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The Emperor Jones (opera)
''The Emperor Jones'' is an opera in two acts with a prologue and interlude composed by Louis Gruenberg to an English language libretto adapted by the composer from Eugene O'Neill's 1920 play, ''The Emperor Jones''. It premiered on January 7, 1933 at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City with Lawrence Tibbett in the title role. Set on an unnamed island in the West Indies, the opera tells the story of African American Brutus Jones, a former Pullman porter and ex-convict who escaped to the island, set himself up as its tyrannical "Emperor", and became rich by exploiting the natives. The natives start a revolt against him, and as he tries to escape through the jungle, he is haunted by visions of his past life and the man he had murdered. As the natives close in, he commits suicide using the silver bullet which he had worn around his neck as a good-luck charm. With a score that incorporates elements of jazz and negro spirituals, ''The Emperor Jones'' was the eleventh American opera to premiere at the Met, and has continued to be performed into the 21st century, albeit rarely.
==Background==
Shortly after becoming General Manager of the Metropolitan Opera in 1908, Giulio Gatti-Casazza had set a goal of producing new English language operas by American composers. During his time at the Met, the company staged the world premieres of thirteen American operas. However, while the composers of these operas were American, only three of them actually had American subjects—Charles Cadman's ''Shanewis'' (1918), Howard Hanson's ''Merry Mount'' (1934), and Louis Gruenberg's ''The Emperor Jones''.
''The Emperor Jones'' by American playwright Eugene O'Neill had premiered in 1920 and was immensely popular. After reading the play, Gruenberg approached O'Neill with the idea of making it into an opera and discussed the possibilities with him over a two-year period. In 1930 O'Neill gave Gruenberg the rights to adapt the play making any changes he saw fit but refused to have anything to do with creating the libretto, despite the urging of the composer. In the end it was compiled by Kathleen De Jaffa in collaboration with Gruenberg. The actual lines were taken almost verbatim from the play. The only two significant changes were the addition of a chanting chorus for the orchestral prelude and interlude, similar to a Greek chorus, and the death of Emperor Jones. In the play, he is killed by the natives while in the opera he shoots himself with a silver bullet as they are closing in on him. The libretto was finished by 1931, and Gruenberg rented a cottage in Old Orchard, Maine, where he composed the opera over a period of fourteen months.〔Shapiro (1994); Gauss (1994); ''Time Magazine'' (May 23, 1932)〕
When the vocal score was complete, Gruenberg showed it to the Austrian conductor Erich Kleiber, who at the time was Music Director of the Berlin State Opera and known for championing new works. Kleiber was impressed and offered to give its world premiere in Berlin. Gruenberg planned to spend the next few months in Germany completing the orchestration. In the end, the premiere was postponed. The rise of Nazism meant that an opera composed by a Jew with a black man as the central character was bound to cause trouble in Germany.〔Sturm (1981)〕 (Two years later, Kleiber resigned from his post at the Berlin Opera in protest at the Nazi policy of banning Entartete Musik, "degenerate music", a label applied to virtually all works by Jewish composers). In the meantime, Olin Downes, the critic for the ''New York Times'', had also seen the score and recommended it to Gatti-Casazza, who accepted it for production during the Met's 1932/1933 season.〔
抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』
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