''The Emperor Jones'' is an

opera Opera is a form of History of theatre#European theatre, Western theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by Singing, singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically ...

in two acts with a prologue and interlude composed by

Louis Gruenberg Louis Gruenberg ( ; June 9, 1964) was a Russian-born American pianist and prolific composer, especially of operas. An early champion of Schoenberg and other contemporary composers, he was also a highly respected Oscar-nominated film composer in H ...

to an English-language

libretto A libretto (From the Italian word , ) is the text used in, or intended for, an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata or Musical theatre, musical. The term ''libretto'' is also sometimes used to refer to th ...

adapted by the composer from

Eugene O'Neill Eugene Gladstone O'Neill (October 16, 1888 – November 27, 1953) was an American playwright. His poetically titled plays were among the first to introduce into the U.S. the drama techniques of Realism (theatre), realism, earlier associated with ...

's 1920 play, '' The Emperor Jones''. It premiered on January 7, 1933, at the

Metropolitan Opera The Metropolitan Opera is an American opera company based in New York City, currently resident at the Metropolitan Opera House (Lincoln Center), Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center, situated on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. Referred ...

in New York City with

Lawrence Tibbett Lawrence Mervil Tibbett (November 16, 1896 – July 15, 1960) was an American opera singer and recording artist who also performed as a film actor and radio personality. A baritone with large, deep, and dark-timbred voice. His dynamic range (in ...

in the title role. Set on an unnamed island in the

West Indies The West Indies is an island subregion of the Americas, surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, which comprises 13 independent island country, island countries and 19 dependent territory, dependencies in thr ...

, the opera tells the story of

African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

Brutus Jones, a former

Pullman porter Pullman porters were men hired to work for the railroads as Porter (railroad), porters on sleeping cars. Starting shortly after the American Civil War, George Pullman sought out former slaves to work on his sleeper cars. Their job was to carry ...

and ex-convict who escaped to the island, set himself up as its tyrannical "Emperor", and became rich by exploiting the natives. The natives start a revolt against him, and as he tries to escape through the jungle, he is haunted by visions of his past life and the man he had murdered. As the natives close in, he commits suicide using the silver bullet which he had worn around his neck as a good-luck charm. With a score that incorporates elements of

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...

and

negro spiritual Spirituals (also known as Negro spirituals, African American spirituals, Black spirituals, or spiritual music) is a genre of Christian music that is associated with African Americans, which merged varied African cultural influences with the exp ...

s, ''The Emperor Jones'' was the eleventh American opera to premiere at the Met, and has continued to be performed into the 21st century, albeit rarely.

Background

Shortly after becoming General Manager of the

in 1908, Giulio Gatti-Casazza had set a goal of producing new English language operas by American composers. During his time at the Met, the company staged the world premieres of thirteen American operas. However, while the composers of these operas were American, only three of them actually had American subjects— Charles Cadman's ''

Shanewis ''Shanewis'' (or ''The Robin Woman'') (1918) is an opera in one act and two scenes by American composer Charles Wakefield Cadman with an English-language libretto by Nelle Richmond Eberhart. Cadman called the work an "American opera." They collab ...

'' (1918),

Howard Hanson Howard Harold Hanson (October 28, 1896 – February 26, 1981)''The New York Times'' – Obituaries. Harold C. Schonberg. February 28, 1981 p. 1011/ref> was an American composer, conductor, educator and music theorist. As director for forty year ...

's '' Merry Mount'' (1934), and

's ''The Emperor Jones''. '' The Emperor Jones'' by American playwright

had premiered in 1920 and was immensely popular. After reading the play, Gruenberg approached O'Neill with the idea of making it into an opera and discussed the possibilities with him over a two-year period. In 1930 O'Neill gave Gruenberg the rights to adapt the play making any changes he saw fit but refused to have anything to do with creating the

, despite the urging of the composer. Despite Kathleen de Jaffa’s name appearing on the libretto, the composers late widow, Irma Greenberg, maintained that Greenberg created the text alone, and that Ms. de Jaffa was merely editor of the libretto series at the Met. The actual lines were taken verbatim from the play. The only two significant changes were the addition of a chanting chorus for the orchestral prelude and interlude, similar to a

Greek chorus A Greek chorus () in the context of ancient Greek tragedy, comedy, satyr plays, is a homogeneous group of performers, who comment with a collective voice on the action of the scene they appear in, or provide necessary insight into action which ...

, and the death of Emperor Jones. In the play, he is killed by the natives while in the opera he shoots himself with a silver bullet as they are closing in on him. The libretto was finished by 1931, and Gruenberg rented a cottage in Old Orchard, Maine, where he composed the opera over a period of fourteen months. When the vocal score was complete, Gruenberg showed it to the Austrian conductor

Erich Kleiber Erich Kleiber (5 August 1890 – 27 January 1956) was an Austrian, later Argentine, conductor, known for his interpretations of the classics and as an advocate of Neue Musik. Kleiber was born in Vienna, and after studying at the Prague Conser ...

, who at the time was music director of the

Berlin State Opera The Staatsoper Unter den Linden ( State Opera under the Lime Trees), also known as the Berlin State Opera (), is a listed building on Unter den Linden boulevard in the historic center of Berlin, Germany. The opera house was built by order of P ...

and known for championing new works. Kleiber was impressed and offered to give its world premiere in Berlin. Gruenberg planned to spend the next few months in Germany completing the orchestration. In the end, the premiere was postponed. The rise of

Nazism Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During Hitler's rise to power, it was fre ...

meant that an opera composed by a Jew with a black man as the central character was bound to cause trouble in Germany.Sturm (1981) (Two years later, Kleiber resigned from his post at the Berlin Opera in protest at the Nazi policy of banning

Entartete Musik Degenerate music (, ) was a label applied in the 1930s by the government of Nazi Germany to certain forms of music that it considered harmful or decadence, decadent. The Nazi government's concerns about degenerate music were a part of its larger a ...

, "degenerate music", a label applied to virtually all works by Jewish composers). In the meantime,

Olin Downes Edwin Olin Downes, better known as Olin Downes (January 27, 1886 – August 22, 1955), was an American music critic, known as "Sibelius's Apostle" for his championship of the music of Jean Sibelius. As critic of ''The New York Times'', he ex ...

, the critic for ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'', had also seen the score and recommended it to Gatti-Casazza, who accepted it for production during the Met's 1932/1933 season.

Performance history

''The Emperor Jones'' had its world premiere on January 7, 1933, at the Metropolitan Opera with

in the title role and was also broadcast live on radio. Although both Tibbett and Pearl Besuner used

blackface Blackface is the practice of performers using burned cork, shoe polish, or theatrical makeup to portray a caricature of black people on stage or in entertainment. Scholarship on the origins or definition of blackface vary with some taking a glo ...

for their roles, the dancers were from Hemsley Winfield's New Negro Art Theater, with Winfield himself taking the role of the Witch Doctor. Initially the Met had wanted to use white dancers in black makeup, but backed down when Tibbett threatened to quit the production unless Winfield and his troupe performed. However, the Met billed the ensemble as the " Hemsley Winfield Ballet" instead of its real name and apart from Winfield did not credit any of the other dancers by name on the playbill. The premiere performance was conducted by

Tullio Serafin Tullio Serafin (1 September 18782 February 1968) was an Italian conductor and former Musical Director at La Scala. Biography Tullio Serafin was a leading Italian opera conductor with a long career and a very broad repertoire who revived many 19t ...

and directed by Alexander Sanine. The sets and costumes were designed by

Jo Mielziner Joseph Mielziner (March 19, 1901 – March 15, 1976) was an American theatrical scenic, and lighting designer born in Paris, France. He was described as "the most successful set designer of the Golden era of Broadway", and worked on both stage p ...

who was 32 at the time and went on to create the stage designs for more than three hundred plays and musicals, including the original productions of ''

Death of a Salesman ''Death of a Salesman'' is a 1949 stage play written by the American playwright Arthur Miller. The play premiered on Broadway in February 1949, running for 742 performances. It is a two-act tragedy set in late 1940s Brooklyn told through a ...

'' and ''

Guys and Dolls ''Guys and Dolls'' is a musical theater, musical with music and lyrics by Frank Loesser and book by Jo Swerling and Abe Burrows. It is based on "The Idyll of Miss Sarah Brown" (1933) and "Blood Pressure", which are two short stories by Damon Run ...

''. Although it is a two-act opera, the Met performed it without an interval for a total running time of one hour and fifteen minutes and presented it as the first half of a double bill with

Leoncavallo Ruggero (or Ruggiero) Leoncavallo (23 April 18579 August 1919) was an Italian opera composer and librettist. Throughout his career, Leoncavallo produced numerous operas and songs but it is his 1892 opera ''Pagliacci'' that remained his lasting co ...

's ''

Pagliacci ''Pagliacci'' (; literal translation, 'Clowns') is an Italian opera in a prologue and two acts, with music and libretto by Ruggero Leoncavallo. The opera tells the tale of Canio, actor and leader of a commedia dell'arte theatrical company, who mu ...

''. Despite the mixed reviews, ''The Emperor Jones'' enjoyed a fair amount of initial success and won Gruenberg the

Bispham Memorial Medal Award The Bispham Memorial Medal Award was an award for operas written in English which was named for baritone David Bispham David Scull Bispham (January 5, 1857 – October 2, 1921) was an American operatic baritone. Biography Bispham was born on J ...

for opera in English. It has continued to be performed into the 21st century (albeit rarely), long after the other American operas premiered in the Gatti-Casazza era had sunk into oblivion. The opera had fifteen performances over two seasons with the Met company which also took it on tour to

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

Brooklyn Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

Hartford Hartford is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. The city, located in Hartford County, Connecticut, Hartford County, had a population of 121,054 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 ce ...

and

Baltimore Baltimore is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland. With a population of 585,708 at the 2020 census and estimated at 568,271 in 2024, it is the 30th-most populous U.S. city. The Baltimore metropolitan area is the 20th-large ...

. Apart from the Met performances, it was also staged in Philadelphia, Chicago, Los Angeles, and San Francisco in 1933 with Tibbett in the title role and was revived again in Chicago in 1946. In Europe it was performed in Amsterdam in 1934 with

Jules Bledsoe Julius Lorenzo Cobb Bledsoe (December 29, 1897 – July 14, 1943)
by John Troesse ...

in the title role followed by performances in Brussels, Vienna, Milan, and London. The Teatro dell'Opera in Rome performed it in 1951, and

Michigan Opera Theatre Detroit Opera is the principal opera company in Michigan, USA. The company is based in Detroit, where it performs in the Detroit Opera House. Prior to February 28, 2022, the company was named Michigan Opera Theatre. Annually, it produces four o ...

staged a major revival in 1979 with African American baritones Andrew Smith and

David Arnold David Arnold (born 23 January 1962) is an English film composer whose credits include scoring five James Bond films (1997-2008), as well as ''Stargate'' (1994), ''Independence Day'' (1996), ''Godzilla'' (1998), '' Shaft'' (2000), '' 2 Fast 2 F ...

in the title role, conducted by Robert Willoughby Jones. After its last performance at the Metropolitan Opera House in February 1934, it was not seen again in New York City until 2001 when it was revived by a small company, Operaworks, in a 55-seat theatre using a digitized virtual orchestra in place of musicians with baritone Fredrick Redd in the title role. In 2009, the opera was revived in Italy for two performances at the Teatro delle Muse in

Ancona Ancona (, also ; ) is a city and a seaport in the Marche region of central Italy, with a population of around 101,997 . Ancona is the capital of the province of Ancona, homonymous province and of the region. The city is located northeast of Ro ...

with Nmon Ford in the title role and a full orchestra and chorus conducted by

Bruno Bartoletti Bruno Bartoletti ( Sesto Fiorentino, 10 June 1926 – Florence, 9 June 2013) was an Italian operatic conductor. His active international career lasted from 1953 to 2007, and he specialized in the Italian repertory and contemporary works. He wa ...

Roles

Synopsis

''Setting: An unnamed island in the

in the early part of the 20th century'' ;Orchestral prelude A chanting chorus calls for the death of Emperor Jones and an insistent drumbeat is heard in the distance.

Act 1

Brutus Jones, an

ex-

, gambler, and escaped convict had stowed away from the United States to an island in the West Indies several years previously. There, he had set himself up as the island's Emperor and during that time made himself rich at the expense of the natives as well as earning a reputation as a cruel tyrant. He now sits in his "palace" in the final days of his reign. His underling, the

cockney Cockney is a dialect of the English language, mainly spoken in London and its environs, particularly by Londoners with working-class and lower middle class roots. The term ''Cockney'' is also used as a demonym for a person from the East End, ...

trader Smithers, tells Jones that the natives are planning a revolt against him. Full of bravado, Jones tells Smithers of the power which he has held over the island and that he has convinced the natives that he can only be killed by a silver bullet which he wears around his neck on a chain. Nevertheless, he tells Smithers that he is retiring as Emperor, has hidden supplies in the jungle, and plans make his escape to

Martinique Martinique ( ; or ; Kalinago language, Kalinago: or ) is an island in the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies, in the eastern Caribbean Sea. It was previously known as Iguanacaera which translates to iguana island in Carib language, Kariʼn ...

with all the money he has stolen from the islanders. ;Orchestral interlude Again a chanting chorus is heard

Act 2

Jones lies exhausted in the jungle, unable to find any of the supplies he had hidden. As darkness falls, and the drumbeats become louder and more insistent, he is beset by hallucinations from his past life. When he sees a vision of the man he had murdered in a craps game, he starts running through the jungle, tearing off pieces of his uniform until he is left in rags. He then has visions of a convict gang with a guard, and a slave auction with the auctioneer calling Jones to the block. He fires his gun at the phantoms until he has used up all his bullets save the silver one he wears around his neck. In a moment of lucidity, he reflects on his past life and probable fate and sings a

, "It's Me, O Lord, Standin' in de Need of Prayer". At dawn, he is still trying to find his way out of the jungle when a

witch doctor A witch doctor (also spelled witch-doctor), or witchcraft doctor, is a kind of magical healer who treats ailments believed to be caused by witchcraft. The term is often misunderstood, and they could more accurately be called "anti-witch doctors ...

appears. He grabs Jones and starts dancing wildly around him. When he is surrounded by the soldiers and natives who have been hunting him, Jones realizes that all is lost, puts the silver bullet into his gun, places the gun against his head and fires. Smithers stands over the dead Emperor and utters the final words of the opera: "Dead as an 'erring. Well, Gor blimey, yer died in a grand style any'ow."Smithers speaks

Cockney Cockney is a dialect of the English language, mainly spoken in London and its environs, particularly by Londoners with working-class and lower middle class roots. The term ''Cockney'' is also used as a demonym for a person from the East End, ...

English in both the play and the opera. The line in Standard English would be: "Dead as a

herring Herring are various species of forage fish, belonging to the Order (biology), order Clupeiformes. Herring often move in large Shoaling and schooling, schools around fishing banks and near the coast, found particularly in shallow, temperate wate ...

. Well, God bless me, you died in a grand style anyhow" The curtain falls as the drumbeats fade and the natives carry off Jones's body. The opera plot parts from the O’Neill play in one significant detail: the play has Jones killed by the natives while in the opera he takes his own life.

Recordings

There are no complete commercial recordings of ''The Emperor Jones''. The most famous piece from the opera, "It's Me, O Lord, Standin' in de Need of Prayer", was recorded on 19 January 1934 by Lawrence Tibbett and released by

RCA Victor RCA Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Group Corporation. It is one of Sony Music's four flagship labels, alongside Columbia Records (its former longtime rival), Arista Records and Epic ...

(Victor 7959, CS 81087–2) Lebendige Vergangenheit 89576, Germany. shortly after the premiere. Tibbett's recording was later re-issued on LP by

New World Records New World Records is a record label that was established in 1975 through a Rockefeller Foundation grant to celebrate America's bicentennial (1976) by producing a 100-LP anthology, with American music from many genres.Nimbus Records Nimbus Records is a British record company based at Wyastone Leys, Ganarew, Herefordshire. It specialises in classical music recordings and was the first company in the UK to produce compact discs. Description Nimbus was founded in 1972 by C ...

''Prima Voce'' series, on ''Souvenirs From American Operas'' from the International Record Collectors' Club, and on ''Lebendige Vergangenheit: Lawrence Tibbett''. A recording of the same piece sung by George London appears on ''George London: Of Gods and Demons'' from the

Sony is a Japanese multinational conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at Sony City in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. The Sony Group encompasses various businesses, including Sony Corporation (electronics), Sony Semiconductor Solutions (i ...

''Master Works'' series.

Notes and references

Sources

*Ewen, David (1944/2007)
"Gruenberg"
''Music for the Millions - The Encyclopedia of Musical Masterpieces''. Read Books. (originally published in 1944 by Arco Publishing Company) *Gauss, Rebecca B. (1994)

''The Eugene O'Neill Review'', Volume 18, Nos. 1 & 2, Spring/Fall 1994. *Hipsher, Edward Ellsworth
''American Opera and Its Composers''
Theodore Presser Company (1934) *Hurwitt, Elliott S. (2004) "New Negro Art Theater" in Cary D. Wintz, Paul Finkelman (eds.) ''Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance'', Vol. 2, p. 895. Routledge *'' Il Resto del Carlino'' (January 21, 2009)
"Prima assoluta sul palco delle Muse, Venerdì arriva 'The emperor Jones'"
*Kirk, Elise Kuhl (2001)
''American Opera''
University of Illinois Press. *

Archives
''The Emperor Jones''
MetOpera Database *Nash, Joe (2001)

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educat ...

*Nettles, Darryl Glenn (2003)
''African American Concert Singers Before 1950''
McFarland. *Pegolotti, James A. (2003)
''Deems Taylor: A Biography''

UPNE The University Press of New England (UPNE), located in Lebanon, New Hampshire and founded in 1970, was a university press consortium including Brandeis University, Dartmouth College (its host member), Tufts University, the University of New Hampsh ...

. *Shapiro, Marjorie Mackay (1994)
"A Strange Case: Louis Gruenberg's Forgotten 'Great American Opera'—''The Emperor Jones''"
in John Louis DiGaetani, Josef P. Sirefman (eds.) ''Opera and the Golden West: The Past, Present, and Future of Opera in the U.S.A.'', pp. 233–243. Fairleigh Dickinson University Press. *Sturm, George (1981

''MadAminA!''. Music Associates of America *''

Time Magazine ''Time'' (stylized in all caps as ''TIME'') is an American news magazine based in New York City. It was published weekly for nearly a century. Starting in March 2020, it transitioned to every other week. It was first published in New York Cit ...

'' (May 23, 1932)
"Native Opera"
*''Time Magazine'' (January 16, 1933)

* Tommasini, Anthony (February 16, 2001)
"The Emperor Jones"
''

'' * The Eugene O'Neil Review (Spring/Fall 2000) Shafer, Yvonne. The Eugene O’Neill Review of "The Emperor Jones", vol. 24, no. 1/2, Penn State University Press, 2000, pp. 148–51, http://www.jstor.org/stable/29784694.

External links

Audio clip: "It's Me, O Lord, Standin' in de Need of Prayer"
sung by Lawrence Tibbett from the Metropolitan Opera's website. It can also be accessed from thei
Sounds of The Met
page (track 55).
Lawrence Tibbett as Emperor Jones in Act 1
photograph from the Metropolitan Opera Archives
Lawrence Tibbett in his Act 2 costume
on the cover of ''

'', January 16, 1933
Louis Gruenberg: ''The Emperor Jones''
on G. Schirmer music publishers with information on the orchestration {{DEFAULTSORT:Emperor Jones, The Operas 1933 operas English-language operas Opera world premieres at the Metropolitan Opera Operas by Louis Gruenberg Operas based on plays Operas based on works by American writers Operas set in the Caribbean Adaptations of works by Eugene O'Neill