Music and History by Jeffrey H. Jackson

Author:Jeffrey H. Jackson
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: University Press of Mississippi
Published: 2005-03-13T21:00:00+00:00

The soldiers by the peasant with the hamper have helped themselves to his case of wine. One of them now lugs it off, while the other turns to the peasant and tears up his license paper, before his scared face. The peasant retreats forlornly among the commiserating bystanders. The soldier rejoins his companions, gaily.46

In this scene, two soldiers harass a hapless peddler and confiscate his goods, leaving him broke, empty handed, and dejected. Even if Noel’s intervention has caused a happy result for Sandro and his family, the audience is reminded that such good fortune is all too rare, and that there are far too few Noels available to stand between the people and corrupt authority. Here is a first suggestion of the conditions that drive Sandro and his family to accept the opportunity to flee to America.

As more is revealed about the family, particularly about Giovanni’s imprisonment for debt, the true oppressiveness of life in this village becomes apparent. Even after Giovanni is released from prison, the futility of their existence hangs over him; he realizes he still faces “once more the taxes. And once more no hope to pay.”47 It is little surprise that America, as portrayed by Scammon, becomes an attractive alternative to life in the village.

One common element in the three acts of the opera is the appearance of the Statue of Liberty, a national emblem that was less than forty years old at the time. In Act I the Statue is depicted in Scammon’s slightly ludicrous show for the Italian townspeople, his sales pitch to entice them to emigrate. Scammon’s hat is decorated with little trinkets, replicas of the Statue of Liberty, and the donkey-drawn float that ends his little parade bears a larger replica of the Statue. Late in Act I Scammon tosses his little statues to the crowd. His description of the image as he does so is instructive; he calls the image “Santa Liberta! … the little Saint who comes from America!”48 The next example contains his description of this “saint” and her offerings to those who seek her. The villagers, enraptured by Scammon’s motion pictures and festive trappings, echo its final line in chorus:

Luck and opportunity, liberty, immunity

All may have who pray to her,

Simply shout: Hurray to her! Ha! Ha! Ha! Santa Liberta!49

Giovanni, newly freed from prison, has a different reaction. The image of the Statue eerily coincides with “the great Madonna” of Giovanni’s dreams, a vision he saw constantly associated with “liberty” and “opportunity,” the hopes with which he sustained himself in prison. Seeing Scammon’s mock statue so soon after his release, Giovanni comes to equate the image with that of the Virgin Mary of his visions, the “pitiful Madonna of the poor!” His vision of a mighty hand holding aloft a torch in the mist is fulfilled at the emotional pinnacle of Act II.

Beyond those walls I walked and walked:

Always I said two words; over and over—

Awake! Asleep! Two words! Liberty, Opportunity!

…

But in the lonely silence and the dark, I dreamed of her,

I dreamed—and from the dark She came.

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