Henry James and the Performing Arts

Selected Papers on Henry James 105 Papers from "From Text to Performance": Dallas, 1987 Editor's Note: Both the NEH and the NEA helped to underwrite the Dallas Opera/SMU symposium "From Text to Performance" held in conjunction with the world premiere of Dominick Argento 's opera The Aspern Papers. (PBS stations wiU begin airing the opera on "Great Performances" the week of June 9; readers should check with their PBS affiUates for local broadcast dates.) The symposium was directed by Roger Pines, Dramaturg of the Dallas Opera. As chairman of the symposium, introducing Leon Edel (who served as honorary chairman) at the opening session, I set forth the rationale of the symposium: the increasing importance as a bridge to literary culture for the general public of adaptations of literary works to other media (stage, film, video, opera, and dance). Here we present a sample of papers read at the Dallas Symposium, including Professor Edel's keynote address and papers by James W. Tuttleton, Evan Carton, MiUicent BeU, Martha Banta, and Julie Rivkin. Leon Edel—Henry James and the Performing Arts We celebrate two birthdays in Dallas this week. The first is a birthday or birthnight of a new opera by Dominick Argento, whose libretto and music are based on Henry James's tour deforce "The Aspern Papers." The second happens to be the hundredth anniversary of the publication—in November 1888—of that masterpiece in book form in the United States. In the century that has elapsed "The Aspern Papers" has undergone some distinct sea-changes. First it was turned into a grade B movie in Hollywood caUed The Lost Moment, with Susan Hayward as a young and blooming Miss Bordereau and a very ancient Juliana played by Agnes Moorehead, and with the name Aspern altered to Ashton to avoid confusion with the commercials. You can sometimes catch it in late-late shows. In the 1980s Sir Michael Redgrave made it into a successful play in which he took the role of the "publishing scoundrel"; Beatrix Lehmann was Juliana and Flora Robson, the unhappy niece. On Broadway, with much less imaginative casting, the play flopped. In London it was a hit, and it went on to long runs on the Continent, especiaUy in Italy. Now it comes to us in the operatic medium. Such are the metamorphoses of art. To celebrate the two birthdays properly we must return to certain moments in Uterary and theatrical history. In 1890 James went in search of the theater. His novels had ceased to sell. He had a dedicated playgoer's familiarity with the stage, and large fantasies of a hit in Mayfair—a big box office hit with the money rolUng in. And he had boundless faith in his dramatic skills. During the next five years he wrote six plays. Four were comedies, anticipating Oscar Wilde, but written with too much constraint and inner mental fuss. These were never produced. He did not have Wilde's self-assurance, his assumed indifference to success. James cared too much. Two of his plays, however, were produced. One was a dramatization of James's novel The American, written for light comic effect, yet endowed with an unhappy ending. It squeezed through seventy nights, largely because the Prince of Wales attended a performance and thus drew attention to it. The critics were merciless. The play was badly acted. In later years it formed 106 The Henry James Review part of the repertory of the Compton Comedy Company in British country towns. James made an extraordinary concession—he wrote a new last act of comedy: the heroine marries the American instead of entering a convent. The second play, Guy Domville, is famous in theatrical annals for what happened to it. It too had a monastic element. The young and handsome hero, played by the matinee idol George Alexander, is intended for the priesthood. But he inherits a fortune and is expected to enter society and produce cltildren. This time the Prince of Wales did not come to James's rescue. When the hero, after much indecision between the monastery and society, proclaimed "I'm the last, my lord, of the DomviUes," a waggish voice boomed from the...