
Prepare for Saints
Gertrude Stein, Virgil Thomson, and the Mainstreaming of American Modernism
Steven Watson(Author)
University of California Press
1st Edition
Will be published approx. on 16. July 2000
Book
Paperback/Softback
380 pages
978-0-520-22353-0 (ISBN)
Description
Perhaps the oddest and most influential collaboration in the history of American modernism was hatched in 1926, when a young Virgil Thomson knocked on Gertrude Stein's door in Paris. Eight years later, their opera "Four Saints in Three Acts" became a sensation - the longest-running opera in Broadway history to date and the most widely reported cultural event of its time. "Prepare for Saints" is Steven Watson's brilliant and absorbing account of how that revolutionary opera was born.
Reviews / Votes
"Mr. Watson does an engaging job of conjuring up the overlapping worlds his subjects inhabited: the feud-ridden expatriate community in Paris where Thomson and Stein met in the 1920's and the trend-setting bohemia of 1930's New York, where Thomson would find the patrons and promoters who would get Four Saints produced." -- Michiko Kakutani, * New York Times * "Watson doesn't miss an angle on the story of how these forces came together and eventually took the show from its Hartford, Conn., premier to a smash Broadway run: Thompson's odyssey from small-town America to cosmopolitan composer; Stein's brilliant writing and imperious holding of court; the involvement of Philip Johnson and the fledgling Museum of Modern Art. Most refreshingly, Watson details the inseparability of African-American artists and culture from the opera, from the sexual stereotypes of the era and from modernism at large." * Publishers Weekly * "It may seem a bit much to credit one operatic extravaganza for America's embrace of Modernism, but Watson makes a compelling argument without overstating his case. Even more importantly, he makes the complex production and the amazing cast of participants and supporters come alive in compulsively readable prose that will engage any reader." * Library Journal * "As a cultural historian, Watson's work goes beyond the scope of libretto and music. Using "Four Saints" as his focus, he combines his commentary on the collaboration between Stein and Thomson with an exploration of the roles of the New York salon hosts and Harvard colleagues who, as friends of Thomson and advocates of modernism, helped make the opera a reality. By this means, he creates a rich portrait of the northeastern avant-garde scene, filled with quirky stories about speakeasies, drunken parties, homosexual rendezvous, and late-night trips to the Hot-Cha Bar and Grill in Harlem. . . . [Watson] tells a compelling story, one that combines the critical eye of hindsight with a sense of nostalgia for a work that, at least in the minds of its collaborators, stood for 'the best part of our lives.'" * American Music * "A wide-ranging account . . . [and] presentation of a pivotal cultural moment." * Kirkus Reviews *More details
Edition
First Edition
Language
English
Place of publication
Berkerley
United States
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Illustrations
91 black-and-white images
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
Thickness: 25 mm
Weight
590 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-520-22353-0 (9780520223530)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Steven Watson is a cultural historian of the American avant-garde. He is the author of Harlem Renaissance (1995), The Birth of the Beat Generation (1995), and Strange Bedfellows: The First American Avant-Garde (1991).
Content
ACT I: CONCEPT
Prologue: Introducing Four Saints in Three Acts
1. The World of 27, Rue de Fleurus
2. Virgil Thomson: Roots in Time and Place
3. Virgil and Gertrude Write an Opera
4. A Transatlantic Love Affair
5. Virgil Thomson Visits America
ACT II: TASTE
6. Young Harvard Moderns
7. A Personal Break, a Commercial Breakthrough
8. Group Snapshot 1932: The Harvard Moderns
9. The World of the Stettheimers
10. High Bohemia and Modernism
11. Modernism Goes Uptown
ACT III: SHOW
12. Negotiations and Exchanges
13. Snapshots: Summer 1933
14. Collaborators: Not the Usual Suspects
15. Rehearsals in Harlem
16. Opening Night
17. Four Saints Goes to Broadway
EPILOGUE
18. Aftermath
Notes
Bibliography
Acknowledgments
Index
Prologue: Introducing Four Saints in Three Acts
1. The World of 27, Rue de Fleurus
2. Virgil Thomson: Roots in Time and Place
3. Virgil and Gertrude Write an Opera
4. A Transatlantic Love Affair
5. Virgil Thomson Visits America
ACT II: TASTE
6. Young Harvard Moderns
7. A Personal Break, a Commercial Breakthrough
8. Group Snapshot 1932: The Harvard Moderns
9. The World of the Stettheimers
10. High Bohemia and Modernism
11. Modernism Goes Uptown
ACT III: SHOW
12. Negotiations and Exchanges
13. Snapshots: Summer 1933
14. Collaborators: Not the Usual Suspects
15. Rehearsals in Harlem
16. Opening Night
17. Four Saints Goes to Broadway
EPILOGUE
18. Aftermath
Notes
Bibliography
Acknowledgments
Index