Treemonisha

Portraying a Black community of sharecroppers in the post-Civil War South, Joplin’s Treemonisha has been increasingly recognized as a landmark of early American opera. Joplin conceived the opera’s music, libretto, choreography, and staging, and in 1911, paid for a piano-vocal score to be published. He also promoted its only two documented performances in Bayonne, N.J., in 1913, and in Harlem in 1915. The latter—a concert reading intended to drum up financial backing for a full premiere—was a failure, and Joplin’s bitterness contributed to his ill health toward the end of his life. But time has vindicated Treemonisha, starting with a performance at Atlanta’s Morehouse College in 1972 and a Houston Grand Opera production in 1975. The story concerns a mysterious young woman who attempts to lift up her community and steer it away from the path of ignorance, personified by a con man named Zodzetrick. The score follows many opera conventions, but is laced with the sounds of spirituals, plantation songs, revival hymns, and a cakewalk. With its theme of salvation through education, Treemonisha mirrors Joplin’s own life journey.