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The Rle of Jewels in OperaAuthor(s): Frank Gardner HaleSource: The Musical Quarterly, Vol. 29, No. 4 (Oct., 1943), pp. 485-497Published by: Oxford University PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/739424 .

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ATHE ROLE OF JEWELS IN OPERAByFRANKGARDNERHALEHE ROLE OF JEWELS in opera is a dualone. They play a partinthe audienceas well as on the stage.Ever since the originsofthe "draman music",duringthe lastyearsof the i 6th century,theoperahasbeen a socialevent and hasfurnisheda favoriteoccasionfor the displayof richesamongthe wealthy portionof the public.On the greatgala nightsof a not too distantpast,when "commandperformances"were given at Covent Garden in London, or therewas theatre-pareatthe royalandimperialoperahousesof the Con-tinent, the multicolored uniformsanddecorationsof the menwere

eclipsed by the women's gowns and brilliantornaments.At theMetropolitanOperaHouse in New York,the legendary"diamondhorseshoe"was aptly named.The boxes,arrangedn a formresem-bling a horseshoe, were occupied by plutocracy. And it was amatter of national interest, worthy of publication in the press,whether Mrs. Astor had worn her pearls, Mrs. Stuyvesant Fishher diamondstomacher,or some fair visitor from South Americahad appearedwith an emerald diademof fabulousprice crowningher sablelocks. This partplayed by jewels-real jewels-in operais perhapsthe more obvious. It is less often realizedwhat an im-portance pieces of jewelry-or their imitations-assume in theplots of certainoperas.With this type of pasteandbaublewe areherechiefly concerned.In some plots, the function of the jewels is basic: they supplythe motivating force that prompts the actions of the characters.Thus in Wolf-Ferrari's "Jewelsof the Madonna",Camille Erlan-ger's Aphrodite, and the American one-act opera "The TempleDancer",by John Adam Hugo, they leadto ruinousacts of sacri-lege.The jewel-motif is introduced immediately in the Wolf-Ferrariwork. The stagedirectionsdescribing he outdoorscene atthe rise of the curtaintell us, among other things, of the presenceof "worthy housewives"who arewearing "largeear-rings".Herewe havethe only ornament,stillusedby moderncivilizednations,that once necessitateda mutilationof the body before it could be485

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486 The Musical Quarterlyworn. (Today a clip arrangementavoids this piercingof the lobeto fit the ear-ring, which was as "brutal"as the perforation ofanotherpart of the humananatomyneeded to accommodatethe"nose-ring".)An amusinganecdote is told of how ear-ringsfirstcameto beworn. When women were discovered listening to secrets theywere not supposedto hear, men, so it is claimed, had their earspierced as a punishment,and later,feeling remorse for the suffer-ing they hadcaused,commissionedartisans o createearornamentsof gold and silver, often set with jewels, and presentedthem tothe women in atonementfor the painthey hadcaused.Gennaro's theft of the Madonna'sjewels for his loved one,Malliella,disclosesto view diadems,bracelets,necklaces,andothertokensof shimmeringbrilliance,which irresistiblyattractMalliella;while Gennarofallson his knees before her, she, fascinatedby theglitteringjewels,bows in an attitude of adoration, akesup a neck-lace and kisses it, closing her eyes in ecstatic joy, unheedingherdevoted lover. Before the fall of the finalcurtain,the act of sacri-lege hasbroughtdown deathon both of them.

In Erlanger's opera, based on the novel of Pierre Louys,Chrysis tells the sculptor Demetriosthat he can win her only bypresentingherwith threegifts: amirrorbelongingto the courtesanBacchis,who hashidden it near the altarin the temple of Aphro-dite; an ivory comb worn by the wife of the goddess'shigh priest;and a necklace of pearls adorningthe statue of Aphroditeherself.The infatuated lover satisfiesthe girl's demands,to the undoingof both of them.J. A. Hugo's opera,presentedat the MetropolitanOpera House in New York in I9I9 and in Chicago three yearslater, deals with the leading dancer in the Temple of Mahadeo.She has fallenin love with a youth of anotherfaithand determinesto stealthe jewels of the god andflee the templeto join him.Afterpoisoning the temple guard, she tries to seize the jewels, but isstruck deadby lightning.It must be admittedthat the effect of jewels upon the deedswith which the operaticstageresounds s usuallya baleful one. Ifthe casket of jewels that Mephistophelesprovides to outshineSiebel'ssimple nosegay prompts Margueriteto warble rapturoustrillsandroulades n the "JewelSong", it is also a link in the chainof eventsthat lead to her downfall. The unhappyfate of Puccini'sManon is likewise hastened by the influence of jewels. When


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The Role of Jewels in OperaManon and des Grieux are about to run away together fromGeronte's house, she insists upon collecting her jewelry first.Geronte has meanwhilesent for the police, and the delay enablesthem to arrivebefore the lovers can escape.Manonis arrestedonGeronte'schargethat she is an abandonedwoman.Similarly, in Massenet'sManon, the heroine's love of jewelscontributesto her downfall,but it is not exploitedin the construc-tion of the plot. In the firstact she is deflectedfrom her intentionof proceedingto the convent by the sight of a group of beautifuland bejewelled women. One of the most delicate and pathetictouches in the operais that in the lastact, when, towardsnightfall,asshe is dying in des Grieux'sarms,she suddenlysees the firststarshining brightly in the heavensand exclaims,"Ah! the beautifuldiamond!",then looks at herlover with awry smileandsays,"Yousee, I amstilla coquette."In a differentway, jewels leadto the destructionof the faithfulLakme. In Act i, the sceneof which is atemplein anIndianforest,two English girls, accompaniedby their officiouschaperon,Mrs.Benson, are taking a morning stroll with two English officers,GeraldandFrederick,and-despite the protestsof both chaperonandofficers,who recognizethe retreatasbelongingto the vengefulBrahminpriest, Nilakantha-they break down the bamboo bar-rier. One of the girls,Rose, discoverssome jewels lying on a stonetable;the girls are so delightedby them that the other one, Ellen,suggeststhat her fiance Geraldremainto makedrawingsof them.Left alone, Gerald ponders about the lovely person for whomthese jewels must have been created and, upon detecting Lakme,the daughter of the priest, returning from the forest, concealshimself in the shrubbery;but she discovershim and warns himthat to remainmeansdeath.Later,when Geraldis stabbedby theenragedpriest,he is nursedby Lakme,who drinksthe juice of thedeadly daturaflower when she discoversthat Frederick'stauntshave sent him back to the army-all this love and tragedy be-cause of some gems that brought Gerald under the spell of thedaughterof Nilakantha.The operaticheroinewho suffersthe mostviolent demisewithbenefit of jewels is doubtlessLa Gioconda.Having bargainedwiththe spy Barnaba,offering herself to him in exchangefor his aid inthe escapeof the imprisonedEnzo Grimaldo,whom she loves, shepretends to adorn herself with mock jewels in Barnaba'shonor,

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The Musical Quarterlyonly to make her way, in the process,towards a daggerthat liesnear themandto plungeit into herheart.Matchingthiscatastropheare the two murders n Max von Schillings'sMona Lisa. GiovanniSalviati comes from Rome to Florence to purchasea pink pearlfor the Pope from the merchantMesserFrancesco,who owns ahouse beside the Arno and a fine collection of jewels. His wife,Mona Lisa, had once been betrothed to Giovanni but.had beencompelledto marryFrancescoagainsther will. She and Giovanniagreeto flee, but aresurprisedby her husband.Giovanni hides inthe jewel vault. Francescodeliberately ocks the vault andthrowsthe key out towardsthe Arno. In the next act the key is returnedto MonaLisa;it had fallen into a boat,not into the river. She pre-tends that she wishes to wear a particularpearlnecklace and asksFrancescoto open the vault. When he does so, she pusheshim in,turns the key, and proceeds to go to Mass. It is thus that thelibrettist seeks to explainthe enigmaticalsmile on the face of daVinci's famous subject.It is with relief that one turns to an occasionaloperain whichjewels do not bring evil in theirtrain.In Henry Rabaud'sMarouf,they figure in the high jinksthat make up the fantasticplot. Cir-cumstancesconspireto make an impostorof Marouf,a poor cob-bler of Cairowho, as a result of shipwreck,findshimselfat Khai-tan. He tells the Sultanof the place that his caravan s on its wayto Khaitan bearing unheard-of riches. He promises the Sultanthirty bagsof preciousstonesandis given the Sultan'sdaughter nmarriage.They fall seriouslyin love. No caravanarrives.Difficul-ties ensue. Finally these are solved by a genie who appearswhenthe Princesspolishesa rusty ringthat Maroufhasfound. A caravanis summoned out of nowhere-and it contains thirty bags ofprecious stones. Jewels run as a sort of leit-motif through thesecond scene of the second act of anotheropera of the fairy-taletype, Rimsky-Korsakov'sSadko. At the rise of the curtain thechorusexamines he waresthat the foreignmerchantshavebroughtto Novgorod and sings its admirationfor the precious pearlsofthe Hindus and for the chessmenmadeof solid gold. LaterSadkothrows his net into Lake Ilmen and catches the three fisheswithgolden scales,aboutwhich the PrincessVolkhova hadtold him inAct i. In the finaleof the scene, the merchantsdescribethe won-dersof their native lands-the Hindu, in the too famous"SongofIndia", says that the earth of his country is rich with innumer-

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The Role of Jewels in Operaable diamondsand its seas with incalculablepearls;the Venetianhymns the gloriesof the city of marble,whose Doge weds the seawith a ring of gold. In Albert Wolff's L'Oiseau bleu, based onMaeterlinck'splay, Tyltyl receives from the Fairy Berylune amagic cap with a wonderful diamond.This stone has the powerof revealingthe past and the future and of making dumb animalsand inanimateobjects articulate.The cat, the dog, the fire, milk,sugar,light, and bread all eventuallybecome vocal.The silver rose which Octavian, as proxy for Baron Ochs, ischargedwith presentingto Sophie,in Der Rosenkavalier,providesthe occasion for his transferringto her the affection he had for-merly felt for the Marschallinandthusopensthe way for the finalunion of the two young people. In Puccini's La Boheme, jewelsgo so far as to lead to a deed of kindness-but it is quite incon-spicuous.When, in the last act, the fatally ill Mimi returnsto theattic of the four Bohemians,Musettagives her ear-ringsto Mar-cello and tells him to sell them and buy a tonic for the dying girl.Although Dapertutto, singing his air, Scintille, diamant, in"The Tales of Hofmann", claims that his diamond has never yetfailed to charmwomen and hold them in thrall,there are at leastfour operaticheroinesupon whom preciousstonescastno irresist-ible spell.The lively Margiana,n Cornelius'sdelightful"BarberofBagdad", cajoles the Cadi, her father, into thinking that she isinterested in the jewels and other gifts his venerable friend Selimhas sent her in an effort to win her hand.

Cadi: Behold these rings! For armsand earsand fingers,Diamonds and emeralds, beauty-crowned!Margiana: And rubies! Red as love's own heart they glow.

But she really agreeswith her confidantethat "A youthful lover'sthe best treasureever."The Wilde-Strauss Salome also prefers the man she loves tojewels, but her love, if it canbe so called,takesthe form of ghastlyperversion:Herod: I have an emerald, a great emerald and round, that the minionof Caesar has sent unto me. When thou lookest through this emerald thoucanst see that which passeth afar off. It is the largest emerald in the wholeworld. Ask it of me and I will give it thee.Salome: I demand the head of Iokanaan.

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490 The Musical QuarterlyLater he offers her "a collar of pearls,set in four rows", topazes,opals.

Herod: I have chrysolitesand beryls, and chrysophrases nd rubies;I havesardonyxandhyacinthstones,andstones of chalcedony;andI willgive them all unto thee, all, andotherthingsI will addto them.But the answeris still: "Give me the headof Iokanaan!"Herodiasdraws the ring of deathfrom the hand of the Tetrarch and givesit to a soldier,who bears t straightway o the executioner.In Auber's Diamantsde la Couronne,Theophila, who is ac-tually the Queen of Portugal n disguise,seeks out a gangof coun-terfeitersin orderto replacethe genuinecrown diamondsby falsegems. She sells the real jewels to savethe statefrom ruin. She alsoprovides it with a king-Enriquez, who loved her when sheappeared o be only poor Theophilaand whom she selectsin pref-erenceto the Infanteof Spain.The heroine created by Maeterlinck for Dukas's Ariane etBarbe-Bleue also prizes something above jewels; this time, how-ever, it is liberty. In Act I, Ariane and her Nurse enter the greathallof Bluebeard's astle. Arianeis his sixth wife. He hasgiven hersix silverkeys andone of gold. With the silverkeys she may do asshe pleases,but the use of the goldenkey is forbidden.It is the onlyone that interestsher. The Nurse, however, opens six doorswiththe silverkeys. When she unlocks the firstdoor, amethysts,set indiadems,bracelets,rings, and girdles,rush forth in a shimmeringstream.The opening of the next four doors releasesshowers ofsapphires, pearls, emeralds, and rubies. Ariane is not greatlymoved.

Nurse: You meanyou love themnot?Ariane: If I love aught,'tis more beauteous han the rarestjewels.But Ariane is still a woman. When the sixthdoorreleasesa torrentof glitteringdiamonds,she hails them rapturously:

Ariane:Omy diamonds are!It was-notyou I sought,but on my wayI saluteyou!She is not, however, distracted rom herpurpose.With the goldenkey she herself unlocks the seventh door and hears, out of thedarkness, he voices of the five lost wives. Surprisedby Bluebeard,she nevertheless, n Act II, leadsthe five wives, ragged and wan,out into the sunshine.In Act III she helpsto adorn the wives with


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The Role of Jewels in Operathe jewels and other finery. Bluebeardapproaches.Peasants,out-raged by the rumorsthey have heard,enter and wound and bindhim. Ariane tends his wounds and cuts his bonds, then kisseshimgently and bids him adieu.She asks the other wives to follow her,but they prefer their servitude,and she takes her leave with theNurse.

Bracelets,necklaces,rings-all these and more play their partin the never-never landof the operaticworld. While in Massenet'sCendrillon the glass-slipperof the Cinderellalegend performsitsfamiliarfunction, in Rossini's La Cenerentola t is replaced,as aninstrumentof recognition, by a pairof matchingbracelets,one ofwhich Cenerentola has given the Prince at the ball and one ofwhich she has retained.More sinisteris the role of the braceletinCilea'sAdrianaLecouvreur. Here the heroineis not certainof theidentity of her rival until a bracelet, dropped inadvertently in agarden,is shown her,and she recognizesit asbelongingto the per-fidious Princesse de Bouillon. When the bracelet is displayedtothe guests at the princess'ssalon, the conflict between the twowomen is brought out into the open, and runs its course until itends in the treacherouspoisoningof Adrianaby the princess.It is a necklace that points the way to recognition in Bizet'sLes Pecheursde Perles.Eachyear a woman is chosenby the eldersof a tribe in Ceylon to mount the rocks above their village andpray to Brahmafor the pearl fishers.None may approachher orlook upon her face. This year Leila is chosen. Zurga, the king,promisesher that if she is faithful the fisherswill save for her themost beautiful pearl that they gather;if she is not, she must die.She gives her oath to serve faithfully but breaks t before the endof the first act. Manyyearsearlier,Zurgaandhis friendNadir hadseen a beautifulwoman in a templeand hadfallen in love with her.A quarrelhad ensued and Nadir had left the village, but he hasnow returnedafter a long absenceandthe old friendshiphas beenrenewed. Nadir recognizesLeila as the woman of the temple andshe also remembershim. She lifts her veil for an instant. Later,when the priestNourabadtells Leila that her vigil is about to be-gin, she narrates o hima tale of herpast:when shewas a child shesaveda fugitive from pursuit,and in gratitudehe gave her a chainwhich she still possesses.The priest departs.Nadir arrives,andthere is a love scene. The priestsurprises he lovers, and they arethreatenedwith death by the pearl fishers.Zurgaentersand tries

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The Musical Quarterlyto calm the people. The priesttearsaway Leila'sveil, and Zurga,too, sees in her the woman of the temple. Maddenedby jealousy,he no longer seeksto protect the lovers.Leilacomes to his tent toplead for Nadir's life. Zurgais obdurate.As Leilais led away, sheremoves a necklace and gives it to a young fisher,askingthat hehave it given to hermother after her death.Zurgarecognizes t andtears it from the fisher'shands.He was the fugitive Leilahad savedin her childhood, and the necklace is the chain he had given her.On the day appointed for the sacrifice,Zurga,now determinedto savethe lovers,sets fireto the camp.The loversflee, andZurga,whose treachery to the tribe is discovered,is led to the stake intheir stead.A necklace is importantalso to the plot of Massenet'sDonQuichotte. In this version of Cervantes' mmortalstory, the beau-tiful Dulcinea, amusedby Don Quixote's wooing, promisesshewill be his loved one if he will recover for her a necklacethat hasbeenstolenfrom herby brigands.The knightand Sanchoset forth.Don Quixote tests his valorby chargingsome hogs andby attack-ing a windmill. Finally he tracks down the brigands,but is cap-tured by them. Their hearts are so touched by his courage anddevotion that they give him the necklace and set him free. Hereturnsto Dulcinea,who rejoicesover the recoverednecklaceandembracesthe knight. He wishes to marry her, but she confessesshe is not the sort of woman he believed her to be. The knight isgrateful for her candor and asserts hat his love for her will neverend. In the lastact he diesafterdeclaringthathe hasgiven Sanchothe island he had promised him in their wanderings, the mostbeautiful of all islands-the Islandof Dreams.In Giordano'sFedora, t is the oaththatSardou'sheroinemakeson a Byzantine jewelled cross, worn on her breast, that bringsabout the finalcatastrophe.She swearson it to avengethe murderof her betrothed,only to fall in love with the murderer, lee withhim, and marry him. Learningthat she had set the secret serviceon his track before their escapeand that, as a result of his act, hisbrother has died in prisonand his motherhas died of shock, he isaboutto kill her, when she swallowspoisonin despair.He repentsand pleadswith her to live, but it is too late and she dies.Jewelled medallionsfigurein Fra Diavaloand "The BohemianGirl". In the Auber opera, Lady PamelaAllcashowns a medallionsurroundedby jewels, which is abstracted rom her by the bandit

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The Role of Jewels in Operachief who gives the work its name.It is the effort to recover this,as well as other propertystolen from Lord andLady Allcash,thatresults n the trappingof the brigandby Lorenzo,the brightyoungofficer of dragoonswho loves Zerlina,the innkeeper'sdaughter,and whose successwins him his bride.In Balfe'sold opera,a "me-dallionin diamonds" s stolen from the fop Floresteinby Devils-hoof, the gypsy. The Gypsy Queen gives it to the young andbeautifulArline, a memberof her band,intendingit to be a snare.She wants the girl to be found with the filched article and to bearrestedas a result. For the Queen loves Thaddeus,a Polish fugi-tive who, in turn, loves Arline. The girl is apprehendedandbrought before Count Arnheim who, through a scar on her arm,recognizes her as his long-lost daughter.The machinationsof theQueen are bared and, after various complications, Arline andThaddeusare united.However efficaciousother pieces of set jewelry may be incarrying out the mandatesof the operaticfates, none can surpassthe power of the ring. The specimenfashionedby Alberichin thedepths of Nibelheim would alone suffice to give the ring pre-eminence. The curse he pronounceson all who possessit engulfsin disasterFasolt and Fafner, Siegfried and Briinnhilde,Hagen,andeven Wotan, king of the gods.Rings serve more modestpurposes n works of lessgrand pro-portions.A magic ring, given to him by Finn, the wizard,enablesthe hero of Glinka's"RussianandLudmila" o breakthe spellthathas been cast by the evil dwarf Tchernomor and that holds theheroinein a deepsleepfromwhich it has beenimpossible o awakenher. In "Martha",a ring establishesthe identity of Lionel, thefoster-brotherof the farmer,Plunkett. Long before the time ofthe stage-action,a fugitive, an aged man dying from exhaustion,had entrusted the infant Lionel to Plunkett's mother. With thechild he gave her a ring and told her that if misfortune everthreatenedthe boy she should show it to the queen. When mis-fortune finally does dog Lionel as a resultof his love for Martha,he asksPlunkett to show the ring to Queen Anne andto pleadhiscause. The ring proves Lionel to be the son and heir of the Earlof Derby, who had died after a plot to bring JamesII back fromFrance hadendedin failure.Poisoned rings figure in II Trovatore and Euryanthe. In theformer, Leonora, having agreed to submit herself to the Count

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di Luna in exchangefor his releasingher imprisoned over Man-rico, swallows poison from her ring as she and the Count go toManrico's cell to set him free. Manrico, in amazement, asksLeonora how she has obtained his freedom and accuses her ofhaving sold herself, only to see her fall to the ground and die. InWeber's opera, we learn from Euryanthe that Emma, the sisterof her lover Adolar, had taken poison from a ring when her ownlover was killed in battle and that Emma had appearedbeforeEuryantheand Adolar one night to tell them that her spiritcouldfind no peace until the tearsof an innocent, falsely accused, hadbeen shed upon the ring, which she still wearsin her tomb. In thecourse of a wildly fantastic plot, the ring is removed from thetomb by Eglantine, the villainessof the piece, Euryanthequalifiesas the tearful innocent, and the ghost of Emma is duly laid.The Marquisof Saluzzo, in Massenet'sGriselidis,pledges hisring to the devil when the two enter into a wager concerningtheMarquis'swife, the patientGriselda-the samelady whose virtuesareextolledby Boccaccio and Chaucer.The devil bets that he cansuccessfully tempt Griselda while the Marquisis away fightingagainstthe Saracens; he Marquishas faith in his wife. In his ab-sence, the devil comes to the castle in disguise,accompaniedbyhis own wife, Fiamina,whom he presentsto Griseldaas a slavebelonging to the Marquis. He states that the Marquis wishesGriseldato yield her place to Fiamina,whom she is to serve andobey in all things. He shows Griselda the ring as a sign that heindeed comes from her husband.Griseldabows to what she be-lieves to be the Marquis'swill and overcomes all the snares ofSatan.The endingis happy.It is to be expectedthatringsastokensof love-marital or pre-marital-should appearrather frequently. At least one of themcomes in for particularlyrough treatment.In Lucia,Edgar, oncethe sextet is disposedof, asksLucy whether the signatureon themarriagecontractis reallyhers.

Lucy: Yes!Edgar (stifling his rage, he gives her his ring): Then take back thytoken, perfidious heart; the one I gave thee, return me!(Lucy, in her anguish scarcely knowing what she is doing, takes off herring, which Edgar snatches from her.)Edgar (throws it down and stamps on it): Thou'st betray'd me 'foreheaven and earth.

The MusicalQuarterly94


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The Role of Jewels in OperaAn engagement ring figures again in La Sonnambula.Early inthe opera,Elvino singsPrendi l'anelti dono ("Take now the ringI give thee") as he removesa ring from his fingerandslipsit uponAmina's.When, asaresultof hertendency to walk in hersleep,sheis discoveredin Count Rudolph'sbed, Elvino denouncesher andtakes back his ring. Laterhe actuallysees her in a somnambulistictrance and is convinced of the truth of her protestationsand ofthe Count's that she is innocent. In her sleep she searchesfor thering. She hears Elvino's voice and asks that the "little ring" berestoredto her. Whereupon he returnsit to the finger of the stillunawakenedgirl.While intoxicated,the pirate who gives the opera Zampa itsnameplacesaring uponthe fingerof the statueof a deadgirlwhomhe had seduced, and promisesto wed her the next day. When hetries to removethe ring, the marblehandcloses on it. On the mor-row he proposes that another girl, Camilla,become his bride asransomfor her father, who is his prisoner.A vision of the deadgirl appearsand menacingly points to the ring on her finger.Zampaneverthelessweds Camillaand is finally carriedoff, lockedin the terribleembraceof the statue.On her visit to the court 6f King Solomon, the Queen ofSheba, in Goldmark'sopera, attends the wedding ceremony ofAssad and Sulamith in the great temple the king has built, andbringsa golden dish filled with pearlsas a gift for the bride.Afterthe High Priest extendsaringto Assad andpronouncesthe words:"I, by this ring, do pledge to thee-", Assad tries to repeat thewords, but suddenly hurls the ring away. He has caught sight ofthe Queen, whom he had once beheldbathingin a streamandforwhom he hassince beenobsessedwith anunholy passion.Modern opera-goers probably rememberbest among "stage"wedding-ringsthe one that Melisandeplays with besidethe welland tossesso high that it falls into the bottomlesswater andis lost.Golaud-who has been thrown from his horseand injuredat theprecise moment when the ring sank into the pool-by his dis-covery of the loss sets in motion the sequence of events thatultimately bring death to both Pelleas and Melisande.Not only jewels, but jewellersthemselveshave contributedtothe dramaof the operastage.BenvenutoCelliniis the hero of theBerlioz opera named after him, but it is as a sculptor, lover, andscapegracethat he appears n it ratherthan as a goldsmith.Such a

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496 The Musical Quarterlycraftsman,however,doestreadthe boards n Hindemith'sCardillac(1926), based on E. T. A. Hoffmann'sDas Friaulein on Scuderi.Cardillac s a goldsmith,so enamored of his own handiworkthathe steals back from his customers the jewelry he sells them andmurdersone of them afteranotheruntil he himselfmeetsa violentdeath. The samejeweller had alreadyappearedas the protagonistof Der Goldschmiedvon Toledo (I918), the music of which isdrawn (by JuliusStern andAlfred Zamara)fromthe considerablemusicalremainsof Offenbach-mainly from an unfinishedopera.The libretto shifts the locale from France to Spainto accommo-date the use of some Spanish ballet music. Flotow and AlbertGrisarareresponsiblefor a work entitled Le Joaillerde St. James(1862), a revised version of their "LadyMelvil" (1838). Eleazar,in La Juive, is a goldsmith.His putativedaughterRachel is lovedby Prince Leopold, disguisedas a young Jew, Samuel.Leopoldhas just returnedfrom his victory over the Hussites.All three areamong a group celebratingthe Passover at Eleazar'shouse whenPrincess Eudoxia, the wife of the Prince, arrives.She has heardthat Eleazarpossessesa magnificentpiece of jewelry. He saysthatit is an incrustedchain once worn by the EmperorConstantine.She orders him to engrave her monogramand Leopold's on thechain, as well as their coats of arms,andto bringit to her the nextday at the palace. Leopold conceals his presence from Eudoxiabut not his agitationfrom Rachel, to whom he laterconfessesthetruth. Eleazar,accompaniedby Rachel, deliversthe chain accord-ing to instructions.A greatfeastin honorof Leopoldis in progress.Eudoxia risesand,in the nameof the Emperor,bidsLeopoldkneeland receive a gift from her hands.Rachel recognizeshim and, in-furiated,snatchesthe chain from himandgivesit backto Eudoxia.She denounces the Prince. CardinalBrogni, Eleazar'sold enemy,curses Leopold, Eleazar, and Rachel. The Cardinal,before hisentry into the service of the Church,had lost his wife and infantdaughterwhen his palace in Rome was destroyed by fire. He isnot an ill-disposed man, but an instrument of relentless fate.Eleazar,on hisway to trial,tells the Cardinal hathisdaughterhadbeen savedfrom the flames,but refuses to revealwhere sheis. ThePrinceis exiled;EleazarandRachel-who is actuallythe Cardinal'sdaughter-are condemnedto death.Eleazar,who hascome to loveRachel as though she were his own child, considersrevealingheridentity in order to save her life but, hearing he cries andimpreca-


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The Role of Jewels in Operations of the bloodthirsty crowd, refuses to hand her over to hisand her persecutors. As she is hurled into a boiling cauldron,Eleazarscreams at the Cardinalthat she is his lost daughter,andhimselfproceedsto execution.Some of the operas to which reference has been made havejewels mentioned even in their titles-Les Pecheurs de Perles,"The Jewels of the Madonna",Les Diamantsde la Couronne,tosay nothing of Der Ring des Nibeluhgen. To this list might beadded Siegfried Salomon's Das Diamantkreuz (1847), AdolpheAdam's Le Bijozu erdu (I853), IgnazBriill'sDas goldene Kreuz(1874), and Benjamin Godard'sLes Bijoux de Jeannette. (Thetitle of Erich Korngold'sDer Ring desPolykratesrefersonly sec-ondarilyto a ring thatappearsn the courseof the action,the mainallusion being to Schiller'sballad of the same name; the title ofFelicienDavid'sLaPerledu Bresil usesthe word Perleonly figura-tively, the metaphor being a complimentarydescription of theheroine.)If we were to add also the operasin which jewels appearasmere accessories, he list would be almostendless.We need recallonly the jewelsrequired n the coronationscenesof BorisGodunovand Le Prophete;the diadem and other jewels worn in Act II byTosca, fresh from her cantatasingingbefore Queen Caroline; hepageantrydemandingthe glamorof gems in such works as Aida,Le Roi de Lahore,Les Huguenots.This brief surveyof the use of jewelsin operahasled uswidelythrough the musical literature of the stage. Much as Sir JamesFrazer'sinvestigationof the lore connected with a single object,the golden bough from the sacredgrove at Nemi, led him into aI2-volume excursionthrough the customs and literaturesof peo-ples throughout the world, so this cursoryglance at one motif inopera-which may, after all, be regardedas a sophisticatedkindof folk-lore-has shown the extraordinaryprevalenceof this onetheme and the remarkablevariety with which it hasbeen usedbymany composersand librettists.

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