The Rle of Jewels in Opera Author(s): Frank Gardner Hale Source: The Musical Quarterly, Vol. 29, No.

4 (Oct., 1943), pp. 485-497 Published by: Oxford University Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/739424 . Accessed: 28/09/2013 10:00
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THE

ROLE OF JEWELS IN OPERA By FRANKGARDNERHALE

HE ROLE OF JEWELS in opera is a dual one. They play a part in the audience as well as on the stage. Ever since the origins of the "dramain music", duringthe last years of the i 6th century, the opera has been a social event and has furnisheda favorite occasion for the display of riches among the wealthy portion of the public. On the great gala nights of a not too distantpast, when "command performances"were given at Covent Garden in London, or there was theatre-pareat the royal and imperialoperahousesof the Continent, the multicoloreduniformsand decorationsof the men were eclipsed by the women's gowns and brilliant ornaments.At the MetropolitanOpera House in New York, the legendary "diamond horseshoe"was aptly named.The boxes, arrangedin a form resembling a horseshoe, were occupied by plutocracy. And it was a matter of national interest, worthy of publication in the press, whether Mrs. Astor had worn her pearls, Mrs. Stuyvesant Fish her diamond stomacher, or some fair visitor from South America had appearedwith an emeralddiadem of fabulous price crowning her sable locks. This part played by jewels-real jewels-in opera is perhaps the more obvious. It is less often realized what an importance pieces of jewelry-or their imitations-assume in the plots of certain operas.With this type of paste and bauble we are here chiefly concerned. In some plots, the function of the jewels is basic: they supply the motivating force that prompts the actions of the characters. Thus in Wolf-Ferrari's "Jewels of the Madonna",Camille Erlanger's Aphrodite, and the American one-act opera "The Temple Dancer", by John Adam Hugo, they lead to ruinous acts of sacrilege. The jewel-motif is introduced immediately in the WolfFerrariwork. The stage directions describingthe outdoor scene at the rise of the curtain tell us, among other things, of the presence of "worthy housewives"who are wearing "largeear-rings".Here we have the only ornament,still used by modern civilized nations, that once necessitateda mutilation of the body before it could be 485

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The Musical Quarterly 486 worn. (Today a clip arrangementavoids this piercing of the lobe to fit the ear-ring, which was as "brutal"as the perforation of another part of the human anatomy needed to accommodatethe "nose-ring".) An amusinganecdote is told of how ear-ringsfirst came to be worn. When women were discovered listening to secrets they were not supposed to hear, men, so it is claimed, had their ears pierced as a punishment,and later, feeling remorsefor the suffering they had caused,commissionedartisansto createear ornaments of gold and silver, often set with jewels, and presented them to the women in atonementfor the pain they had caused. Gennaro's theft of the Madonna's jewels for his loved one, Malliella,disclosesto view diadems,bracelets,necklaces,and other tokens of shimmeringbrilliance,which irresistiblyattractMalliella; while Gennaro falls on his knees before her, she, fascinatedby the glittering jewels, bows in an attitudeof adoration,takesup a necklace and kisses it, closing her eyes in ecstatic joy, unheeding her devoted lover. Before the fall of the final curtain,the act of sacrilege hasbrought down deathon both of them. In Erlanger's opera, based on the novel of Pierre Louys, Chrysis tells the sculptor Demetrios that he can win her only by presentingher with three gifts: a mirrorbelonging to the courtesan Bacchis, who has hidden it near the altarin the temple of Aphrodite; an ivory comb worn by the wife of the goddess'shigh priest; and a necklace of pearls adorningthe statue of Aphrodite herself. The infatuated lover satisfiesthe girl's demands, to the undoing of both of them. J. A. Hugo's opera,presentedat the Metropolitan Opera House in New York in I9I9 and in Chicago three years later, deals with the leading dancer in the Temple of Mahadeo. She has fallen in love with a youth of anotherfaith and determines to steal the jewels of the god and flee the temple to join him. After poisoning the temple guard, she tries to seize the jewels, but is struck dead by lightning. It must be admitted that the effect of jewels upon the deeds with which the operatic stage resoundsis usually a baleful one. If the casket of jewels that Mephistopheles provides to outshine Siebel's simple nosegay prompts Margueriteto warble rapturous trills and rouladesin the "Jewel Song", it is also a link in the chain of events that lead to her downfall. The unhappy fate of Puccini's Manon is likewise hastened by the influence of jewels. When

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The Role of Jewels in Opera 487 Manon and des Grieux are about to run away together from Geronte's house, she insists upon collecting her jewelry first. Geronte has meanwhile sent for the police, and the delay enables them to arrive before the lovers can escape. Manon is arrestedon Geronte's charge that she is an abandonedwoman. Similarly, in Massenet'sManon, the heroine's love of jewels contributesto her downfall, but it is not exploited in the construction of the plot. In the first act she is deflected from her intention of proceeding to the convent by the sight of a group of beautiful and bejewelled women. One of the most delicate and pathetic touches in the opera is that in the last act, when, towards nightfall, as she is dying in des Grieux's arms,she suddenly sees the first star shining brightly in the heavens and exclaims, "Ah! the beautiful diamond!", then looks at her lover with a wry smile and says, "You see, I am still a coquette." In a differentway, jewels lead to the destructionof the faithful Lakme. In Act i, the scene of which is a temple in an Indianforest, two English girls, accompaniedby their officious chaperon, Mrs. Benson, are taking a morning stroll with two English officers, Gerald and Frederick, and-despite the protestsof both chaperon and officers,who recognize the retreatas belonging to the vengeful Brahmin priest, Nilakantha-they break down the bamboo barrier. One of the girls, Rose, discoverssome jewels lying on a stone table; the girls are so delighted by them that the other one, Ellen, suggests that her fiance Gerald remainto make drawings of them. Left alone, Gerald ponders about the lovely person for whom these jewels must have been created and, upon detecting Lakme, the daughter of the priest, returning from the forest, conceals himself in the shrubbery; but she discovers him and warns him that to remain means death. Later, when Gerald is stabbedby the enragedpriest, he is nursedby Lakme, who drinksthe juice of the deadly datura flower when she discovers that Frederick's taunts have sent him back to the army-all this love and tragedy because of some gems that brought Gerald under the spell of the daughterof Nilakantha. The operatic heroine who suffersthe most violent demisewith benefit of jewels is doubtlessLa Gioconda. Having bargainedwith the spy Barnaba,offering herself to him in exchange for his aid in the escape of the imprisonedEnzo Grimaldo,whom she loves, she pretends to adorn herself with mock jewels in Barnaba'shonor,

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488

The Musical Quarterly only to make her way, in the process, towards a dagger that lies nearthem and to plunge it into her heart.Matchingthis catastrophe are the two murdersin Max von Schillings'sMona Lisa. Giovanni Salviati comes from Rome to Florence to purchase a pink pearl for the Pope from the merchant Messer Francesco, who owns a house beside the Arno and a fine collection of jewels. His wife, Mona Lisa, had once been betrothed to Giovanni but. had been compelled to marry Francesco againsther will. She and Giovanni agree to flee, but are surprisedby her husband.Giovanni hides in the jewel vault. Francesco deliberatelylocks the vault and throws the key out towards the Arno. In the next act the key is returned to Mona Lisa; it had fallen into a boat, not into the river. She pretends that she wishes to wear a particularpearl necklace and asks Francesco to open the vault. When he does so, she pushes him in, turns the key, and proceeds to go to Mass. It is thus that the librettist seeks to explain the enigmaticalsmile on the face of da Vinci's famous subject. It is with relief that one turns to an occasionalopera in which jewels do not bring evil in their train. In Henry Rabaud'sMarouf, they figure in the high jinks that make up the fantastic plot. Circumstancesconspire to make an impostor of Marouf, a poor cobbler of Cairo who, as a result of shipwreck, finds himself at Khaitan. He tells the Sultan of the place that his caravanis on its way to Khaitan bearing unheard-of riches. He promises the Sultan thirty bags of precious stones and is given the Sultan'sdaughterin marriage.They fall seriously in love. No caravanarrives.Difficulties ensue. Finally these are solved by a genie who appearswhen the Princesspolishesa rusty ring that Maroufhas found. A caravan is summoned out of nowhere-and it contains thirty bags of precious stones. Jewels run as a sort of leit-motif through the second scene of the second act of another opera of the fairy-tale type, Rimsky-Korsakov'sSadko. At the rise of the curtain the chorus examinesthe wares that the foreign merchantshave brought to Novgorod and sings its admirationfor the precious pearls of the Hindus and for the chessmenmade of solid gold. Later Sadko throws his net into Lake Ilmen and catches the three fishes with golden scales, about which the PrincessVolkhova had told him in Act i. In the finale of the scene, the merchantsdescribethe wonders of their native lands-the Hindu, in the too famous "Song of India", says that the earth of his country is rich with innumer-

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The Role of Jewels in Opera 489 able diamonds and its seas with incalculablepearls;the Venetian hymns the glories of the city of marble,whose Doge weds the sea with a ring of gold. In Albert Wolff's L'Oiseau bleu, based on Maeterlinck's play, Tyltyl receives from the Fairy Berylune a magic cap with a wonderful diamond. This stone has the power of revealing the past and the future and of making dumb animals and inanimate objects articulate.The cat, the dog, the fire, milk, sugar, light, and bread all eventually become vocal. The silver rose which Octavian, as proxy for Baron Ochs, is charged with presentingto Sophie, in Der Rosenkavalier,provides the occasion for his transferringto her the affection he had formerly felt for the Marschallinand thus opens the way for the final union of the two young people. In Puccini's La Boheme, jewels go so far as to lead to a deed of kindness-but it is quite inconspicuous. When, in the last act, the fatally ill Mimi returnsto the attic of the four Bohemians,Musetta gives her ear-ringsto Marcello 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 yet failed to charm women and hold them in thrall, there are at least four operatic heroinesupon whom precious stones cast no irresistible spell. The lively Margiana,in Cornelius'sdelightful "Barber of Bagdad", cajoles the Cadi, her father, into thinking that she is interested in the jewels and other gifts his venerable friend Selim has sent her in an effort to win her hand.
Cadi: Behold these rings! For arms and ears and fingers, Diamonds and emeralds, beauty-crowned! Margiana: And rubies! Red as love's own heart they glow.

But she really agreeswith her confidante that "A youthful lover's the best treasureever." The Wilde-Strauss Salome also prefers the man she loves to jewels, but her love, if it can be so called, takesthe form of ghastly perversion:
Herod: I have an emerald, a great emerald and round, that the minion of Caesar has sent unto me. When thou lookest through this emerald thou canst see that which passeth afar off. It is the largest emerald in the whole world. Ask it of me and I will give it thee. Salome: I demand the head of Iokanaan.

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The Musical Quarterly 490 Later he offers her "a collar of pearls,set in four rows", topazes, opals.
Herod: I have chrysolites and beryls, and chrysophrases and rubies; I have sardonyxand hyacinthstones,and stones of chalcedony;and I will give them all unto thee, all, and other things I will add to them.

But the answer is still: "Give me the head of Iokanaan!"Herodias draws the ring of death from the hand of the Tetrarch and gives it to a soldier, who bearsit straightwayto the executioner. In Auber's Diamants de la Couronne, Theophila, who is actually the Queen of Portugalin disguise,seeks out a gang of counterfeiters in order to replace the genuine crown diamondsby false gems. She sells the real jewels to save the state from ruin. She also provides it with a king-Enriquez, who loved her when she appearedto be only poor Theophila and whom she selects in preference to the Infante of Spain. The heroine created by Maeterlinck for Dukas's Ariane et Barbe-Bleuealso prizes something above jewels; this time, however, it is liberty. In Act I, Ariane and her Nurse enter the great castle. Ariane is his sixth wife. He has given her hall of Bluebeard's six silver keys and one of gold. With the silver keys she may do as she pleases,but the use of the golden key is forbidden.It is the only one that interests her. The Nurse, however, opens six doors with the silver keys. When she unlocks the first door, amethysts,set in diadems, bracelets, rings, and girdles, rush forth in a shimmering stream. The opening of the next four doors releasesshowers of sapphires, pearls, emeralds, and rubies. Ariane is not greatly moved.
Nurse: You meanyou love them not? Ariane: If I love aught, 'tis more beauteousthan the rarestjewels.

But Ariane is still a woman. When the sixth door releasesa torrent of glittering diamonds,she hailsthem rapturously:
Ariane:Omy diamondsrare! It was-notyou I sought, but on my way I saluteyou!

She is not, however, distractedfrom her purpose.With the golden key she herself unlocks the seventh door and hears, out of the darkness,the voices of the five lost wives. Surprisedby Bluebeard, she nevertheless,in Act II, leads the five wives, ragged and wan, out into the sunshine.In Act III she helps to adorn the wives with

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The Role of Jewels in Opera 491 the jewels and other finery. Bluebeardapproaches.Peasants,outraged by the rumors they have heard, enter and wound and bind him. Ariane tends his wounds and cuts his bonds, then kisses him gently and bids him adieu. She asksthe other wives to follow her, but they prefer their servitude, and she takes her leave with the Nurse. Bracelets, necklaces, rings-all these and more play their part in the never-neverland of the operaticworld. While in Massenet's Cendrillon the glass-slipperof the Cinderellalegend performs its familiar function, in Rossini's La Cenerentolait is replaced, as an instrumentof recognition, by a pair of matching bracelets,one of which Cenerentola has given the Prince at the ball and one of which she has retained. More sinisteris the role of the bracelet in Cilea'sAdriana Lecouvreur. Here the heroine is not certain of the identity of her rival until a bracelet, dropped inadvertently in a garden,is shown her, and she recognizes it as belonging to the perfidious Princesse de Bouillon. When the bracelet is displayed to the guests at the princess's salon, the conflict between the two women is brought out into the open, and runs its course until it ends in the treacherouspoisoning of Adrianaby the princess. It is a necklace that points the way to recognition in Bizet's Les Pecheurs de Perles. Each year a woman is chosen by the elders of a tribe in Ceylon to mount the rocks above their village and pray to Brahmafor the pearl fishers.None may approachher or look upon her face. This year Leila is chosen. Zurga, the king, promises her that if she is faithful the fisherswill save for her the most beautiful pearl that they gather; if she is not, she must die. She gives her oath to serve faithfully but breaksit before the end of the first act. Many years earlier,Zurgaand his friend Nadir had seen a beautifulwoman in a temple and had fallen in love with her. A quarrel had ensued and Nadir had left the village, but he has now returned after a long absenceand the old friendshiphas been renewed. Nadir recognizes Leila as the woman of the temple and she also remembers him. She lifts her veil for an instant. Later, when the priest Nourabad tells Leila that her vigil is about to begin, she narratesto him a tale of her past: when she was a child she saved a fugitive from pursuit,and in gratitudehe gave her a chain which she still possesses. The priest departs. Nadir arrives, and there is a love scene. The priest surprisesthe lovers, and they are threatened with death by the pearl fishers.Zurga enters and tries

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The Musical Quarterly to calm the people. The priest tears away Leila's veil, and Zurga, too, sees in her the woman of the temple. Maddenedby jealousy, he no longer seeks to protect the lovers. Leila comes to his tent to plead for Nadir's life. Zurga is obdurate.As Leila is led away, she removes a necklace and gives it to a young fisher, asking that he have it given to her mother after her death.Zurgarecognizesit and tears it from the fisher'shands.He was the fugitive Leila had saved in her childhood, and the necklace is the chain he had given her. On the day appointed for the sacrifice, Zurga, now determined to save the lovers, sets fire to the camp. The lovers flee, and Zurga, whose treachery to the tribe is discovered, is led to the stake in their stead. A necklace is important also to the plot of Massenet'sDon Quichotte. In this version of Cervantes'immortalstory, the beautiful Dulcinea, amused by Don Quixote's wooing, promises she will be his loved one if he will recover for her a necklace that has been stolen from her by brigands.The knight and Sanchoset forth. Don Quixote tests his valor by charging some hogs and by attacking a windmill. Finally he tracks down the brigands,but is captured by them. Their hearts are so touched by his courage and devotion that they give him the necklace and set him free. He returnsto Dulcinea, who rejoices over the recovered necklace and embraces the knight. He wishes to marry her, but she confesses she is not the sort of woman he believed her to be. The knight is grateful for her candor and assertsthat his love for her will never end. In the last act he dies after declaringthat he has given Sancho the island he had promised him in their wanderings, the most beautifulof all islands-the Islandof Dreams. In Giordano'sFedora,it is the oath that Sardou'sheroinemakes on a Byzantine jewelled cross, worn on her breast, that brings about the final catastrophe.She swears on it to avenge the murder of her betrothed, only to fall in love with the murderer,flee with him, and marry him. Learning that she had set the secret service on his track before their escape and that, as a result of his act, his brother has died in prison and his mother has died of shock, he is about to kill her, when she swallows poison in despair.He repents and pleads with her to live, but it is too late and she dies. Jewelled medallionsfigure in Fra Diavalo and "The Bohemian Girl". In the Auber opera, Lady PamelaAllcash owns a medallion surroundedby jewels, which is abstractedfrom her by the bandit
492

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The Role of Jewels in Opera 493 chief who gives the work its name. It is the effort to recover this, as well as other property stolen from Lord and Lady Allcash, that resultsin the trappingof the brigandby Lorenzo, the bright young officer of dragoons who loves Zerlina, the innkeeper's daughter, and whose success wins him his bride. In Balfe's old opera, a "medallion in diamonds"is stolen from the fop Florestein by Devilshoof, the gypsy. The Gypsy Queen gives it to the young and beautiful Arline, a member of her band, intending it to be a snare. She wants the girl to be found with the filched article and to be arrestedas a result. For the Queen loves Thaddeus, a Polish fugitive who, in turn, loves Arline. The girl is apprehended and brought before Count Arnheim who, through a scar on her arm, recognizes her as his long-lost daughter.The machinationsof the Queen are bared and, after various complications, Arline and Thaddeus are united. However efficacious other pieces of set jewelry may be in carrying out the mandatesof the operatic fates, none can surpass the power of the ring. The specimen fashionedby Alberich in the depths of Nibelheim would alone suffice to give the ring preeminence. The curse he pronounces on all who possessit engulfs in disaster Fasolt and Fafner, Siegfried and Briinnhilde, Hagen, and even Wotan, king of the gods. Rings serve more modest purposesin works of less grand proportions. A magic ring, given to him by Finn, the wizard, enables the hero of Glinka's "Russianand Ludmila"to breakthe spell that has been cast by the evil dwarf Tchernomor and that holds the heroine in a deep sleep from which it hasbeen impossibleto awaken her. In "Martha",a ring establishesthe identity of Lionel, the foster-brother of the farmer, Plunkett. Long before the time of the stage-action, a fugitive, an aged man dying from exhaustion, had entrusted the infant Lionel to Plunkett's mother. With the child he gave her a ring and told her that if misfortune ever threatened the boy she should show it to the queen. When misfortune finally does dog Lionel as a result of his love for Martha, he asks Plunkett to show the ring to Queen Anne and to plead his cause. The ring proves Lionel to be the son and heir of the Earl of Derby, who had died after a plot to bring James II back from France had ended in failure. Poisoned rings figure in II Trovatore and Euryanthe. In the former, Leonora, having agreed to submit herself to the Count

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The MusicalQuarterly

di Luna in exchange for his releasing her imprisonedlover Manrico, swallows poison from her ring as she and the Count go to Manrico's cell to set him free. Manrico, in amazement, asks Leonora how she has obtained his freedom and accuses her of having sold herself, only to see her fall to the ground and die. In Weber's opera, we learn from Euryanthe that Emma, the sister of her lover Adolar, had taken poison from a ring when her own lover was killed in battle and that Emma had appeared before Euryanthe and Adolar one night to tell them that her spirit could find no peace until the tears of an innocent, falsely accused, had been shed upon the ring, which she still wears in her tomb. In the course of a wildly fantastic plot, the ring is removed from the tomb by Eglantine, the villainessof the piece, Euryanthe qualifies as the tearful innocent, and the ghost of Emma is duly laid. The Marquisof Saluzzo, in Massenet'sGriselidis, pledges his ring to the devil when the two enter into a wager concerning the Marquis'swife, the patient Griselda-the same lady whose virtues are extolled by Boccaccio and Chaucer.The devil bets that he can successfully tempt Griselda while the Marquis is away fighting against the Saracens;the Marquishas faith in his wife. In his absence, the devil comes to the castle in disguise, accompaniedby his own wife, Fiamina, whom he presents to Griselda as a slave belonging to the Marquis. He states that the Marquis wishes Griselda to yield her place to Fiamina,whom she is to serve and obey in all things. He shows Griselda the ring as a sign that he indeed comes from her husband. Griselda bows to what she believes to be the Marquis'swill and overcomes all the snares of Satan.The ending is happy. It is to be expected that rings as tokens of love-marital or premarital-should appear rather frequently. At least one of them comes in for particularlyrough treatment. In Lucia, Edgar, once the sextet is disposed of, asks Lucy whether the signatureon the marriagecontract is really hers.
Lucy: Yes! Edgar (stifling his rage, he gives her his ring): Then take back thy token, perfidious heart; the one I gave thee, return me! (Lucy, in her anguish scarcely knowing what she is doing, takes off her ring, which Edgar snatches from her.) Edgar (throws it down and stamps on it): Thou'st betray'd me 'fore heaven and earth.

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The Role of Jewels in Opera 495 An engagement ring figures again in La Sonnambula. Early in the opera, Elvino sings Prendi l'anel ti dono ("Take now the ring I give thee") as he removes a ring from his finger and slips it upon Amina's.When, as a result of her tendency to walk in her sleep, she is discovered in Count Rudolph's bed, Elvino denounces her and takes back his ring. Later he actually sees her in a somnambulistic trance and is convinced of the truth of her protestationsand of the Count's that she is innocent. In her sleep she searchesfor the ring. She hears Elvino's voice and asks that the "little ring" be restored to her. Whereupon he returns it to the finger of the still unawakenedgirl. While intoxicated, the pirate who gives the opera Zampa its name places a ring upon the finger of the statueof a deadgirl whom he had seduced, and promisesto wed her the next day. When he tries to remove the ring, the marblehand closes on it. On the morrow he proposes that another girl, Camilla, become his bride as ransom for her father, who is his prisoner. A vision of the dead girl appears and menacingly points to the ring on her finger. Zampaneverthelessweds Camillaand is finally carriedoff, locked in the terribleembraceof the statue. On her visit to the court 6f King Solomon, the Queen of Sheba, in Goldmark's opera, attends the wedding ceremony of Assad and Sulamith in the great temple the king has built, and brings a golden dish filled with pearlsas a gift for the bride. After the High Priest extendsa ring to Assad and pronouncesthe words: "I, by this ring, do pledge to thee-", Assad tries to repeat the words, but suddenly hurls the ring away. He has caught sight of the Queen, whom he had once beheld bathing in a streamand for whom he has since been obsessedwith an unholy passion. Modern opera-goers probably remember best among "stage" wedding-rings the one that Melisande plays with beside the well and tosses so high that it falls into the bottomlesswater and is lost. Golaud-who has been thrown from his horse and injured at the precise moment when the ring sank into the pool-by his discovery of the loss sets in motion the sequence of events that ultimately bring death to both Pelleas and Melisande. Not only jewels, but jewellers themselveshave contributed to the dramaof the opera stage. Benvenuto Cellini is the hero of the Berlioz opera named after him, but it is as a sculptor, lover, and scapegracethat he appearsin it rather than as a goldsmith. Such a

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The Musical Quarterly 496 craftsman,however, does treadthe boardsin Hindemith'sCardillac von Scuderi. (1926), based on E. T. A. Hoffmann's Das Friaulein Cardillacis a goldsmith, so enamoredof his own handiwork that he steals back from his customers the jewelry he sells them and murdersone of them after anotheruntil he himself meets a violent death. The same jeweller had already appearedas the protagonist of Der Goldschmied von Toledo (I918), the music of which is drawn (by JuliusStern and Alfred Zamara)from the considerable musical remainsof Offenbach-mainly from an unfinishedopera. The libretto shifts the locale from France to Spain to accommodate the use of some Spanish ballet music. Flotow and Albert Grisar are responsiblefor a work entitled Le Joaillerde St. James (1862), a revised version of their "Lady Melvil" (1838). Eleazar, in La Juive, is a goldsmith. His putative daughterRachel is loved by Prince Leopold, disguised as a young Jew, Samuel. Leopold has just returned from his victory over the Hussites. All three are among a group celebrating the Passover at Eleazar'shouse when Princess Eudoxia, the wife of the Prince, arrives. She has heard that Eleazarpossessesa magnificentpiece of jewelry. He says that it is an incrusted chain once worn by the Emperor Constantine. She orders him to engrave her monogram and Leopold's on the chain, as well as their coats of arms,and to bring it to her the next day at the palace. Leopold conceals his presence from Eudoxia but not his agitation from Rachel, to whom he later confesses the truth. Eleazar,accompaniedby Rachel, deliversthe chain according to instructions.A great feast in honor of Leopold is in progress. Eudoxia rises and, in the name of the Emperor,bids Leopold kneel and receive a gift from her hands. Rachel recognizes him and, infuriated,snatchesthe chain from him and gives it back to Eudoxia. She denounces the Prince. CardinalBrogni, Eleazar'sold enemy, curses Leopold, Eleazar, and Rachel. The Cardinal, before his entry into the service of the Church, had lost his wife and infant daughter when his palace in Rome was destroyed by fire. He is not an ill-disposed man, but an instrument of relentless fate. Eleazar,on his way to trial, tells the Cardinalthat his daughterhad been saved from the flames,but refuses to reveal where she is. The Prince is exiled;Eleazarand Rachel-who is actually the Cardinal's daughter-are condemnedto death.Eleazar,who has come to love Rachel as though she were his own child, considersrevealing her identity in orderto save her life but, hearingthe cries and impreca-

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The Role of Jewels in Opera 497 tions of the bloodthirsty crowd, refuses to hand her over to his and her persecutors. As she is hurled into a boiling cauldron, Eleazar screams at the Cardinalthat she is his lost daughter, and himself proceeds to execution. Some of the operas to which reference has been made have jewels mentioned even in their titles-Les Pecheurs de Perles, "The Jewels of the Madonna",Les Diamants de la Couronne, to say nothing of Der Ring des Nibeluhgen. To this list might be added Siegfried Salomon's Das Diamantkreuz (1847), Adolphe Adam's Le Bijozu perdu (I853), Ignaz Briill's Das goldene Kreuz (1874), and Benjamin Godard's Les Bijoux de Jeannette. (The title of Erich Korngold's Der Ring des Polykratesrefers only secondarily to a ring that appearsin the course of the action, the main allusion being to Schiller's ballad of the same name; the title of Felicien David's La Perle du Bresiluses the word Perle only figuratively, the metaphor being a complimentary description of the heroine.) If we were to add also the operas in which jewels appear as mere accessories,the list would be almost endless. We need recall only the jewels requiredin the coronationscenes of BorisGodunov and Le Prophete; the diadem and other jewels worn in Act II by Tosca, fresh from her cantatasinging before Queen Caroline;the pageantry demanding the glamor of gems in such works as Aida, Le Roi de Lahore,Les Huguenots. This brief survey of the use of jewels in operahasled us widely through the musical literature of the stage. Much as Sir James Frazer's investigation of the lore connected with a single object, the golden bough from the sacred grove at Nemi, led him into a I2-volume excursion through the customs and literaturesof peoples throughout the world, so this cursory glance at one motif in opera-which may, after all, be regarded as a sophisticatedkind of folk-lore-has shown the extraordinaryprevalence of this one theme and the remarkablevariety with which it has been used by many composersand librettists.

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