Disappointment Revisited: Unweaving the Tangled Web. Part I

Abstract

Twice in this century a particular piece of musical-dramatic literature emerged as a vehicle for publicly funded programs concerned with quest for an American cultural tradition. The Disappointment; or, Force of Credulity,' recognized by Oscar Sonneck as the American opera,'2 had its performance under auspices of Federal Theatre Project of Works Progress Administration in 1937. Two additional productions occurred during Bicentennial celebrations of 1976. All three productions were billed as world premieres. In each case production directors may have had cause to regret their selection. Even as casting proceeded and teams of musicians and theater practitioners assembled to meet scheduled performances (and grant deadlines), research staffs discovered unsuspected complexities of two-hundred-year-old comic opera. The resulting publicity releases, program notes, performing scores, and even new editions of libretto reflect a bewildering, albeit imaginative, array of contradictory explication, based varying proportions of research, rationalization, and expediency. To inconclusive state of research The Disappointment at turn of century, when Sonneck turned his attention to it, subsequent revivals added a new layer of documentation that complicates rather than clarifies many unresolved problems associated with obscure theater piece. It seems inevitable that The Disappointment will continue to play its role as an American musical first in future large-scale celebrations of our national heritage, not necessarily because of its intrinsic merit but on account of its unique position in history of American music.3 Now that Bicentennial dust has settled, and before next storm of national introspection calls for a revival of American opera, it is appropriate to reconsider unusual career of The Disappointment in light of existing literature subject, to discuss recurring problems of interpretation, and to