Gustav KobbE

Opera in one act by Franco Leoni, words by Camillo Zanoni, adapted from the play, "The Cat and the Cherub," by Chester Bailey Fernald. Produced, Covent Garden Theatre, London, June 28, 1905. Metropolitan Opera House, New York, February 4, 1915, with Scotti, as Chim-Fen; Didur, as Win-She; Botta, as Win-San-Lui; and Bori, as Ah-Joe.

Characters

Win-She, a wise man, called the Sage	Baritone
Chim-Fen, an opium den proprietor	Baritone
Win-San-Lui, son of Win-She	Tenor
Hu-Tsin, a rich merchant	Bass
Hu-Chi, a child, son of Hu-Tsin
Ah-Joe, niece of Hu-Tsin	Soprano
Hua-Qui, nurse of Hu-Chi	Contralto

Four opium fiends, a policeman, an opium maniac, a soothsayer, distant voices, four vendors, Chinese men, women, and children.

Time—The present.

Place—Chinatown, San Francisco.

CHIM-FEN is about to close up his opium den. A man half crazed by the drug comes up its steps and slinks away.

Out of the house of the merchant Hu-Tsin comes Hua-Qui, the nurse of Hu-Tsin's son, Hu-Chi. Chim-Fen wants to marry the merchant's daughter Ah-Joe. The nurse is in league with him. She brings him a fan, upon which Ah-Joe's lover, San-Lui, son of the sage, Win-She, has written an avowal of love. Hua-Qui is jealous, because Chim-Fen is in love with Ah-Joe. Her jealousy annoys him. He threatens her and drives her away.

Four gamblers, drunk with opium, emerge from the den. Chim-Fen looks after them with contempt. It is now very early in the morning of New Year's Day. Win-She comes along. Chim-Fen greets him obsequiously and is admonished by the sage to mend his vile ways.

San-Lui sings a serenade to Ah-Joe, who comes out on her balcony to hear him. People pass by, street venders cry their wares. Ah-Joe withdraws into the house, San-Lui goes his way. When Hu-Tsin, the rich merchant, comes out, he is accosted by Chim-Fen, who asks for the promise of Ah-Joe's hand. Hu-Tsin spurns the proposal.

A fortune-teller comes upon the scene. Chim-Fen has his fortune told. "A vile past, a future possessed of the devil. Wash you of your slime." When Chim-Fen threatens the fortune-teller, the crowd, which has gathered, hoots him and repeats the words of the fortune-teller amid howls and jeers.

Hu-Tsin, with Ah-Joe, Hua-Qui, and the baby boy come into the street, where Win-She, gathering a group of worshippers about him, bids San-Lui prevent the crowd from creating a disturbance, then, with all the people kneeling, intones a prayer, from which he finally passes into a trance. When he comes out of it, he says that he has seen two souls, one aspiring toward Nirvana, the other engulfed in the inferno. He also has witnessed the grief of a father at the killing of a hope. At this Hu-Tsin shows alarm for the safety of Hu-Chi, and the people join in lamentations, but Win-She prophesies, "Hu-Chi is safe."

Along comes the procession of the dragon. In watching this Hua-Qui neglects her charge. Utilizing this opportunity Chim-Fen seizes the child and carries him off into his cellar. When Hu-Tsin discovers the loss and has berated the nurse, he offers to give the hand of Ah-Joe in marriage to the finder of his son. This is just what Chim-Fen expected. San-Lui, however, immediately takes up the search, in spite of Ah-Joe's protests, for the girl fears that some harm will come to him.

San-Lui starts towards Chim-Fen's den. Hua-Qui tries to warn him, by telling him how the opium dealer deceived her and is seeking the hand of Ah-Joe, in order to obtain Hu-Tsin's money. San-Lui, however, compels Chim-Fen to descend with him to the cellar, where he finds and is about to rescue Hu-Chi, when Chim-Fen kills him with a hatchet. San-Lui staggers up the steps to the street, calls Ah-Joe's name, and falls dead. She wails over his body, a crowd gathers, and Hu-Tsin is horror-stricken to find that the man who has been slain at his door is San-Lui.

Win-She, the father of San-Lui, tells the merchant to wait; the death of San-Lui will be avenged. Immediately Win-She goes over to the opium den, hears the child's cry in the cellar, finds Hu-Chi and restores him to his father. He then goes to the door of the opium den, calls Chim-Fen, who comes out, apparently filled with indignation against the murderer of Win-She's son, whom he says he would like to throttle with his own hands. From the merchant's house there is heard every now and then the voice of Ah-Joe, who has lost her reason through grief, and is calling her lover's name.

The two men seat themselves on a bench near the opium den. Win-She speaks calmly, quietly, and unperceived by Chim-Fen, draws a knife, and plunges it into the villain's back. Chim-Fen not dying at once, Win-She quietly winds the man's own pigtail around his neck and proceeds slowly and gradually to strangle him, meanwhile disclosing his knowledge of the murder, but without raising his voice, propping up Chim-Fen against some cases, and speaking so quietly, that a policeman, who saunters by, thinks two Chinamen are in conversation, and turns the corner without realizing that anything is wrong. Win-She now goes his way. Chim-Fen's body falls to the ground.

It will have been observed that many incidents are crowded into this one act, but that the main features of the drama, the villainy of Chim-Fen, and the calm clairvoyance of Win-She are never lost sight of.

The music consists mainly of descriptive and dramatic phrases, with but little attempt to give the score definite Chinese colouring. Ah-Joe's song on her balcony to the silvery dawn is the most tuneful passage in the opera. Scotti, whose Chim-Fen is a performance of sinister power, Didur (Win-She), and Bori (Ah-Joe) were in the Metropolitan production.

Franco Leoni was born at Milan, October 24, 1864. He studied under Ponchielli at the Conservatory in his native city. Other works by him are "Rip Van Winkle," "Raggio di Luna," and "Ib and Little Christina."