The Opportunity to See an Opera at the Met

Discovered on the shelves of Powell's Books in Portland, Oregon, there lurked a gift. Inside Falstaff was a beautiful inscription to someone named Charley who apparently played in Verdi's Falstaff opera at the Met.

To Charley,

to commemorate the first opera you played [sic] at the Met! You were great. This book should be a constant reminder of that. Also, you gave me the opportunity to see an opera at the Met, so now I get to give you the opportunity to understand & read what you were playing...I love you, and I'll always be your biggest fan.

Love, Laura

These inscriptions capture my imagination because of the inherent mystery. Who is Charley? Who is Laura? What kind of relationship did they have? Why did Charley donate this book?

Perhaps it was a doomed love affair and it was too painful to keep the book. Or maybe Charley sold all of his possessions and gave up a promising career at the Met to go live out of his van and travel the world.

I tried to do some internet sleuthing to find out who this Charley might be. Presumably, he or she debuted in Falstaff at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City. Conveniently the Met has very extensive archives in a database that can show everyone who has debuted in Falstaff since its performance there in 1895. Since our Laura was probably not 110 years old when she wrote this inscription, we can safely rule out 'Mr. Niccolini' as our mystery man.

From there, however, things became puzzling. No one has debuted in Falstaff at the Met under the name Charley, Charles, Charlotte, or Charlene between 1895 and 2005. What's more, only three performers have ever performed in Falstaff at the Met at all that meet my critera: Charlotte Philley, Charles Kullman and Charles Anthony. Of these, none of them debuted in Falstaff. I also checked Hamlet just for good measure, and again, no luck.

Charles Kullman died in 1983, so it's unlikely that our Laura was writing him a note 22 years later. Charles Anthony celebrated his 50th anniversary with the Met in 2004, and it seems strange that Laura wouldn't mention something like that in this inscription penned a year later. This leaves Charlotte Philley, who was playing the Mistress of the Inn in Falstaff in both 2002 and 2005.

An added difficulty is the word in the inscription following "the first time you played...". It looks like it could be 'here', 'him', or even 'hrh'. It appears this one is destined to remain a mystery, for now at least.

Have a better idea? Think you can find Charley? E-mail me or leave a comment.