera as a whole. Especially in the 19th century, La Fenice beca ...

Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 ...

on 15 May 1964 with conductor Carlo Franci,

John Reardon John Henry Reardon (born July 30, 1975) is a Canadian actor and former university football player. Prior to 2015, Reardon starred as Blake Laviolette on the CBC Television series ''Arctic Air'' and had a recurring role as Greg Cameron on the Show ...

as Abdul, Helen Mané as Kitty, Maliponte as Sardula, Robleto Merolla as Kodanda, Angelo Nosotti as Scattergood, and Paolo Washington as the Marajah. Italy's reception of the La Fenice production was lukewarm and the opera was not performed again for many years. Reactions from critics internationally commented on the opera's poor libretto. At that time avant-garde music was in vogue and critics felt Menotti's conservative style of composition was overly sentimental and trite; although a few of the arias and a septet in the work were generally praised. Several critics commented that the music failed to live up to the quality of earlier Menotti operas like ''

The Saint of Bleecker Street ''The Saint of Bleecker Street'' is an opera in three acts by Gian Carlo Menotti to an original English libretto by the composer. It was first performed at the Broadway Theatre in New York City on December 27, 1954. David Poleri and Davis Cunni ...

'' (1954) and ''

The Consul ''The Consul'' is an opera in three acts with music and libretto by Gian Carlo Menotti, his first full-length opera. Performance history Its first performance was on March 1, 1950 at the Schubert Theatre in Philadelphia with Patricia Neway as the ...

'' (1950). In response to this reaction to his opera, Menotti stated: :"To say of a piece that it is harsh, dry, acid and unrelenting is to praise it. While to call it sweet and graceful is to damn it. For better or for worse, in ''The Last Savage'' I have dared to do away completely with fashionable dissonance, and in a modest way, I have endeavored to rediscover the nobility of gracefulness and the pleasure of sweetness."Barry Singer, A revised version of the opera was given by the

Hawaii Opera Theatre The Hawaii Opera Theatre (HOT) is the islands' only major opera company established in 1960. The company performs three or more operas in a season. Opera seasons start in October and end in the early summer of the following year. It performs mostly ...

in 1973 with John Reardon as Abdul (repeating the role he created in Italian at La Fenice), Joanna Bruno as Kitty, Gary Glaze as Kodanda, and David Clartworthy as Mr. Scattergood. Menotti directed. Critics seemed to like this version better. The ''Honolulu Star-Bulletin'' said it was "packed with solid, wonderful, memorable music" and that John Reardon's performance was "simply flawless." The opera was revived in 1981 at the

Spoleto Festival USA Spoleto Festival USA in Charleston, South Carolina, is one of America's major performing arts festivals. It was founded in 1977 by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Gian Carlo Menotti, who sought to establish a counterpart to the Festival dei Due ...

in honor of the composer's 70th birthday. The production was led by conductor

Christian Badea Christian Badea (né Cristian Badea) is a Romanian-American opera and symphonic conductor. A native of Bucharest, Romania, Badea's early training was as a classical violinist in Bucharest and Brussels. He later studied conducting at the Juillia ...

and starred Suzanne Hong as Kitty. Menotti also directed a production in 1984 at the this time starring baritone Louis Otey as Abdul and conducted by the late Baldo Podic. Festival dei Due Mondi in Spoleto It was presented as part of the 2011 festival season by the

Santa Fe Opera Santa Fe Opera (SFO) is an American opera company, located north of Santa Fe, New Mexico. After creating the ''Opera Association of New Mexico'' in 1956, its founding director, John Crosby (conductor), John Crosby, oversaw the building of the fir ...

under conductor George Manahan directed by Ned Canty, with

Anna Christy Anna Christy is an American soprano opera singer. She studied at Rice University's Shepherd School of Music and University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music and made her debut in 2000 at New York City Opera as Papagena. Christy sings a ...

as Kitty,

Daniel Okulitch Daniel Okulitch (born January 30, 1976) is a Canadian bass-baritone. He first came to attention on Broadway as Schaunard in Baz Luhrmann's production of ''La bohème'' in 2002/03 – a role he repeated when the production traveled to Los Angeles ...

as Abdul,

Jennifer Zetlan Jennifer Zetlan is an American operatic soprano who has sung leading roles with many opera companies in the United States, including the Metropolitan Opera, the Seattle Opera, and the Santa Fe Opera among others. She has performed in the world prem ...

as Sardula,

Sean Panikkar Sean, also spelled Seán or Séan in Irish English, is a male given name of Irish origin. It comes from the Irish versions of the Biblical Hebrew name ''Yohanan'' (), Seán (anglicized as ''Shaun/ Shawn/ Shon'') and Séan (Ulster variant; angli ...

as Kodanda,

Thomas Hammons Thomas may refer to: People * List of people with given name Thomas * Thomas (name) * Thomas (surname) * Saint Thomas (disambiguation) * Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) Italian Dominican friar, philosopher, and Doctor of the Church * Thomas the A ...

as Maharajah,

Jamie Barton Jamie Barton may refer to: * Jamie Barton (singer) (born 1981), American mezzo-soprano A mezzo-soprano or mezzo (; ; meaning "half soprano") is a type of classical female singing voice whose vocal range lies between the soprano and the contra ...

as Maharanee, and

Kevin Burdette Kevin Burdette is an American bass who has worked as a soloist with the Teatro alla Scala, Metropolitan Opera, Gran Teatre del Liceu, Santa Fe Opera, Seattle Opera, Teatro Colón, Dallas Opera, San Diego Opera, Washington National Opera, New Y ...

as Scattergood. Critical reception of the production was positive, with several critics calling for a re-examination of the piece.

Anthony Tommasini Anthony Carl Tommasini (born April 14, 1948) is an American music critic and author who specializes in classical music. Described as "a discerning critic, whose taste, knowledge and judgment have made him a must-read", Tommasini was the chief ...

"Love Beats Science in a Spoof by Menotti"
''The New York Times'', 14 August 2011 Menotti reverts from the singing-speech of ''The Consul'' (derived according to the composer from Monteverdi) to reviving the means of the classical Italian comic opera of Cimarosa and

Rossini Gioachino Antonio Rossini (29 February 1792 – 13 November 1868) was an Italian composer who gained fame for his 39 operas, although he also wrote many songs, some chamber music and piano pieces, and some sacred music. He set new standards f ...

, with recitative and aria, stanzas, and musical numbers. The score includes large ensembles where the characters stand motionless coloratura for the heroine. The ''Opera'' critic noted a "charming" solo for the 'savage' with the refrain "Je ne suis pas jaloux", which was vitiated by a duet immediately following in similar vein and rhythm. The second act's cocktail-party scene was described as "clever and calculated" and the first act "mostly jog-trot".

Roles

Synopsis

:Time: the 1960s :Place: Rajaputana, India and Chicago, USA Kitty, a young student of

anthropology Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including past human species. Social anthropology studies patterns of behavi ...

Vassar College Vassar College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Poughkeepsie, New York, United States. Founded in 1861 by Matthew Vassar, it was the second degree-granting institution of higher education for women in the United States, closely follo ...

, arrives in India in search of the earth's "last savage" – the chosen topic for her senior thesis. She is accompanied by her parents, an American millionaire and his wife, who are more interested in finding Kitty a husband than in their daughter's research. Kitty's parents attempt to entice Kitty into marrying the Marajah's son, the Crown Prince of Rajaputana, but she refuses to do so until she has found her savage. Her parents accordingly hire the peasant Abdul to pretend to be a savage for $100,000. Kitty is fooled by this ruse and accordingly captures Abdul. She plans to take Abdul back to Chicago where she intends to present him to the scientific community and put him on display in an exhibit at the New York Zoo. On the flight back to New York, Kitty becomes quite attached to Abdul and decides to keep him for herself. In Chicago she attempts to civilize him without success and Abdul ends up ruining a cocktail party that Kitty hosts with several important guests in attendance. Abdul flees the ruined party and is not found by Kitty until several months later when she discovers him in a jungle cave. Kitty declares her love for Abdul and decides to move into the cave with him. The opera ends with the couple in each other's arms while Kitty's father's servants deliver modern appliances such as a television and a refrigerator to the cave.

References

Notes Sources * Ardoin, John, ''The Stages of Menotti'', pp. 191–195, New York: Doubleday, *Holland, Bernard
"Gian Carlo Menotti, Opera Composer, Dies at 95"
''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', 2 February 2007 {{DEFAULTSORT:Last Savage English-language operas French-language operas Italian-language operas Operas by Gian Carlo Menotti Operas 1963 operas Opera world premieres at the Opéra-Comique Operas set in India Operas set in the United States