Manru
Opera in three acts. Music by Ignace Jan Paderewski. Book by Alfred Nossig. The first performance in New York was on February 14, 1902, at the Metropolitan Opera House. Mr. Damrosch conducted. The cast included Mme. Sembrich, Mme. Homer, Miss Fritzi Scheff, Alexander van Bandrowski, Mr. Mühlmann, Mr. Blass, Mr. Bispham.
The opera had its first performance on any stage at the Court Theatre, Dresden, May 29, 1901. Before being sung in New York it was heard in Cracow, Lemberg, Zurich, and Cologne.
The scene is laid among the Tatra mountains, between Galicia and Hungary. The story illustrates the gypsy’s wanderlust. The plot is borrowed from a Polish romance. Manru has won the love of a Galician girl, Ulana, and married her gypsy fashion. After a time she returns to her native village among the Tatra mountains, seeking her mother’s help and forgiveness. But her mother curses her, and she is the object of the villagers’ scorn. They taunt her with a song which celebrates the inconstancy of all gypsies under the spell of the full moon. As she has already noticed signs of uneasiness in her husband, Ulana seeks the help of Urok, a dwarf, who loves her and who is said to be a sorcerer. He gives her a magic draught by means of which she wins back Manru for a time. Alone in the mountains, however, the influence of the moon, the charm of gypsy music, and the fascinations of a gypsy girl are too strong for him. He rejoins his companions. Oros, the gypsy chief, himself in love with the maiden of Manru’s fancy, opposes her reinstatement in the band. But through the influence of Jagu, a gypsy fiddler, his wishes are overruled and Manru is made chief in Oros’s place. The deposed chief revenges himself by hurling his successful rival down a precipice, a second after the distraught Ulana has thrown herself into a mountain lake.