''The Mother of Us All'' is a two-act opera composed by

Virgil Thomson Virgil Thomson (November 25, 1896 – September 30, 1989) was an American composer and critic. He was instrumental in the development of the "American Sound" in classical music. He has been described as a modernist, a neoromantic, a neoclass ...

to a

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. The term ''libretto'' is also sometimes used to refer to the text of major li ...

Gertrude Stein Gertrude Stein (February 3, 1874 – July 27, 1946) was an American novelist, poet, playwright, and art collector. Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in the Allegheny West neighborhood and raised in Oakland, California, Stein moved to Paris ...

. Thomson and Stein met in 1945 to begin the writing process, almost twenty years after their first collaborative project, the opera ''

Four Saints in Three Acts ''Four Saints in Three Acts'' is an opera composed in 1928 by Virgil Thomson, setting a libretto written in 1927 by Gertrude Stein. It contains about 20 saints and is in at least four acts. It was groundbreaking in form, content, and for its all-b ...

''. Stein wrote the libretto in the winter of 1945–46 before sending it to Thomson in March. After Stein's death in July, Thomson began working on the score, which he finished within just a few months. The opera centers around

Susan B. Anthony Susan B. Anthony (born Susan Anthony; February 15, 1820 – March 13, 1906) was an American social reformer and women's rights activist who played a pivotal role in the women's suffrage movement. Born into a Quaker family committed to s ...

, one of the major figures in the fight for

women's suffrage in the United States In the 1700's to early 1800's New Jersey did allow Women the right to vote before the passing of the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, 19th Amendment, but in 1807 the state restricted the right to vote to "...tax-paying, ...

, with a supporting cast of characters both fictional and based on other historical figures. Thomson famously described the work as a "pageant".

Composition

According to experts, Gertrude Stein's exploration of rhythm and repetition within her writing lent itself to a musical setting. Both her libretto and Thomson's orchestration were highly idiomatic, matching patriotic dialogue with "hymns, marches, patriotic airs, and parlor songs" in order to emulate the atmosphere of America's 19th century political scene. Scholars claim that these folk influences are what mark Thomson's score as acutely American. Contrary to ''Four Saints in Three Acts'', the focus of ''The Mother of Us All'' was on distinctly characterizing each political player—Thomson gave each a particular musical identity through his melody and orchestration. "Some characters are associated with specific instruments, most noticeably Susan B., who is associated with trumpets and strings, but also Angel Moore with the harp, and Daniel Webster with horns." Susan's trumpet melodies are "possibly meant to convey her militant dedication to her cause," and the character of Angel Moore, being a literal angel, is accompanied with the instrument most often associate with heaven. Though he still worked within a traditional tonal framework, Thomson was highly influenced by

serialism In music, serialism is a method of composition using series of pitches, rhythms, dynamics, timbres or other musical elements. Serialism began primarily with Arnold Schoenberg's twelve-tone technique, though some of his contemporaries were al ...

and other contemporary musical ideas. The opera's duration is around 103 minutes.

Instrumentation

The work is scored for one

flute The flute is a family of classical music instrument in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, meaning they make sound by vibrating a column of air. However, unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is a reedles ...

, one

oboe The oboe ( ) is a type of double reed woodwind instrument. Oboes are usually made of wood, but may also be made of synthetic materials, such as plastic, resin, or hybrid composites. The most common oboe plays in the treble or soprano range. ...

, two

clarinet The clarinet is a musical instrument in the woodwind family. The instrument has a nearly cylindrical bore and a flared bell, and uses a single reed to produce sound. Clarinets comprise a family of instruments of differing sizes and pitch ...

s, one

bassoon The bassoon is a woodwind instrument in the double reed family, which plays in the tenor and bass ranges. It is composed of six pieces, and is usually made of wood. It is known for its distinctive tone color, wide range, versatility, and virtuos ...

, two

French horn The French horn (since the 1930s known simply as the horn in professional music circles) is a brass instrument made of tubing wrapped into a coil with a flared bell. The double horn in F/B (technically a variety of German horn) is the horn most ...

s, two

trumpet The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitched one octave below the standard ...

s, one

trombone The trombone (german: Posaune, Italian, French: ''trombone'') is a musical instrument in the brass family. As with all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player's vibrating lips cause the air column inside the instrument to vibrate ...

, two percussionists,

harp The harp is a stringed musical instrument that has a number of individual strings running at an angle to its soundboard; the strings are plucked with the fingers. Harps can be made and played in various ways, standing or sitting, and in orc ...

celesta The celesta or celeste , also called a bell-piano, is a struck idiophone operated by a keyboard. It looks similar to an upright piano (four- or five- octave), albeit with smaller keys and a much smaller cabinet, or a large wooden music box ...

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...

, and strings. The cast consists of two sopranos, one alto, two tenors, one baritone, and one bass, with twenty five singers and six additional silent actors. When the piece was originally commissioned in 1945, Thomson was asked to orchestrate the piece for less than twenty players, since

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

made it difficult to recruit musicians. His chamber ensemble and solo piano reductions of the opera's orchestration are frequently performed.

Performance history

The opera premiered on 7 May

1947 It was the first year of the Cold War, which would last until 1991, ending with the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Events January * January–February – Winter of 1946–47 in the United Kingdom: The worst snowfall in the country i ...

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

's Brander Matthews Hall with soprano

Dorothy Dow Dorothy Dow (8 October 1920 – 26 February 2005) was an American classical dramatic soprano who had an active international career in concerts, operas, and recitals during the 1940s through the 1960s. After retiring from the stage in 1968, she e ...

as Susan B. Anthony. Soprano Shirlee Emmons was awarded an

Obie Award The Obie Awards or Off-Broadway Theater Awards are annual awards originally given by ''The Village Voice'' newspaper to theatre artists and groups in New York City. In September 2014, the awards were jointly presented and administered with the ...

for her portrayal of Susan B. Anthony in the 1956

Off-Broadway An off-Broadway theatre is any professional theatre venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, inclusive. These theatres are smaller than Broadway theatres, but larger than off-off-Broadway theatres, which seat fewer th ...

production. The opera was mounted at

Carnegie Hall Carnegie Hall ( ) is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City. It is at 881 Seventh Avenue, occupying the east side of Seventh Avenue between West 56th and 57th Streets. Designed by architect William Burnet Tuthill and built ...

by the

American Opera Society The American Opera Society (AOS) was a New York City-based musical organization that presented concert and semi-staged performances of operas between 1951 and 1970. The company was highly influential in sparking and perpetuating the post World War I ...

in 1964 with

Johanna Meier Johanna Meier (born February 13, 1938) is an American operatic soprano. She has been described as "one of the foremost Wagnerian sopranos of her era".

as Susan B. Anthony,

Betty Allen Betty Allen (March 17, 1927 – June 22, 2009) was an American operatic mezzo-soprano who had an active international singing career during the 1950s through the 1970s. In the latter part of her career her voice acquired a contralto-like darkenin ...

as Anne, Thomas Paul as Daniel Webster, and

Enrico Di Giuseppe Enrico Di Giuseppe (October 14, 1932 – December 31, 2005) was a celebrated American operatic tenor who had an active performance career from the late 1950s through the 1990s. He spent most of his career performing in New York City, juggling ...

as John Quincy Adams. 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, oversaw the building of the first opera house on a newl ...

mounted the work in 1976 and released a recording of the work the following year on the

New York City Opera The New York City Opera (NYCO) is an American opera company located in Manhattan in New York City. The company has been active from 1943 through 2013 (when it filed for bankruptcy), and again since 2016 when it was revived. The opera company, du ...

staged a production in 2000 with

Lauren Flanigan Lauren Flanigan (born May 18, 1958) is an American operatic soprano who has had an active international career since the 1980s. She enjoyed a particularly fruitful partnership with the New York City Opera, appearing with the company almost every ...

as Susan B. Anthony. In 2003,

San Francisco Opera San Francisco Opera (SFO) is an American opera company founded in 1923 by Gaetano Merola (1881–1953) based in San Francisco, California. History Gaetano Merola (1923–1953) Merola's road to prominence in the Bay Area began in 1906 when h ...

opened its 80th anniversary season with a new production of ''The Mother of Us All'', Luana DeVol assuming the role of Susan B. Anthony for the first time.

Roles

Synopsis

Stein's text for ''The Mother of Us All'' does not describe details of staging. Therefore, Thomson's partner

Maurice Grosser Maurice Grosser (October 23, 1903 – December 22, 1986) was an American painter, art critic, and writer. He was the longtime companion of Virgil Thomson. Biography Maurice Grosser was born on October 23, 1903, in Huntsville, Alabama. Grosser ...

devised a scenario to facilitate staging the opera. Though Grosser stated that other scenarios were equally possible, his scenario is published in the printed score; this synopsis is based on it.

Act 1

''Scene 1''. Susan B. Anthony and her devoted companion Anne are shown at home. Anne is knitting; Susan B. is pasting clippings into a scrapbook. Gertrude S. and Virgil T. also appear as narrators. ''Scene 2''. A political meeting takes place, at which Webster, Johnson, Adams, Grant, Comstock, and Stevens are all present. Jo the Loiterer and Chris the Citizen also appear, mocking the politicians' solemnity. Susan B. introduces herself to the assembly, and she and Daniel Webster debate. ''Scene 3''. A public square in front of Susan B. Anthony's house. Thaddeus Stevens argues with Andrew Johnson; there is a flowery love scene between John Adams and Constance Fletcher. Jenny Reefer begins waltzing with Herman Atlan, and everyone joins in the dance. ''Scene 4''. Susan B. Anthony meditates on the difficulties of her mission. ''Scene 5''. Jo the Loiterer and Indiana Elliot are to be married. As the wedding party gathers, various episodes unfold. John Adams courts Constance Fletcher, Daniel Webster (who is to perform the ceremony) addresses Angel More in sentimental language. Indiana's brother bursts in, wishing to prevent the marriage, and Susan B. explains what marriage means to women. General Grant calls for order, and Jo teases him for his pomposity. It seems that the wedding is all but forgotten, but finally Daniel Webster blesses the couple and Susan B. foretells that all of their children, men and women, will have the vote.

Act 2

''Scene 1''. Susan B.'s home. Susan B. is doing housework when she learns that she will be asked to address a political meeting. Jo the Loiterer complains that Indiana Elliot refuses to take his last name. When Susan B. is invited to speak, she declines, then agrees, hesitates again, but finally goes off to the meeting. ''Scene 2''. The meeting has taken place and Susan B. returns home triumphantly. She has spoken so convincingly that the politicians, now afraid of the women's suffrage movement, have written the word "male" into the Constitution in order to make it impossible for women to vote. Indiana Elliot has decided to take Jo's last name, and he will take hers; they will become Jo Elliot and Indiana Loiterer. Everyone congratulates Susan B. for her leadership. ''Scene 3 (Epilogue)''. Some years later, a statue of Susan B. Anthony is to be unveiled at the U. S. Capitol. The characters gather for the ceremony, with Anne as guest of honor. Susan B. enters as a ghost, though Anne does not see her. Constance Fletcher appears, now almost blind. Other characters talk about women's suffrage, or burst in tipsily. The ceremony threatens to get out of hand. Suddenly, Virgil T. unveils the statue. The women lay wreaths at the base of the pedestal. All slowly depart. Alone, Susan B. Anthony (as the statue) sings of the struggles and lessons of her long life.

Recordings

: ''The Mother of Us All'' –

Mignon Dunn Mignon Dunn (born June 17, 1928, in Memphis, Tennessee) is an American dramatic mezzo-soprano and voice teacher. Life and career Born in Memphis, Dunn grew up in Tyronza, Arkansas and Memphis, Tennessee. She studied voice with Karin Branzell an ...

, Philip Booth, Karen Beck, Sondra Stowe, Jimmie Lu Null, William Lewis, Steven Loewengart, Thomas Parker, Marla McDaniels, D'Artagnan Petty, Stephen Bryant, Ashley Putnam, et al.; Conductor:

Raymond Leppard Raymond John Leppard (11 August 1927 – 22 October 2019) was a British-American conductor, harpsichordist, composer and editor. In the 1960s, he played a prime role in the rebirth of interest in Baroque music; in particular, he was one of the ...

;

Orchestra and Chorus. Recorded in Santa Fe, New Mexico, 1976—recorded digitally (America's first

digital recording In digital recording, an audio or video signal is converted into a stream of discrete numbers representing the changes over time in air pressure for audio, or chroma and luminance values for video. This number stream is saved to a storage ...

session) but released from the superior analog master made at the same time. Label:

New World Records New World Records is a record label that was established in 1975 through a Rockefeller Foundation grant to celebrate America's bicentennial (1976) by producing a 100-LP anthology, with American music from many genres.Virgil Thomson Virgil Thomson (November 25, 1896 – September 30, 1989) was an American composer and critic. He was instrumental in the development of the "American Sound" in classical music. He has been described as a modernist, a neoromantic, a neoclass ...

: ''The Mother of Us All'' – Noragh Devlin (as Susan B. Anthony), Scott Russell (Daniel Webster), Alexander Frankel (Jo the Loiterer), Addison Hamilton (Constance Fletcher), Carlton Moe (John Adams), et al.; Conductor: Steven Osgood; Manhattan Opera Orchestra. Recorded in New York City, 2013; released 2014. Label: Albany Records. *

: ''The Mother of Us All'' – Dorothy Dow (as Susan B. Anthony), Belva Kibler (Anne), Hazel Gravell (Gertrude S.), Robert Grooters (Virgil T.), Bertrand Rowe (Daniel Webster),

William Horne (tenor) William Horne (10 August 1913 – 19 April 1983) was an American operatic tenor who, after World War II, performed with the New York City Opera. He was born in Manhattan, New York. Career Around 1928, Horne was a member of the children's choru ...

(Jo the Loiterer), et al.; Conductor: Virgil Thomson; Columbia University Chorus and Orchestra. Recorded in New York City, May 7, 1947 – world premiere performance; released 2017. Label: Cantus Classics.

References

Sources

''Virgil Thomson: Composer on the Aisle''. Anthony Tommasini. W. W. Norton. {{DEFAULTSORT:Mother of Us All Libretti by Gertrude Stein Operas by Virgil Thomson 1947 operas Operas set in the United States Operas about politicians Operas set in the 19th century English-language operas Operas Cultural depictions of Susan B. Anthony Cultural depictions of Andrew Johnson Cultural depictions of Ulysses S. Grant Cultural depictions of John Adams