Grand Opera: The Story of the Met

by Affron, Charles

  32. “Miss Anderson’s voice”: Winthrop Sargeant, New Yorker (Jan. 15, 1955): 94.

  33. For the story of McFerrin’s success in the Met auditions, see The Encyclopedia of Arkansas History and Culture, www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net/encyclopedia/. “The SCLC regrets”: Atlanta Journal, May 6, 1961. The “color line” was coined by W. E. B. Dubois in 1903. “Leontyne Price at”: Bing to Bliss, May 21, 1963.

  34. For Bing’s favorite operas, see Times, March 5, 1950.

  35. For Webster on staging Don Carlo and Aïda at the Met, see Webster, Don’t Put Your Daughter on the Stage, 202–24. Elena Nikolaidi (Amneris) and George London (Amonasro) made successful debuts in the opening night Aïda.

  36. The 1951 Rigoletto was directed by Graf and designed by Eugene Berman.

  37. “special . . . found it”: New Yorker (Nov. 22, 1952): 106. “as it now”: Stiedry, “La Forza from the Podium,” Opera News (Nov. 24, 1952): 6. The 1952 La Forza del destino was directed by Graf.

  38. Warren was furious at Mitropoulos over fast tempos. His publicist, Edgar Vincent, reported that the baritone confronted the conductor: “If you don’t conduct this as we rehearsed it, I’ll walk right off the stage and you can sing the opera yourself.” Phillips-Matz, Leonard Warren, 234. The 1956 Ernani was directed by Dino Yannopoulos and designed by Esteban Frances. The 1957 La Traviata was directed by Tyrone Guthrie. “magnificent”: Paul Henry Lang, Herald Tribune. “stole the show”: Kastendieck, Journal-American. “sends sparks across”: Robert Coleman, Mirror. “reached the highest”: Armando Romano, Il Progresso Italo-Americano.

  39. For the “Brava Callas” incident, see Bing, 5000 Nights, 245.

  40. For the pro-Italian cabal, see Phillips-Matz, Leonard Warren, 273. The 1959 new production of Il Trovatore was directed by Graf and designed by Motley.

  41. “fussily arty and”: New Yorker (Nov. 5, 1960): 215–16.

  42. Like the previous production (1940), the 1962 Ballo, directed by Günther Rennert, was set in Sweden, as the composer and his librettist specified, rather than in the Colonial Boston mandated by the Roman censors in 1859. “rather self-conscious”: New Yorker (Feb. 3, 1962): 97–98. The production committee minutes of Nov. 17, 1961 reflect that Del Monaco was originally slated for Otello, with McCracken contracted for a few performances.

  43. After Bing, the repertoire was opened to early and twentieth-century opera. Schuyler Chapin presented five such novelties in three seasons; Anthony Bliss, Bruce Crawford, and Hugh Southern, fourteen in sixteen seasons; Joseph Volpe, twenty-five in sixteen seasons; Peter Gelb, fourteen in his first eight seasons.

  44. “deemed it not”: Ziegler to Leslie Reggel, Dec. 23, 1941. “I would like”: Gutman to Bing, Nov. 21, 1955. “blandly representational and”: Saturday Review (March 21, 1959): 32. The house had to be heavily papered for the benefit premiere of Wozzeck.

  45. “at sixty-nine”: Lang, Herald Tribune.

  46. “Immensely supple, the”: Jackson, Sign-Off for the Old Met, 122. For Nilsson and Ariadne auf Naxos, see Bing, A Knight at the Opera (New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1981), 149.

  47. Bing made plain his preference for Munsel in a Nov. 29, 1955 memo to Ritchard. “one of the”: Kolodin, Saturday Review (Jan. 5, 1957): 29. Arias of La Périchole available in recordings in 1955 were sung by the low-voiced Jennie Tourel and Gladys Swarthout. Among the second-string singers and comprimarios cast as leads in Metropolitan Record Club recordings were Albert da Costa as Canio, Jon Crain as Hoffmann, Heidi Krall as Rosalinde, Mary Curtis-Verna as Maddalena, and Charles Anthony as Ernesto.

  48. “run the risk”: Gian Carlo Menotti, “I Am the Savage,” Opera News (Feb. 8, 1964): 12.

  49. “that for reasons”: Bing to Stravinsky, Jan. 16, 1952.

  50. “Mr. Barber’s mastery”: Lang, Herald Tribune. “American masterpiece”: Newsweek, Jan. 27, 1958. “capable of holding”: Sargeant, New Yorker (Jan. 25, 1958): 108–10. Bing mentions Jurinac’s breakdown in a letter to Roberto Bauer, Nov. 30, 1957. In the same letter, Bing inquires about the availability of American soprano Margherita Roberti for the part of Vanessa.

  51. The 1952 La Bohème was designed by Gérard. Eugene Berman designed the 1954 Il Barbiere di Siviglia. Rolf Gérard designed the 1955 Les Contes d’Hoffmann. Oliver Messel designed Le Nozze di Figaro.

  52. “romantic trappings”: “Tyrone Guthrie Finds Squalor in Seville,” Opera News (Feb. 11, 1952): 6. “totally conventional realistic”: memo to Reginald Allen and staff, June 3, 1957. “restraint and delicacy”: Time, March 3.

  53. “One wonders why”: Lang, Herald Tribune. Ita Maximovna designed the 1963 Manon. Attilio Colonello designed the 1964 Lucia di Lammermoor.

  54. “an opera man”: Herald Tribune, Nov. 1, 1957. “first pseudo-revolving”: Jackson, Sign-Off for the Old Met, 158. “sample of operatic”: Saturday Review (Oct. 17, 1964): 39. George Szell returned to the Met to conduct the 1953 new production of Tannhäuser. The revered leader of the Cleveland Orchestra was so demanding in his negotiations for a future Salome that the general manager withdrew the offer. In response, Szell wrote an open letter to the Herald Tribune (Jan. 14, 1954), criticizing “present conditions at the Metropolitan Opera” and announcing the cancellation of his remaining performances. Bing vented his anger to George Sloan: “I feel he [Szell] has behaved like a cad and I will under no circumstances repeat my mistake of inviting Mr. Szell again wherever I may work to the end of my days” (Jan. 20, 1954). Later, to the assertion that Szell was his own worst enemy, Bing retorted, “Not while I am alive.” Cited in Mayer, The Met, 250. Bing rehearsed his feud with Szell in a January 18, 1954, letter to Bruno Zirato.

  55. “a stately bore”: Harold C. Schonberg, Times, Dec. 16, 1960. “To hear her”: Kastendieck, Christian Science Monitor, Feb. 26, 1963. The 1963 Adriana Lecouvreur was directed by Nathaniel Merrill and designed by Camillo Parravicini.

  56. Valletti sang in concert in New York through the 1960s. In a June 4, 1962 memo to Bing, Herman notes Valletti’s refusal to return to the Met. “My voice is”: Time (Nov. 17, 1958): 53.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  1. Most critics agreed with the Journal-American reviewer that “Falla’s struggles with the score took the edge off his inspiration” and that his disciple’s effort to complete the work “does not sound like a major contribution.” The Times described Atlantida as “a strange mixture of paganism and Christianity that moves from Hercules and the mythical continent of Atlantis to the discovery of America by Columbus.”

  2. For a complete account of the move to Lincoln Center, see Martin Mayer, The Met: One Hundred Years of Grand Opera (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1983), 263–72.

  3. “Stupidity has triumphed”: Bing to Herman, June 25, 1966.

  4. “actual physical plant”: Bing to staff, Oct. 24, 1955. “must be radically”: Rudolf to Bing, Nov. 11, 1955. Gutman memo to Bing, Nov. 17, 1955. “Personally, I am”: Bing to staff, Oct. 24, 1955.

  5. By way of comparison, the seating capacity of the Civic Opera House in Chicago is 3,563, the War Memorial Opera House in San Francisco 3,146, Teatro alla Scala in Milan 2800, Opéra Bastille in Paris 2,723, and the Royal Opera House in London 2,256.

  6. “The new Metropolitan”: Leinsdorf to Bing and Kravitz, Nov. 5, 1959. “In an opera”: cited in Josh Greenfeld, Times, Aug. 21, 1966.

  7. For the story of the turntable, see Joseph Volpe with Charles Michener, The Toughest Show on Earth: My Rise and Reign at the Metropolitan Opera (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2006), 47. “The fault was”: Bing, 5000 Nights at the Opera (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1972), 307.

  8. “favorite”: Schippers interview, Opera News (Sept. 17, 1966): 35. “Almost everything about”: Harold C. Schonberg, Times. “Appallingly pretentious, appallingly”: Winthrop Sargeant, New Yorker (Sept. 24, 1966): 123. “a disaster”: Newsweek (Sept. 26, 1966): 96. “a severe blow”: Alan Rich, World Journal Tribune, Oct. 2, 1966.

  9. The Metropolitan Opera: A Statement by Otto H. Kahn, Oct. 5, 1925.

>   10. Giannini’s The Scarlet Letter premiered in German in Hamburg in 1938, Tamkin’s The Dybbuk at the New York City Opera in 1951. In a January 19, 1939, letter to Ziegler, Downes made his case for the three American operas. At the end of the 1941–42 season, Johnson made a written report (undated) to the board about the Carnegie Foundation grant.

  11. On March 2, 1956, Bing wrote to Gutman to express his preference for Vanessa over The Alcestiad. “If it finally”: Gutman to Bing and Bliss, June 10, 1959, and Feb. 2, 1960.

  12. For a detailed account of the Metropolitan Opera National Company, see Mayer, The Met, 312–15. In its first season, 1965–66, the National Company presented Madama Butterfly, La Cenerentola, and Carmen in addition to Susannah; in its second and final season, Le Nozze di Figaro, La Traviata, La Bohème, and The Rape of Lucretia. For the personal reasons that contributed to Bliss’s resignation, his divorce from Jo Ann Sayres and his marriage to the Met ballerina Sally Brayley, see Johanna Fiedler, Molto Agitato (New York: Doubleday, 2001), 74.

  13. “outstanding successes”: Bing’s annual report to the board, April 10, 1967. Margherita Wallmann directed the 1966 La Gioconda. Graf staged the 1966 Elektra. Rennert directed the 1967 Die Zauberflöte. “On the whole”: Schonberg, Times.

  14. For the first Lincoln Center season shortfalls, see Mayer, The Met, 310.

  15. “They’d Never Strike”: Alan Rich (Sept. 1, 1969): 50.

  16. “to get authorization”: Bing, 5000 Nights at the Opera, 302.

  17. “In terms of”: Martin Bernheimer, Los Angeles Times, Sept. 21, 1967. The 1967 Roméo et Juliette was directed by Paul-Emile Deiber and designed by Gérard. The 1967 Carmen was directed by Jean-Louis Barrault and designed by Jacques Dupont. “ridiculous . . . awkward”: Sargeant, New Yorker (Dec. 23, 1967): 54. The 1971 Werther was directed by Deiber and designed by Rudolf Heinrich. The 1968 Tosca was directed by Otto Schenk and designed by Heinrich. The 1971 Der Freischütz was directed and designed by Heinrich. The 1968 Luisa Miller and the 1969 Il Trovatore were directed by Merrill. “entirely conventional”: Sargeant, New Yorker (Oct. 9, 1971): 132. “full of dated”: Schonberg, Times, Sept. 30, 1971. “hideous”: Rich, New York (Oct. 11, 1971): 65. “[The onstage spectators]”: Schonberg, Times. “a cave-like collection”: Raymond Ericson, Times.

  18. August Everding directed the 1971 Tristan und Isolde. “The sets [were]”: Harriett Johnson. Schenk directed the 1970 Fidelio.

  19. “ominously magnificent throughout”: Harriet Johnson, Post.

  20. Karajan’s oversight of eight lighting rehearsals in Vienna prompted Bing to quip, “I could have got it that dark with one” (Bing, 5000 Nights, 320). Although absent from New York, the credits designate Karajan as “director” of the 1974 Götterdämmerung; Wolfgang Weber was credited with its staging.

  21. Fiedler reports that Bliss was the sole trustee to vote “no” on the renewal of Bing’s contract to 1972. Fiedler, Molto Agitato, 74. “The Metropolitan Opera”: New York (Dec. 15, 1969): 66–67.

  22. “Nine out of”: Cue (Feb. 21, 1970). “operated on the”: Schonberg, Times, April 16, 1972. “It would be”: New York (April 17, 1972): 82–83.

  23. “What the Met”: Hubert Saal (May 18, 1970): 109. The critical consensus was that Don Carlo, L’Elisir d’amore, Eugene Onegin, Falstaff, Fidelio, Die Frau ohne Schatten, Die Meistersinger, Otello, Parsifal, Rigoletto, and Tristan und Isolde were Bing’s successful new productions. We agree, and would add Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Carmen, Così fan tutte, Fledermaus, La Forza del destino, Madama Butterfly, Mourning Becomes Electra, Peter Grimes, Der Rosenkavalier, Samson et Dalila, and Vanessa at the very least.

  24. “I am solely”; “I don’t see”: Cue (Feb. 21, 1970).

  25. Stephen E. Rubin “Changing the Guard at the Met,” Stereo Review (April 1972): 61–66. “Strong-minded conductors”: Schonberg, Times, April 16, 1972.

  26. For the salaries of Met stars, see Donal Henahan, Times, Sept. 17, 1972.

  27. For Bing’s thoughts on the succession, see Bing, A Knight at the Opera, 26–38.

  28. “the Metropolitan sweepstakes”: Jane P. Boutwell, Times, Sept. 12, 1971.

  29. “From my point”: Gentele to Kubelik, Oct. 11, 1971. Gutman was convinced that Chapin’s appointment had everything to do with his relationship with Bernstein, with whom he had made two films, one of the Verdi “Requiem” and the other about Beethoven: “Schuyler’s appointment obviously lies exclusively in the realm of what you call science fiction. . . . As long as Chapin will help Mr. Moore in making all those millions through electronics, it is, no doubt, a very useful appointment. You may be quite sure that Schuyler has no intention to bother with such minor matters as the ones which, so far, have been handled by Bob Herman, quite apart from the fact that he is utterly unqualified” (Gutman to Bing, July 26, 1971).

  30. Elisabeth would have been Marilyn Horne’s first Wagner role at the Met and Tannhäuser McCracken’s first Wagner lead. In a November 17, 1971, letter to Moore, Gentele explained his decision to direct Carmen.

  31. “Deeply shocked tragic”; “Appreciate greatly your”: Schuyler Chapin, Musical Chairs (New York: G. P. Putnam Sons, 1978), 277–78. “Up to this”: ibid.

  32. For Gentele’s work on Carmen, see Harvey E. Phillips, The Carmen Chronicle: The Making of an Opera (New York: Stein and Day, 1973), 36, 129, 161, 198. For Leonard Bernstein and the Met orchestra, see ibid., 124. “a level of”: Rich, New York (Oct. 2, 1972): 66.

  33. “the soprano poured”: Louis Snyder, Christian Science Monitor (Nov. 22, 1972). Once again, although absent from New York, the credits designate Karajan as “director” of the 1972 Siegfried; Wolfgang Weber was credited with its staging. “smaller productions and”: minutes, Sept. 17, 1987. The minutes of Jan. 16, March 20, and Sept. 18, 1997, reflect discussions of a small theater at Lincoln Center.

  34. “disturbed by the”: minutes, Jan. 11, 1973. The Met had put on a concert version of I Vespri Siciliani in Newport, Rhode Island, in 1967.

  35. “close to hysteria”; “You and I”: Chapin to Kubelik, June 20, 1973. In a September 23, 1974, interview, Chapin observed, “We were able to effect some small economies last year—about $.25 million—but other sources of income must be found” (Christian Science Monitor [Sept. 23, 1974]).

  36. Merrill directed the 1973 Les Troyens. “The fact is”: Newsweek (Oct. 1, 1973): 74. “the sets and”: Michael Steinberg, Boston Evening Globe, Nov. 11, 1973. The 1973 Les Contes d’Hoffmann was directed by Bliss Herbert and designed by Allen Charles Klein.

  37. The three tenors in the December 28, 1959, Tristan und Isolde were, in order of appearance, Ramon Vinay, Karl Liebl, and Albert Da Costa. Aside from their single Tristan und Isolde, the only Wagner opera shared by Nilsson and Vickers was Die Walküre. “One would have”: Donal Henahan, Times, Feb. 2, 1974.

  38. For the advice Levine sought from Wilford, see Fiedler, Molto Agitato, 102. “tried in vain”: cited in Chapin, Musical Chairs, 370.

  39. The 1974 Gianni Schicchi was directed by Fabrizio Melano and designed by David Reppa.

  40. “A tall, slender”: Volpe, The Toughest Show on Earth, 77.

  41. Previous to her house debut, Sills sang only once with the company: at Lewisohn Stadium in the summer of 1966, she played Donna Anna in a concert presentation of Don Giovanni. “to re-create”: Manuela Hoelterhoff, Wall Street Journal.

  42. For Marilyn Horne’s advocacy of Magda Olivero, see Marilyn Horne with Jane Scovell, Marilyn Horne: The Song Continues (Fort Worth: Baskerville Publishers, 2004), 194–95.

  43. For Wilford’s delay in renegotiating Levine’s contract, see Kolodin, Saturday Review (June 1980): 22.

  44. The Saturday Review article and its title are drawn from Chapin, Musical Chairs. For approaches made to Callas and Bongianckino, see ibid., 318–23.

  CHAPTER NINE

  1. “a European-style”: Michael Walsh, “Maestro of the Met,” Time (Jan. 17, 1983): 58. “Jim has to”: Robert C. Marsh, Dialogues and Discoveries, James
Levine: His Life and His Music (New York: Scribner, 1998), 20. “stayed with their”: Johanna Fiedler, Molto Agitato (New York: Doubleday, 2001), 95. For a biography of James Levine, see Marsh, Dialogues and Discoveries, 17–60. “I’ve always been”: cited in Martin Kettle, “Staying Power,” Guardian, Nov. 17, 2000.

  2. “the company situation”: John Dexter, The Honourable Beast: A Posthumous Autobiography (London: Nick Hern, 1993), 81.

  3. “not a single”: Fiedler, Molto Agitato, 120.

  4. “She led a”: Manuela Hoelterhoff, Wall Street Journal, Jan. 21, 1976. “Her conducting . . . was”: Schonberg, Times, Jan. 15, 1976. Caldwell led ten more performances of La Traviata in 1976 and five of L’Elisir d’amore in 1978. Simone Young, the second of the two women to conduct at the Met to date, led the orchestra between 1996 and 1998 in thirty-five performances of La Bohème, Cavalleria rusticana, Pagliacci, Il Trovatore, and Les Contes d’Hoffmann.

  5. For accounts of marketing and development initiatives in this period, see Martin Mayer, The Met: One Hundred Years of Grand Opera (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1983), 336–40; Fiedler, Molto Agitato, 111–12; and Susie Gilbert and Jay Shir, A Tale of Four Houses (London: HarperCollins, 2003), 509–10.

  6. There were two network telecasts from the Met stage during Bing’s tenure: the first was his inaugural Don Carlo in 1950; the second excerpts from his gala farewell of 1972, transmitted a week after the event. “This recording embodies”: CD booklet cited in Marsh, Dialogues and Discoveries, 39.

  7. “There is an”: Mayer, The Met, 344. “has allowed his”: Saturday Review (June 1980): 22–27. For Bernstein’s reaction to Levine’s Parsifal, see Hillenbrand, Time (Jan. 17, 1983).

  8. “a troublesome colleague”: cited in Gilbert and Shir, A Tale of Four Houses, 518. “being under some”: Dexter, The Honourable Beast, 170. “If there is”: letter to James Dolan, cited in Dexter, The Honourable Beast, 110–11. “When Dexter entered”: Joseph Volpe with Charles Michener, The Toughest Show on Earth: My Rise and Reign at the Metropolitan Opera (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2006), 69.