This thesis is an evaluation of the acting career of Tallulah Bankhead with some analysis of the roles she played.

The purpose of this project was to create an original production scheme which will prove acceptable to the American audience. The production of Don Pasquale adhered to the following guidelines: (1) the production was adapted in terms of the American audience for which it was being performed, it was sung in English and all allusions to the opera's European origin were either omitted or altered to conform to the American stylization, (2) the adaptation of the opera centered around an American historical perspective, a point in American history with which the audience could nostalgically identify.