Scan 14
Musical Courier 1902-02-12: Vol 44 Iss 1142, 1902
18 lines. Read by computer on 22 September 2026. Printed page 15. See the scan on archive.org.
1knows many arts, to brew for her a love potion. The jealous Urok refuses, but when Ulana gives him a "love glance" he finally yields and promises the philtre. (Scene 7.) The quite dramatic intercourse is interrupted by the young people of the village who appear upon the scene to celebrate the harvest feast with song and dance. Thus the ballet, with a chorus accompaniment, comes in quite naturally and logically. At the close the dancers all surround Ulana. The boys ask her to dance with them.
3In vain Ulana tries to evade them. (Scene 8.) At this moment the gypsy Manru makes his appearance from the woods. The rage of the village boys against the intruder and interloper is awakened, and when he attempts to rescue Ulana from their embraces they show fight. (Scene 9.) The scrimmage of so many against one who defends himself single handed and with odds of a hundred to one against him is put a stop to by the sudden reappearance of Hedwig. She saves the lives of Manru and Ulana, but curses them as persons that should be shunned as if they were struck by pestilence. While the loving couple embrace in firm conjugal resolution of holding together against the entire world, the multitude withdraws from them shyly and with awe and the curtain drops amid an almost painful silence. It lasted only a few seconds, for, immediately the spellbound listeners had recovered the sense of the place and of their own identity, a storm of applause broke forth, which caused the curtain to be raised half a dozen times or more and brought forth upon the scene the principals engaged in the act, but no—Paderewski!
5Act II. In the retired nook in the woods, where his decrepit hut stands, Manru is seen busy in his blacksmith shop in the courtyard. From the interior of the hut resounds Ulana's lullaby, as she rocks her child to sleep. Ulana's soft, motherly love seems to irritate the passionate gypsy, and in wild utterings he confesses that he repents of having left his brethren and of being weighted down by matrimonial chains. Ulana, coming forth from the hut, essays to soothe him in his abjectness, but he answers her only with bitter self-reproaches. His irate frame of mind awakens in Ulana the suspicion and care that he is tired of her and wants to leave her. This rouses Manru's anger still more, and in fury he raises his hand to strike his wife. (Scene 1.) Urok, however, has crept up in time and interferes with the blow. With malice he talks of the passions that secretly pester Manru's fettered existence, and the dwarfish imp prophesies that they cannot much longer be restrained and will then completely destroy Ulana's happiness. And, like a verification of this prophecy, there resounds at this very moment from the woods the fiddle of one of the gypsies of Manru's tribe.
7The melancholy national strain of music wakes up Manru's longing for his brethren, and though both Ulana and Urok try to restrain him, he rushes forth in the direction from where the fiddle sounded in order to find the player. (Scene 2.) Ulana is in perfect despair, when Urok, touched by her anxiety and grief, hands her the promised love potion. (Scene 3.) Then Manru returns from the woods with the fiddler, an old gypsy named Jagu. They hold a confab, overheard by Urok, in which Jagu promises Manru the forgiveness of his clan, which the latter had forsaken, and holds out to him the allurement of becoming chief of the tribe if Manru will leave his wife and will return to the camp. Manru, who in the distance sees before him the weeping Ulana, resists. Then Jagu makes use of a stronger means of allurement. He recalls to Manru's mind Asa, a young gypsy queen, who, when she was still a mere child, had clung to him in passionate love, and who in the meantime had grown up to a womanhood replete with the most enticing charms. If Manru would not soon return Asa would become the prey of Oros, the aging gypsy prince and leader. Manru begins to swerve, but once more the aspect of his weeping wife carries him back to his sense of duty to her and he sends Jagu away. (Scene 4.) Ulana's questions as to the purport of the old gypsy's visit he answers evasively. All the more clearly Urok now breaks forth with the knowledge of things he had overheard and tells her that Manru wants to desert her. Ulana presses her husband for an answer, but Manru only in a poetical song tries to explain to her the innate love for a roaming life which is gypsy nature.
9Urok, however, is not content with this explanation and accuses Manru that it was not a mere matter of wandering by which he is haunted, but that he is attracted to the near camp of the gypsies by the promised love of a dark-eyed beauty. Furiously Manru drives the malicious dwarf from his premises. (Scene 5.) Ulana, however, recognizes that danger is near, and summoning all her will power she makes an attempt at regaining, engendering and holding forever her husband's love. Mastering her own despair, she pacifies the furious man by caressing words and offers him wine, into which she has poured the love potion. Manru soon begins to feel the effect of the magic herbs. His ire, his longing for a roaming life and for Asa, all gradually begin to wane and in his passionate bosom renewed love for Ulana blazes up in fiery fervor. Happy, yet still doubting, Ulana yields to his caresses. In a hot love duet the two reunited lovers then pour out their happiness and Manru swears eternal love to Ulana, carrying her in a perfect love furore to the hut in his arms, just as night comes on.
11This time the curtain, though, as I stated before, it fell quickly, could not touch the boards before the public broke out into as genuine, hearty and spontaneous an outburst of enthusiasm as I have ever witnessed. Already after the exquisitely beautiful love song of Manru, the applause broke loose in open scene, a very rare occurrence with cultivated musical audiences like this première gathering at Dresden. After the close of the act the shouts for Paderewski increased, but, although the curtain went up and down ten times, the composer, from sheer modesty, refused to make his appearance and thus the artists concerned in the cast were left alone—vainly looking into the wings—to gather in the laurels of the occasion.
13Act III. Scarcely a few hours are supposed to have elapsed since this renewal of the bonds of love, when Manru, sleepy, yet feverish, roams about in the stormy night amid a beautiful landscape at the border of a lake, beside which mountains are towering up. Heated through the magic philtre, Manru seeks repose in the open air. An uneasy dream takes hold of him. The music depicts to the ear how the remembrance of Ulana fills him with desire for her, while his mind battles at the same time with a longing after freedom, camp life and Asa. Slowly the moon gradually breaks through the heavy clouds; the stronger its light becomes the more restless does Manru grow in his sleep. Finally, when the full orb of the shining moon makes his victorious appearance, Manru rises up with eyes closed. (Scene 1.) At the same moment a slightly Bizet flavored but withal original orchestral march is heard in the distance and with it the chorus of the approaching gypsies. Manru, like one in a trance, moves toward the mountains, stumbles and falls in a swoon just as members of the gypsy band are wending their way down the mountain paths.
15At the same time a skiff upon the lake brings to the scene a group of gypsy girls, the gypsy prince Oros, Asa and old Jagu. (Scene 2.) They find the unconscious Manru, whom Asa recognizes and awakens, begging him henceforth to remain in the camp. Oros interferes. Love-smitten with Asa, he will not permit Manru's return. "Whoever has left his brethren and wedded a stranger, he must be damned and remain an outcast for all times." In vain does Asa try to change Oros' mind, but when he remains obdurate she smilingly throws herself upon Manru's neck. Oros wants to separate them, when Manru quiets him with the assurance that he cannot follow his brethren, because he is bound elsewhere. Now Oros feels triumphant, and, believing that Manru still loves Ulana, he allows Asa to speak to Manru, because he wants her to undergo the torment of rejected love advances. (Scene 3.) While the gypsy band is picturesquely reposing around the camp fire, Asa the temptress tries to win over the man of her choice. She twits him because of his love for a peasant girl and soon draws from him the avowal that this life of clinging to the soil brings desperation to his soul. In spite of all this Manru withstands her temptations and wants to leave. Then Asa begins to sing the semi-melancholy, semi-frenetic song of the gypsy girl. It is Manru's favorite song, and he listens with rapture. His resistance weakens, and when Asa approaches with graceful dance motions and finally throws her arms around Manru's neck, he succumbs to her wiles. (Scene 4.) In triumph Asa leads him to the camp, but Oros tears the twain asunder and demands Manru's ejection from the tribe. Then old Jagu comes to the fore with a speech in favor of Manru, a part of the libretto which is lengthy and retards the action of the drama, but, of course, it wins the minds of the gypsies over to the younger man, and when Asa openly rebels against the aging prince and mocks him, she gains the day. Full of rage, Oros throws down his sceptre and retires, swearing revenge. (Scene 5.) Part of the tribe tries to detain him, but the majority are glad to get rid of the tyrannical chief. Now is the time for the election of a new prince, and Manru is acclaimed leader. But he has grown meditative again, thinking of wife and child, and again refuses to join the camp.
17Then Asa makes signs to the musicians. Violins and cymbalum resound, and while Manru's heart is yielding to the influence exercised upon him by the gypsy music, his brethren beseech him with ever more fervent request to rejoin them. (Scene 6.) Manru is carried away, forgetting everything else, and is about to depart with Asa, when Urok crosses the couple's path. He reminds Manru of his duty, but the gypsies make sport of the cripple,
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