"Troubled Island" Opera Music - William Grant Still
Channel: Sergio Cánovas
Date: 2019-06-17

New York City Opera Orchestra conducted by Laszlo Halasz.

I - Act I: 0:00
II - Act II: 37:40
III - Act III: 1:04:36

"Troubled Island" is an American opera in three acts composed by William Grant Still, with a libretto begun by poet Langston Hughes and completed by Verna Arvey, who married the composer following their collaboration. In 1949, Still's opera was performed by the New York City Opera and became the first opera by an African-American to be performed by a major company.

The opera tells the story of Jean Jacques Dessalines, an African slave who liberated Haiti from French rule to become its emperor in the late 18th century. Dessalines, who ruled Haiti from 1803-1806, incites the revolt against the ruling French. 

The first act is set in front of an abandoned sugar mill. Dessalines, his wife, Azelia, his aged friend, Martel, and other slaves gather together to wait for the voodoo priests. Once everyone has gathered, the priests declare that it is time to strike for freedom. Dessalines is chosen as leader of their rebellion against the white man.

The second act is set in the palace of the emperor, several years later [after the revolution]. Dessalines is now Emperor, but all is not well in his small kingdom. His secretary, Vuval, mocks him for wanting such nonsense as schools for Haiti. Dessalines laments to Martel that he wishes for a separate black land where people will always be free, but Martel tells him that Haiti must be the land of freedom for all people, white and black.

Dessalines has divorced Azelia and taken as his Empress the beautiful mulatto Claire. Claire is secretly in love with Vuval, and together they plot to overthrow Dessalines and escape to Paris. Azelia, ever faithful, tries to warn Dessalines of the danger awaiting him but is rebuffed by the guards. A large, opulent banquet and ballet are announced, and there is much frenetic dancing and drumming. After the banquet's drums cease, incessant, distant drumming can now be heard in the jungle: The people have risen against Dessalines's rule.

The third act is set in a quay in a fishing village. Dessalines is set upon by Vuval and other soldiers and is eventually shot in the back by Vuval. After Dessalines is assassinated, he is mourned only by the faithful Azelia. The music of Still is tonal, mildly dissonant, with  influences of blues, tropical music and the use of Haitian traditional melodies.

The opera was premiered at the New York City Opera on March 31, 1949. The premiere performance was greeted with 22 curtain calls. However, critical reaction to the work ranged from mixed-to-negative. Time Magazine complained “Composer Still's music, sometimes lusciously scored, sometimes naively melodic, often had more prettiness than power. In all, Troubled Island had more of the souffle of operetta than the soup bone of opera.”

John Briggs of the New York Post opined that “one was never sure one was hearing a first-rate performance of an inferior work or a second-rate performance of a good one,” while Miles Kastendieck, writing for both the New York Journal-American and the Christian Science Monitor, stated that Still’s music was “the result is a mixture of styles signifying talent and a feel for opera but achieving little more than a suggestion of it.”

Years later, Judith Still, the daughter of Still and Arvey, stated that the New York critics intentionally panned Troubled Island due to racism. “Howard Taubmann (a critic and friend of Still) came to my father and said "Billy, because I’m your friend I think that I should tell you this: the critics have had a meeting to decide what to do about your opera. They think the colored boy has gone far enough and they have voted to pan your opera." And that was it. In those days, critics had that kind of influence.” 

Following its premiere, New York City Opera staged two additional presentations, on April 1 and May 1 of 1949. To date, New York City Opera has never revived the work, and it has not been widely seen since.

Picture: "Battle of San Domingo" or "Battle for Palm Tree Hill" (1845) by the Polish painter January Suchodolski.

Sources from the booklet of the recording.