La Reine Fiammette Queen Fiammette
“La Reine Fiammette,” by Xavier Leroux, with a libretto adapted from his play by Catulle Mendès, had its first performance in America at the Metropolitan Opera House, January 24, 1919. The cast was as follows:
Characters
| Orlanda | Geraldine Farrar | |
| Danielo | Hipolito Lazaro | |
| Giorgio d’Ast | Adamo Didur | |
| Cardinal Sforza | Léon Rothier | |
| Pantasille | Flora Perini | |
| Mother Agramente | Kathleen Howard | |
| Violine | Kittie Beale | |
| Violette | Lenore Sparkes | |
| Viola | Mary Ellis | |
| Pomone | Marie Tiffany | |
| Michela | Lenore Sparkes | |
| Angioletta | Mary Ellis | |
| Chiarina | Marie Mattfeld | |
| Two Boys | { | Mary Mellish |
| { | Cecil Arden | |
| Luc Agnolo | Mario Laurenti | |
| Castiglione | Angelo Bada | |
| Cortez | Albert Reiss | |
| Cesano | Giordano Paltrinieri | |
| Vasari | Pietro Audisio | |
| Prosecutor | Paolo Ananian | |
| Two Novices | { | Phillis White |
| { | Veni Warwick | |
While this was the first operatic performance of Catulle Mendès’s famous work, Charles Dillingham produced the play for the first time in America at the Hollis Street Theatre, Boston, October 6, 1902, with Julia Marlowe. Paul Kester made the English adaptation. The late Frank Worthing appeared as Danielo. Others in the cast were Frank Reicher, Albert Bruning, and Arthur Lawrence.
The story takes place in Italy of the sixteenth century, in an imaginary Kingdom of Bologna, whose ruler Queen Fiammette, young and capricious, has chosen as her consort Giorgio d’Ast, an adventurer. It is this very man whom the Papal See has determined to elevate to the throne in place of the madcap Orlanda. But Cardinal Sforza is not satisfied with the mere dethroning of Orlanda. He wishes her to be assassinated, and goes to Bologna to hatch the plot for her doom. The Prince Consort agrees to play his part and to involve several young courtiers in the scheme. It is decided to slay the Queen during a fête at her palace.
Danielo, a young monk, is chosen to strike the blow. The Cardinal tells him that after indulging in a passing fancy for his brother, the Queen has had the youth killed. The monk is only too eager for revenge. He has been in the habit of meeting a beautiful woman, whose identity is unknown, at a convent. This is none other than Fiammette herself who uses the convent for her gallantries. Danielo confides his mission of vengeance to the fair unknown. But when he recognizes in the queen the woman he adores he is powerless to carry out his intention of slaying her. He is arrested by order of the Cardinal for failing to keep his pact. The Queen signs her abdication and hopes to fly with her lover, but the Cardinal condemns both to the headsman’s block.