Music: Curtain Call

Home from Europe last week General Manager Giulio Gatti-Casazza summoned Manhattan pressmen to his office in the Metropolitan Opera House, majestically informed them that Verdi’s A’ida would open the season Oct. 27. Singers: Soprano Maria Mueller, Contralto Karin Branzell, Tenor Giovanni Martinelli, Baritone Giuseppe de Luca. Conductor: Tullio Serafin. The Metropolitan’s season in Brooklyn will begin Oct. 28 with Puccini’s Boheme (Soprano Lucrezia Bori, Tenor Edward Johnson); in Philadelphia the same evening with Ponchielli’s Gioconda (Soprano Rosa Ponselle, Tenor Beniamino Gigli).

In Chicago the Civic Opera Company did the unusual, chose no well-proven piece for curtain-raiser, no outstanding soprano. For its first night, also Oct. 27, it will present the U. S. premiere of Frenchman Ernest Moret’s Lorenzaccio, an adaptation of a carnal plot by Alfred de Musset, with Baritone Vanni-Marcoux singing the title role created by him ten years ago in Paris.

Winter is the usual season for im portant opera but California takes hers in the autumn when famed singers are available. San Francisco and Los Angeles have separate sponsoring associations but the artists headed by Italian Conductor Gaetano Merola are practically the same. San Francisco hears them first, gives her verdict (TIME, Sept. 22). Then, as last week, they move on to the rival city.

Boheme with winsome Queena Mario and pompous little Gigli, Salome, Traviata, Cavalleria, Hansel und Gretel, Manon, Tannhduser, Mignon, Girl of the Golden West, Lucia — the Los Angeles repertoire and reactions were much the same as in San Francisco. Boxofficially Soprano Maria Jeritza was greatest at traction. Gigli got the galleries. Critics were most eager to hear Clare Clairbert, new Belgian coloratura.

The Los Angeles audiences, too, were similar to those upstate. There were socialites and would-be socialites, gowns gaudy and sedate. There was the usual minority of the musically appreciative. But one faction peculiar to Los Angeles was furnished by the film people. Some of them attended the opening of Boheme, but a far greater number waited to marvel at Hope Hampton in Massenet’s Manon. In San Francisco she had sung it so badly that Opera directors there were accused of selling her the engagement. It was emphatically denied but criticism stayed bitter, and cinemactors were not surprised for Hope Hampton, not long ago, was just one of them. On the strength of a Texas beauty-contest prize she got her first job in Hollywood as an extra. She soon rose to stardom but the screen could not reveal her flaming orange hair (her one unique characteristic) and she had small success. Wiseacres fell into the way of calling her Hopeless Hampton but that was before she married Jules E. Brulatour, pince-nezed grey-haired film tycoon (Paramount Famous Lasky Corp.), before she had operatic ambitions. Two years ago her debut with the Philadelphia Grand Opera (TIME, Dec. 31, 1928) was said to have cost Husband Brulatour $100,000. She had private rehearsals (at approxi-mately $5,000 apiece) with full-piece orchestra, established singers and a conductor to teach her opera technique. Now in a way reminiscent of her movie past she has equipped herself with a deluge of fantastic publicity. All Los Angeles heard last week that at home in Manhattan she sleeps in a canopied bed, an ermine rug for a blanket, toes always exposed; that she is never seen in public without her husband, has 36 fur coats, wears 14-karat-gold hairpins; that in Europe, where the Brulatours travel as Count & Countess, a Cairo sheik offered her husband four of his choicest wives in exchange for her.

Last Tour

Always Pianist Ignaz Jan Paderewski has been accompanied on his tours by Madame Paderewska. Last week, sadly alone, he arrived in Paris preparatory to sailing for farewell concerts in the U. S. Said he: “My wife is in Switzerland. She has an incurable disease and will never travel again. I am making this tour of America for the reason that I need money. I am a poor man. For the first time I am crossing the Atlantic alone.”

October Records

Some phonograph records are musical events. Each month TIME notes the noteworthy*

Opera

A’ida, excerpts from the Nile Scene by Soprano Elisabeth Rethberg, Tenor Giacomo Lauri-Volpi, Baritone Giuseppe de Luca (Victor, 4 records, 3 at $2.50 ea., i at $2.00)—The Metropolitan’s big line-up sings the great tunes in the grand manner.

Carmen, abridged edition by members of the Paris Opera Comique and the Orchestre Lamoureux under Albert Wolff (Brunswick, $5)—A medley of all the song hits in the show capably performed. As in a Carmen production, Micaela (one Mile Corney) takes the honors.

Symphonic:

Brahms’ Second Symphony by the Philadelphia Orchestra under Leopold Stokowski (Victor, $12)—Stokowski takes time from the moderns to be deeply tender with Brahms.

Chopin’s Concerto No. 2 by Pianist Marguerite Long and the Paris Conservatory Orchestra under Philippe Gaubert (Columbia, $8)—An immaculate performance by a French woman unknown in the U. S. Mechanically far better than most piano recordings.

Weber’s Euryanthe Overture by Max von Schillings and Symphony Orchestra (Columbia, 2 records, $2.00 each.)—A forceful, dramatic reading by the Berliner who comes to the U. S. this winter to tour with the European (formerly German) Grand Opera Co.

Mozart’s Magic Flute Overture by the New York Philharmonic-Symphony under Willem Mengelberg (Victor, $1.50)—The departed Dutchman caught in a rarely buoyant mood.

Chamber Music:

Mozart’s Quartet in G Major by the Lener String Quartet (Columbia, $8)— The Hungarians again gild Mozart with their lush, gypsy touch.

Piano:

Liszt’s Liebestraum and Chopin’s Valse Brilliante (Victor, $2)—Rudolph Ganz does student favorites in an able, pedagogical way.

Songs & Ballads:

Richard Strauss’ Ruhe, Meine Seell! andNachtgang (Columbia, $1.25)—Basso Ivar Ahdresen, famed Norwegian who comes to Manhattan’s Metropolitan in November, gives ground for high hope.

Ezekiel Saw de Wheel and Good News (Victor, $1.25)—Hall Johnson’s fadded Negro Choir present the spirituals from Marc Connelly’s Green Pastures.

Don’t Tell Her What’s Happened to Me and The Kiss Waltz (Columbia)—Ruth Etting’s languishings still take first place.

Dance Records:

Go Home and Tell Your Mother and I’m Doin’ That Thing (Columbia)—Guy Lombardo applies mellow methods to Love in the Rough hits.

Nola and New Tiger Rag (Columbia)— Whiteman virtuosity lavished on tunes which do not particularly matter. Nola has a superb piano.

On a Little Street in Honolulu and All Through the Night (Victor)—For the Record-of-the-Month Victor chooses these two waltzes done in the recurrent Hawaiian vogue.

A Big Bouquet for You and // I Could be with You (Brunswick)—Sweet jazz sweetly sung by Tom Gerun’s saxophones. Those who like trumpets and a spry piano will prefer Johnny Johnson’s version of the first (Victor).

I Still Get a Thrill and / Don’t Mind Walking in the Rain (Brunswick)—Ozzie Nelson takes a sentimental turn with sure-fire hits.

*Prices listed are for entire albums which include several records. Where the price is not given, it is 75 cents, standard price for popular 10-inch records.