The Perils of Baby Doe 11
On August 7, 1956, while preparations were being made for
the New York premiere, John Latouche died without warning.
Douglas said,
"He died at the age of thirty nine—tragic. Suddenly a heart at¬
tack and that was it. It was right after the success of The Ballad of
Baby Doe in Central City. W'e had a conference down here [at
Cutchogue] and decided it needed some revision and he wrote the
new part and he never heard what I had done with [setting it to
music] He went back and went up to Vermont and this thing hap¬
pened. It was a great loss."
Douglas outlived Latouclic by more than a decade, until July
25, 1969, and had the pleasure of seeing his creation enter that se¬
lect category of works referred to as "the standard repertory
operas." Baby Doe received its New York premiere on April 3,
1958, by the New York City Center Opera Company. There has
been a national tour and hundreds of professional and college per¬
formances across the country. The Ballad of Baby Doe has suc¬
cessfully survived transplants from the sturdy halls of the opera
house to music tent theatres in-the-round. It was performed in
1961 at Belgrade and the West Berlin Festival by the Santa Fe
Opera Company. It has been the recipient of lionots and awards,
among them, the New York Music Critics Circle Award for 1958.
Excerpts from it have been performed on national tele\ision. Its
popularity shows no signs of waning.
Thus, if the history of The Ballad of Baby Doe had been marked
with many unhappy episodes, it indeed finally arrived at triumph.
Note: Quotations of Douglas Aloorc were from tape recorded interviews con¬
ducted at Cutchogue, N.Y. between I967-iq69-, Paul Green, from telephone
interview. Chapel Hill, N.C., July 27, 1967; .Mrs. Arthur [Effie] Moore, tape
recorded interview, Cutchogue, N.Y. November i, 1970; quotations from letters
were from the Douglas Moore files now at Special Collections Division, Butler
Library, Columbia University.