pect of the affair is wonderfully
balanced by a sublime absurdity
and perfectly genuine emotions.
If
the opera purports to be
"about" Susan B. Anthony, the his–
tory is strictly preposterous. We
are meant only to savor the es–
sence of the matter, and even Miss
Stein's essences are a trifle pecul–
iar, the intuitions of a gifted child
setting out to write history merely
from the iiOund of names. When
Indiana Elliot changes her name
to Indiana Loiterer, forcing Jo
Loiterer to become Jo Elliot, she
has conclusively emancipated her–
self. It is quite sufficient for the
dignity of Gertrude S. and Virgil
T . (two minor characters in the
opera) that they have names. No
need for the sententious omnis–
cience of a Thornton Wilder nar–
rator. This is no question of a
search for identity; it is a drama–
tic display of historical fact. Susan
B.
never has the slightest doubt
about
her
name. It is intoned
throughout the opera as hypnot–
ically as the latest name of God.
What worries her is not how real
her name may be but whether it
may not be too real. In her mov–
ing final meditation, she sings:
"Do they know? Do they know be–
cause I told them so? Or do they
know?" (My memory is approx–
imate; I haven't the text.) One
especially good moment has Jo
Loiterer moving sadly offstage sing–
ing: "Is anyone going to remem–
l)er Is11beJ Wc;ntworth? Is anyone
285
going to remember Isabel Went–
worth?" The effect is oddly Chek–
hovian, but the program merely
tells us that Isabel Wentworth,
along with Gloster Heming, was an
"intellectual of 1890-1900." Of
Constance Fletcher, of whose patri–
cian charm "John Adams" obvi–
ously sings throughout the opera,
we learn only that she was "a gra–
cious lady of 1905-10, with eye
trouble." Poor Constance, having
submitted meekly to Adams's ab–
stract gallantry for seven scenes,
goes "blind as a bat" in the last
and gives up in disgust.
What has all this ecstatic tom–
foolery to do with a lyric pageant
celebrating a fierce and categori–
cal nineteenth-century abolitionist
feminist bluestocking from Adams,
DISSENT
offers
a
trial
sub to students ..•
$1.00 for 3 Issues
(In ordering, give name of school-and summer
change
if
necessary. Offer expires June 30.)
Among the articles in the Spring issue: Re·
ports from and on the South; Russia's New
Face; a Poem from the Polish Wasteland;
Algerian Nationalism ; Radicals and Radical·
ism; Latin America; U. S. Economy; the New
American Right; Spain: 20 Years After.
Among the authors : Lewis Coser, William
Newman, Stuart Hampshjre, Irving Howe,
lgnazio Silone, Massali Hadj, Harvey Swados,
Murray l:Iausknecht, Sidney Lens, Ben B.
Seligman, Lawrence D. Reddick, Ramon
Sender.
Write to Dept. P, DISSENT, 509 5th Ave.,
N. Y. 17, N. Y. $2.50 per year; 75c per copy.
• .
f
.
'
'
p
v
;;
4.
