Deems Taylor portrait by Carl Van Vechten

''The King's Henchman'' 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 libr ...

in three acts composed by

Deems Taylor Joseph Deems Taylor (December 22, 1885 – July 3, 1966) was an American music critic, composer, and promoter of classical music. Nat Benchley, co-editor of ''The Lost Algonquin Roundtable'', referred to him as "the dean of American music." Earl ...

to an English language libretto by

Edna St. Vincent Millay Edna St. Vincent Millay (February 22, 1892 – October 19, 1950) was an American lyrical poet and playwright. Millay was a renowned social figure and noted feminist in New York City during the Roaring Twenties and beyond. She wrote much of he ...

. The libretto is based on both legend and historical figures documented in the '' Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'' including

Edgar the Peaceful Edgar ( ang, Ēadgār ; 8 July 975), known as the Peaceful or the Peaceable, was King of the English from 959 until his death in 975. The younger son of King Edmund I and Ælfgifu of Shaftesbury, he came to the throne as a teenager followin ...

, Elfrida of Devon, and Dunstan. It tells the story of a love triangle between King Eadgar, his

henchman A henchman (''vernacular:'' "hencher"), is a loyal Employment, employee, supporter, or aide to some powerful figure engaged in nefarious or criminal enterprises. Henchmen are typically relatively unimportant in the organization: minions whose val ...

Aethelwold, and Aelfrida, daughter of the

Thane Thane (; also known as Thana, the official name until 1996) is a metropolitan city in Maharashtra, India. It is situated in the north-eastern portion of the Salsette Island. Thane city is entirely within Thane taluka, one of the seven taluk ...

Devon Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devo ...

. It premiered on 17 February 1927 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 oper ...

in New York City in a performance conducted by

Tullio Serafin Tullio Serafin (1 September 18782 February 1968) was an Italian conductor and former Musical Director at La Scala. Biography Tullio Serafin was a leading Italian opera conductor with a long career and a very broad repertoire who revived many 19t ...

Background and premiere

Shortly after becoming General Manager of the

in 1908,

Giulio Gatti-Casazza Giulio Gatti-Casazza (3 February 1869 – 2 September 1940) was an Italian opera manager. He was general manager of La Scala in Milan, Italy, from 1898 to 1908 and later the Metropolitan Opera in New York City from 1908 to 1935. Biography ...

had set a goal of producing at least one new English-language opera by an American composer each season. These were often selected via a competition from works that had already been completed or partially composed. However, the competition for the 1927 season had thrown up no winner, and

Otto Kahn Otto Hermann Kahn (February 21, 1867 – March 29, 1934) was a German-born American investment banker, collector, philanthropist, and patron of the arts. Kahn was a well-known figure, appearing on the cover of ''Time'' magazine and was sometime ...

, chairman of the board of directors of the Metropolitan Opera, approached Taylor directly with the offer of a commission. Taylor accepted immediately and set about finding a librettist. The Kings Henchman Shimer College 1948

At the suggestion of his wife, Taylor approached the American poet

, who had won the Pulitzer Prize for poetry two years earlier. Millay accepted on the condition that her name not be mentioned as the librettist until she had completed the work. Taylor left the choice of story to her, and she initially started working on a setting of the fairy tale

Snow White "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" is a 19th-century German fairy tale that is today known widely across the Western world. The Brothers Grimm published it in 1812 in the first edition of their collection '' Grimms' Fairy Tales'' and numbered as T ...

with the provisional title ''The Casket of Glass''. However, ill health and an incipient nervous breakdown led her to abandon the unfinished libretto and start afresh. She decided to base the story on figures in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, a subject that had fascinated her when she was in college, and began working on it in November 1925, first in Maine, and then in New Mexico at the home of Arthur Ficke. At the premiere,

Lawrence Tibbett Lawrence Mervil Tibbett (November 16, 1896 – July 15, 1960) was an American opera singer and recording artist who also performed as a film actor and radio personality. A baritone, he sang leading roles with the Metropolitan Opera in New York ...

, in his first major role at the Met, sang the role of King Eadgar, Edward Johnson sang Aethelwold, the King's henchman, and

Florence Easton Florence Easton (25 October 1882 – 13 August 1955) was a popular English dramatic soprano in the early 20th century. She was one of the most versatile singers of all time. She sang more than 100 parts, covering a wide range of styles and ...

sang Aelfrida, the woman who comes between them. The large-scale production (twenty-two individual roles plus a chorus) was directed by Wilhelm von Wymetal with sets designed by

Joseph Urban Joseph Urban (May 26, 1872 – July 10, 1933) was an Austrian-American architect, illustrator, and scenic designer. Life and career Joseph Urban was born on May 26, 1872, in Vienna. He received his first architectural commission at age 19 wh ...

. The premiere was a great success both with the critics and the audience. There were over fifteen minutes of ovations at the end, and the composer and librettist were called back for five curtain calls. The opera's reception prompted the Met to commission another work from Taylor, ''

Peter Ibbetson ''Peter Ibbetson'' is a 1935 American black-and-white drama/ fantasy film directed by Henry Hathaway and starring Gary Cooper and Ann Harding. The film is loosely based on the 1891 novel of the same name by George du Maurier. A tale of a love th ...

'', which premiered there in 1931. Millay's libretto was published separately as a book and sold out four editions in its first twenty days. A 1927 painting depicting a scene from Act 2 by the American artist N. C. Wyeth was commissioned by Steinway & Sons and is now in the Kelly Collection of American Illustration.

Performance history

''The King's Henchman'' was received enthusiastically by critics and the public; notably earning a spot on the front page of ''

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 d ...

'' with the headline "'KING'S HENCHMAN' HAILED AS BEST AMERICAN OPERA". Following its premiere, the opera was staged sixteen more times at the Met over three seasons, with its last performance on 28 March 1929. Between 1927 and 1928, it was also toured to forty-six American cities with a total of ninety performances given by a company organized by Taylor. The touring cast starred soprano Marie Sundelius, tenor Rafaelo Díaz, and baritone

Richard Hale Richard Hale (born James Richards Hale; November 16, 1892 – May 18, 1981) was an American opera and concert singer and later a character actor of film, stage and television. Hale's appearance usually landed him roles as either Middle Ea ...

. On 18 September 1927 it became the first live opera to be broadcast on CBS Radio when it was performed in a condensed version narrated by the composer. There were sporadic performances in the late 1930s.

Cincinnati Opera Cincinnati Opera is an American opera company based in Cincinnati, Ohio and the second oldest opera company in the United States (after the New York Metropolitan Opera). Beginning with its first season in 1920, Cincinnati Opera has produced operas ...

staged the work in 1936, and in 1937 it was toured with the

Federal Music Project The Federal Music Project (FMP) was a part of the New Deal program Federal Project Number One provided by the U.S. federal government which employed musicians, conductors and composers during the Great Depression. In addition to performing thousan ...

, but despite its great success at the time, ''The King's Henchman'' soon fell out of the repertory and is now all but forgotten. Florence Easton 001

Principal roles

Synopsis

:Place: England :Time: the 10th century Edgar

Act 1

Eadgar, the widowed King of England, is seeking a new wife and contemplating choosing Aelfrida, the daughter the

. He has heard that she is very beautiful and despatches his

, Aethelwold and Aethelwold's servant Maccus to Devon to discover whether she is indeed as beautiful as he had heard. If she is, Aethelwold is to arrange the marriage.

Act 2

Aelfrida finds Aethelwold sleeping in the woods and awakens him with a kiss. She had just uttered an incantation to make the next man who sees her fall in love with her. Aethelwold does indeed fall in love with her. He sends a message to the King that she is actually very ugly, marries her himself, and settles down in Devon.

Act 3

A few months later, the couple become restless and decide to leave for

Flanders Flanders (, ; Dutch: ''Vlaanderen'' ) is the Flemish-speaking northern portion of Belgium and one of the communities, regions and language areas of Belgium. However, there are several overlapping definitions, including ones related to cultu ...

to start a new life. Just as they are about to leave, Maccus announces that King Eadgar is arriving to visit them. Aethelwold confesses his betrayal of the King to Aelfrida. She in turn is furious that she has missed the opportunity to be Queen of England. Nevertheless, she agrees to make herself as ugly as possible so that the King will not discover his henchman's treachery. However, when she appears before Eadgar, she has made herself look as beautiful as possible instead. The King confronts Aethelwold, who overcome with remorse, kills himself with his sword. The King orders that Aethelwold be buried with honour and reflects on all that has happened.

Recordings

There have been no complete commercial recordings of the opera. *Two excerpts sung by

, "O Caesar, Great Wert Thou!" from Act 1 and "Nay, Maccus, Lay Him Down" from Act 3, were released on Victor Records in 1928 and later re-issued on LP by

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.Preiser Records Preiser Records is an independent Austrian record label. It was founded in 1952 by Otto G. Preiser (1920–1996). The label is particularly important for recordings from the Viennese cabaret scene, especially from the 1950s and 1960s (Helmut Qua ...

2003 CD ''Lebendige Vergangenheit: Lawrence Tibbett''. *1998: the International Record Collectors' Club issued the CD ''Souvenirs From American Operas'' which contains three remastered excerpts from the opera taken from live broadcasts: Tibbett's "O Caesar, Great Wert Thou!", Jan Peerce and

Vivian Della Chiesa Vivian Della Chiesa (October 9, 1915 – January 6, 2009) was an American lyric soprano who achieved a high level of popularity in the United States singing on the radio during the 1940s and the early 1950s. Della Chiesa performed a wide variety ...

singing the Act 3 duet "God Willing, We Leave This House Tonight", and Tibbett again in an extended Act 3 finale "Eadgar, Eadgar".Pegolotti (2003) pp. 352-353; Camner (October 1998)

References

;Notes ;Sources *Camner, James (October 1998)
"Recording Review: ''Souvenirs from American Operas'' (IRRC 818)"
'' Opera News'', Vol. 63, No. 4. *Downes, Olin (February 18, 1927)
"King's Henchman Hailed as Best American Opera"
''

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 ...

'', p. 1 . (The article is also reprinted in th
Metropolitan Opera Archives
) *Kirk, Elise Kuhl (2001)
''American Opera''
University of Illinois Press. *

Archives
''The King's Henchman''
MetOpera Database * Millay, Edna St. Vincent (1927/2005)
''The King's Henchman a Play in Three Acts''
Kessinger Publishing, 2005. (originally published in 1927 by

Harper & Brothers Harper is an American publishing house, the flagship imprint of global publisher HarperCollins based in New York City. History J. & J. Harper (1817–1833) James Harper and his brother John, printers by training, started their book publishin ...

) *''

'' (October 20, 1950
"Edna St. V. Millay Found Dead At 58"
*Pegolotti, James A. (2003)
''Deems Taylor: A Biography''

UPNE The University Press of New England (UPNE), located in Lebanon, New Hampshire and founded in 1970, was a university press consortium including Brandeis University, Dartmouth College (its host member), Tufts University, the University of New Hampsh ...

(2003). * Phillips-Matz, Mary Jane (1984)
''The Many Lives of Otto Kahn''
Pendragon Press. *''

Youngstown Vindicator ''The Vindicator'' is a daily newspaper serving Youngstown, Ohio, United States and the Mahoning County region as well as southern Trumbull County and northern Columbiana County. ''The Vindicator'' was established in 1869. As of September 1, 2 ...

'' (February 18, 1927)
"Hail 'The King's Henchman' as Greatest American Opera"
;Further reading *Brody, Elaine (December 1977)
"The King's Henchman: Fifty Years Later"
''Notes Second Series'', Vol. 34, No. 2, pp. 319–322 *Jackson, Timothy F. (editor) ''Selected Poems of Edna St. Vincent Millay: An Annotated Edition''. Introduction by Holly Peppe. (Yale University Press, 2016). Contains " hite-thorn and black-thorn" " hat art thou?" "The Like of Thee," and " moon, draw not aside"

External links

Scene from the 1937 Los Angeles performance of ''The King's Henchman''
on the

tour.
Photograph of Lawrence Tibbett as Eadgar
from the Metropolitan Opera Archives.
Steinway & Sons 1928 advertisement
incorporating N. C. Wyeth's painting of Act 2. {{DEFAULTSORT:King's Henchman, The Operas 1927 operas English-language operas Opera world premieres at the Metropolitan Opera Operas by Deems Taylor Operas set in England