Peter Ibbetson (opera)

The opera was performed at the Ravinia Festival with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in 1931 with Johnson, Bori, and Léon Rothier reprising their roles from the Met production.

Alfredo Gandolfi, who had a minor part at the Met premiere, took on the role of Colonel Ibbetson at Ravinia with Florence Macbeth as Mrs.

In 1999 the opera was revived in concert form by the Seattle Symphony Orchestra with Lauren Flanigan as Mary.

A party at an English country house, 1855 The oily and vain Colonel Ibbetson is trying to flirt with Mrs. Deane, and in an aria insists on reciting an "original" poem.

Peter joins the party late and brings in the poem, which is actually by Alfred de Musset, exposing his uncle as a fake.

As Peter recounts his melancholy circumstances, a longing theme, which will return many times in the course of the opera, accompanies the words "only you..." Peter tells Mrs. Deane of his childhood friend Mimsy, "toujours mal à la tete", and of her talent called "dreaming true", whereby one could go anywhere in place or time.

The Paris suburb of Passy, two years later Peter is visiting his boyhood home and meets the aged and senile Major Duquesnois who does not remember him or Mimsy.