The Triumph of St. Joan was originally an opera

Opera

Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...

 in three acts by Norman Dello Joio

Norman Dello Joio

- Life :He was born Nicodemo DeGioio in New York City to Italian immigrants. He began his musical career as organist and choir director at the Star of the Sea Church on City Island in New York at age 14. His father was an organist, pianist, and vocal coach and coached many opera stars from the...

 to an English language libretto

Libretto

A libretto is the text used in 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 liturgical works, such as mass, requiem, and sacred cantata, or even the story line of a...

 on the subject of the martyr

Martyr

A martyr is somebody who suffers persecution and death for refusing to renounce, or accept, a belief or cause, usually religious.-Meaning:...

dom of Joan of Arc

Joan of Arc

Saint Joan of Arc, nicknamed "The Maid of Orléans" , is a national heroine of France and a Roman Catholic saint. A peasant girl born in eastern France who claimed divine guidance, she led the French army to several important victories during the Hundred Years' War, which paved the way for the...

 by Dello Joio and Joseph Machilis. It was premiered at Sarah Lawrence College

Sarah Lawrence College

Sarah Lawrence College is a private liberal arts college in the United States, and a leader in progressive education since its founding in 1926. Located just 30 minutes north of Midtown Manhattan in southern Westchester County, New York, in the city of Yonkers, this coeducational college offers...

 on May 9, 1950. Although the opera was received positively, the composer was unhappy with the work and declined to have it performed again. However, he did adapt part of the opera into a symphony

Symphony

A symphony is an extended musical composition in Western classical music, scored almost always for orchestra. A symphony usually contains at least one movement or episode composed according to the sonata principle...

 of the same title in 1951. The symphony was later renamed Seraphic Ode.

Dello Joio returned to the subject of Joan of Arc in 1955 when he was commissioned by the NBC Television Opera Theatre to produce an original 75-minute opera for television. The resulting work in two acts was retitled The Trial at Rouen, and, in using new music and a new libretto by Dello Joio, was in effect a completely different musical drama from its predecessor. It premiered on April 8, 1956 on NBC

NBC

The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...

. Dello Joio adapted the work a third time, extending the music at the beginning and end of the 1956 version (including some music from the 1950 opera) to create a one-act opera for the stage. This third version, once again called The Triumph of St. Joan, was premiered by the New York City Opera

New York City Opera

The New York City Opera is an American opera company located in New York City.The company, called "the people's opera" by New York Mayor Fiorello La Guardia, was founded in 1943 with the aim of making opera financially accessible to a wide audience, producing an innovative choice of repertory, and...

 on April 16, 1959.

1950 opera and 1951 symphony

Dello Joio was on the faculty of Sarah Lawrence College (SLC) and the college was looking to produce a theatrical work that could be a collaborative project across different departments. The composer had been contemplating writing an opera for a number of years already but had not found a subject matter that inspired him until attending the 1948 film Joan of Arc

Joan of Arc (1948 film)

Joan of Arc is a 1948 Technicolor film directed by Victor Fleming; starring Ingrid Bergman as the French religious icon and war heroine. It was produced by Walter Wanger. It is based on Maxwell Anderson's successful Broadway play Joan of Lorraine, which also starred Bergman, and was adapted for the...

with his friend Joseph Machilis, a writer, musician, and Queens College, City University of New York

Queens College, City University of New York

Queens College, located in Flushing, Queens, New York City, is one of the senior colleges of the City University of New York. It is also the fifth oldest of the City University's twenty-three institutions of higher learning. The college's seventy seven acre campus is located in the heart of the...

, faculty member. The two men both agreed that an opera focusing on the "inner motivations and spiritual life of Joan" could be derived effectively and movingly and that it would make a good project for SLC. Over the next 11 months the two men laboured together to create the opera's libretto and Dello Joio composed the music in this time as well.

The original 1950 opera encompassed three soloists, an opera chorus, and dancers. The SLC's music and dance departments made up the cast and the production was accompanied by two pianos. The school's theatre majors specializing in the technical aspects of the stage designed and built the sets, lights, and costumes. Conductor Hugh Ross

Hugh Ross (musician)

Hugh C. M. Ross , was a choral director and conductor of the Schola Cantorum of New York....

 directed the chorus and all told a total of 85 SLC students were involved in putting the opera together. A grant from the Whitney Foundation provided much of the financial backing needed to mount the opera.

The opera premiered at Bates Hall on the campus of SLC on May 9, 1950. Gisela Weber created the title role with Jerome Swinford as Pierre Cauchon

Pierre Cauchon

Pierre Cauchon , bishop of Beauvais. A strong partisan of English interests in France during the latter years of the Hundred Years' War, his role in arranging Joan of Arc's downfall led most subsequent observers to condemn his extension of secular politics into an ecclesiastical trial...

 and John Druary as the Dauphin of France/Charles VII of France

Charles VII of France

Charles VII , called the Victorious or the Well-Served , was King of France from 1422 to his death, though he was initially opposed by Henry VI of England, whose Regent, the Duke of Bedford, ruled much of France including the capital, Paris...

. The opera opens with Joan in her prison cell after her trial and sentence of execution

Trial of Joan of Arc

The Trial of Joan of Arc, which took place before an English-backed church court in Rouen, France in the first half of the year 1431 was, in the minds of many people, one of the most significant and moving trials ever conducted in human history. It culminated in the execution of the person known to...

. Awaiting her death alone, her memories of past events come to life on stage with intermittent periods returning her to her present moment of solitude. Flashbacks include her meeting with the Dauphin the day before the Siege of Orléans

Siege of Orléans

The Siege of Orléans marked a turning point in the Hundred Years' War between France and England. This was Joan of Arc's first major military victory and the first major French success to follow the crushing defeat at Agincourt in 1415. The outset of this siege marked the pinnacle of English power...

, his coronation at Rheims, the breach in the relationship between Charles and Joan, and Cauchon's condemning of her at her trial. Music critics Olin Downes

Olin Downes

Olin Downes was an American music critic.He studied piano, music theory, and music criticism in New York and Boston, and it was in those two cities that he made his career as a music critic—first with the Boston Post and then with the New York Times...

 noted the following about the integral part of chorus:

The chorus plays a many-sided role. Now, in the solitude of Joan's cell, it is the whispering voice of her sorely tired spirit; now it is active and potent participant in the drama, as in the coronation scene, or in the scene between Joan and the Bishop of Beauvaris, denouncing her; now it is the Greek commentator on the tragedy.

Overall the reception for Dello Joio's first rendition of The Triumph of St. Joan was positive. However, the composer was himself unhappy with the work and, although there was some interest in a professional staging of the opera, Dello Joio withdrew the work from such considerations. He did take some of the music and adapt it into a symphony which was first performed by the Louisville Orchestra

Louisville Orchestra

The Louisville Orchestra is the primary orchestra in Louisville, Kentucky and has been called the cornerstone of the Louisville arts scene. It was founded in 1937 by Robert Whitney and Charles Farnsley, Mayor of Louisville...

 on December 5 and 6, 1951. At the premiere, renowned dancer Martha Graham

Martha Graham

Martha Graham was an American modern dancer and choreographer whose influence on dance has been compared with the influence Picasso had on modern visual arts, Stravinsky had on music, or Frank Lloyd Wright had on architecture.She danced and choreographed for over seventy years...

 performed the role of Joan of Arc using her own choreography. The symphony is organized into three movements. The first movement, entitled "The Maid", is a theme and variation in 6/8 with flute and oboe soloists on the melody. The second movement, "The Warrior", is written in 12/8 with a great deal of intensity until it moves into a stately 4/4. Of the final movement, The Saint, Dello Joio said, "I cannot urge you strongly enough to have the orchestra sing the last movement. I do not feel the end of this piece should be tragic but rather one of triumphant serenity. Joan must have welcomed the fire for it was the final test which led to her salvation."

The Trial at Rouen

Peter Herman Adler

Peter Herman Adler

Peter Herman Adler was an American conductor born in Austria–Hungary in Gablonz an der Neiße, which is now in the Czech Republic....

 of the NBC Opera Theatre

NBC Opera Theatre

The NBC Opera Theatre was an American opera company operated by the National Broadcasting Company from 1949 to 1964. The company was established specifically for the purpose of filming both established and new operas for television...

 was interested in Dello Joio's work and in 1955 he commissioned the composer to provide the company with a new opera for television. Feeling he had not said what he wanted to say about Joan of Arc, Dello Joio returned to her as the source of this new work. He wrote an entirely new libretto in two acts, going back to the historical documents of her trial as a source for the new text. He also wrote completely new music for the opera. Dello Joio commented on this process:

The Trial at Rouen is not a version of my first opera, but is a completely new statement, both musically and dramatically; though the temptation to use the old material was great... The premise of my opera is simple. My conclusion is that the Joan story recounts the ageless conflict between the individual of excessive imagination and those who hold to the status quo. I was aware of how dangerous this concept was, because singing philosophy can be a bore. But, in reading the intense human drama between Joan and her accusers leaped forth from the pages in highly emotional terms.

In The Trial of Rouen, Dello Joio completely removed the character of the Dauphin of France/Charles VII of France, choosing instead to focus on Joan's trial and execution. The production starred soprano Elaine Malbin

Elaine Malbin

Elaine Malbin is an American soprano who had a prolific international career singing in operas, musicals, and concerts from 1949 through 1967. She appeared in a number of Broadway productions in the 1940s and 1950s...

 in the title role, baritone Hugh Thompson as Cauchon, bass Chester Watson as Father Julien, and baritone Paul Ukena

Paul Ukena

Paul Ukena was an American operatic baritone who had an active career during the 1950s through the 1970s...

 as the Jailer. There were also six inquisitors and three heavenly voices in the cast. Peter Herman Adler

Peter Herman Adler

Peter Herman Adler was an American conductor born in Austria–Hungary in Gablonz an der Neiße, which is now in the Czech Republic....

 conducted the Symphony of the Air for the production. The opera was broadcast nationally on NBC

NBC

The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...

 television on April 8, 1956, to an audience in the millions. Music critic Howard Taubman

Howard Taubman

Hyman Howard Taubman was an American music critic, theater critic, and author.-Biography:Born in Manhattan, Taubman attended DeWitt Clinton High School and then won a four-year scholarship to Cornell University, from which he graduated, as a Phi Beta Kappa member, in 1929.He then returned to New...

 was overall positive about the work, stating that "The NBC Television opera gave The Trial at Rouen a brilliant production, one of the best in a growing line of video presentations." However, his comments on the effectiveness of the work were mixed. He said the following in his review in The New York Times

The New York Times

The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...

:

The Trial at Rouen is a high-minded attempt to come to grips with the subject of the martyrdom of Saint Joan. Its mood is reverent without turning ponderous. It is always lyrical and occasionally tense with drama. It combines words and music with an ease that makes the enfolding of the song seem natural and with a poetry that heightens its emotion... Does his opera give us Joan in all her innocence and radiance? One would have to say it comes close but is defeated in the end. One of Mr. Dello Joio's troubles is that his libretto lacks contrast and his characters are almost of one shade. In the case of Joan, this fault is rectified by variety and subtlety in the music. However, the music, though it is not afraid to sing, lets us down in the climaxes by failing to sing with sufficient intensity.

1959 opera

After the somewhat mixed success of The Trial at Rouen, Dello Joio felt that he could still improve upon his opera further. He continued to work on the opera adding additional music to the beginning and end. He took some music from the original 1950 opera, a short aria for an English sentry (a character in the original opera but not the television version), and tagged it onto the beginning of the first act. He also added an impassioned extended farewell aria for Joan at the end of the opera. Although the work was now longer than the 1956 version, it was structured into one act instead of two.

In 1958 Julius Rudel

Julius Rudel

Julius Rudel is an American opera and orchestra conductor who emigrated to the United States from Austria at the age of 17 and studied conducting at the Mannes College of Music in New York City. He then forged a 35-year career with the New York City Opera, from 1944 to 1979, and was the Music...

 offered to include Dello Joio's revised one-act opera, now retitled The Triumph of St. Joan, in the 1958–1959 New York City Opera

New York City Opera

The New York City Opera is an American opera company located in New York City.The company, called "the people's opera" by New York Mayor Fiorello La Guardia, was founded in 1943 with the aim of making opera financially accessible to a wide audience, producing an innovative choice of repertory, and...

 (NYCO) season. He readily accepted and the work was premiered by the NYCO on April 16, 1959, in a double bill with Gian Carlo Menotti

Gian Carlo Menotti

Gian Carlo Menotti was an Italian-American composer and librettist. Although he often referred to himself as an American composer, he kept his Italian citizenship. He wrote the classic Christmas opera, Amahl and the Night Visitors, among about two dozen other operas intended to appeal to popular...

's The Medium

The Medium

The Medium is a short two-act dramatic opera with words and music by Gian Carlo Menotti. Commissioned by Columbia University, its first performance was there on 8 May 1946. The opera's first professional production was presented on a double bill with Menotti's The Telephone at the Heckscher...

. The cast included Lee Venora

Lee Venora

Lee Venora is an American operatic soprano and stage actress. She was highly active with the New York City Opera between 1957 and 1967 and was also a regular performer at the San Francisco Opera between 1961 and 1966. She also appeared in a few Broadway musicals, Lincoln Center Revivals, and...

 in the title role, Mack Harrell

Mack Harrell

Mack Harrell was an American baritone who was regarded as one of the greatest concert singers of his generation....

 as Cauchon, Chester Watson as Father Julien, Chester Ludgin

Chester Ludgin

-Biography:Chester Ludgin was a native of Brooklyn, New York. He made his professional debut in 1956 with The Experimental Opera Theatre of America , as Baron Scarpia in Giacomo Puccini's Tosca, conducted by Renato Cellini and directed by Armando Agnini...

 as the Jailer, and tenor Frank Porretta as the Sentry. Herbert Grossman

Herbert Grossman

Herbert Grossman was an American conductor who was chiefly known for his work within opera and musical theatre.-Early life and education:...

 conducted the opera which was staged by José Quintero

José Quintero

José Benjamin Quintero was a Panamanian theatre director, producer and pedagogue best known for his interpretations of the works of Eugene O'Neill.-Early years:...

 and included sets by David Hays and costumes by Ruth Morely. Taubman also reviewed this production, commenting that this version was "a distinct improvement over its predecessors." He also remarked that the opera now had a much more effective climax with the scene where Joan is lashed to the stake "taking on a fearful and piteous realism".

External links

• Norman Dello Joio papers, containing manuscripts of all versions of the opera, in the Music Division of The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.