Hammerstein research
8 September 2016 01:57 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
igenlodeI've just spent a considerable time trying to establish exactly what opera with which singers really did open Oscar Hammerstein I's Manhattan Opera House: one source claims that it was "Norma" (hard to picture Christine Daaé rehearsing the role of Norma) but in fact it seems to have been another Bellini opera, "I Puritani", with the obscure Polish soprano Regine Pinkert in the lead. (In fact it looks as if this may have been the end for her of a career that started in 1892.)
But sadly for Andrew Lloyd Webber's plot, this opening night was actually December 3rd 1906 -- so Christine could hardly have been engaged "to open his new Manhattan Opera House" in summer 1907! Perhaps I should theorise that it was actually the start of a new season that she was supposed to be promoting... or simply feel at liberty to imitate the historical inaccuracy of the source material :-p
I thought I'd successfully patched last night's plot holes, but unfortunately I've come to the conclusion that Hammerstein really does need to attempt to meet Christine & co. at the dockside but get frustrated in this by the Phantom. Otherwise you end up with the Phantom's whole plan only succeeeding because of massive coincidence -- my previous elaborate explanation for the absence of a reception party simply isn't something that he could have anticipated. And given that my story is calling prominent attention to this ignored loose end in the plot, it does tend to raise the obvious question as to how the kidnap was intended to work in the first place.
So instead of René Pontpers getting mixed up over the state of the tide, we need to provide a means of potential sabotage for the official reception committee -- which might as well then feature Oscar Hammerstein in person, as promised. And we then need to provide an explanation of why, having missed her at the docks, they don't realise until the next morning that Christine is actually not at the hotel...
But sadly for Andrew Lloyd Webber's plot, this opening night was actually December 3rd 1906 -- so Christine could hardly have been engaged "to open his new Manhattan Opera House" in summer 1907! Perhaps I should theorise that it was actually the start of a new season that she was supposed to be promoting... or simply feel at liberty to imitate the historical inaccuracy of the source material :-p
I thought I'd successfully patched last night's plot holes, but unfortunately I've come to the conclusion that Hammerstein really does need to attempt to meet Christine & co. at the dockside but get frustrated in this by the Phantom. Otherwise you end up with the Phantom's whole plan only succeeeding because of massive coincidence -- my previous elaborate explanation for the absence of a reception party simply isn't something that he could have anticipated. And given that my story is calling prominent attention to this ignored loose end in the plot, it does tend to raise the obvious question as to how the kidnap was intended to work in the first place.
So instead of René Pontpers getting mixed up over the state of the tide, we need to provide a means of potential sabotage for the official reception committee -- which might as well then feature Oscar Hammerstein in person, as promised. And we then need to provide an explanation of why, having missed her at the docks, they don't realise until the next morning that Christine is actually not at the hotel...
