Music: Opera in English

Great is Manhattan’s Metropolitan Opera. But much of its scenery is hideous, most of its stagecraft pompous, hidebound, stodgy. In Europe, opera is everywhere sung in the language of the land, whereas the Met’s official tongue is Anything-but-English. Next week the Metropolitan will open its season with some hurdy-Verdi in Italian (Un Ballo in Maschera), a new sponsor for its Saturday broadcasts (Texas Co.), its annual promise of more oomph. Meanwhile last week some other U. S. operas delivered the oomph.

> In Philadelphia’s Academy of Music, the young, hard-working Philadelphia Opera Company hit the stride of its third season with a performance in English of the best-known Czech opera: Bedŕich Smetana’s The Bartered Bride. Managed by tall, lean C. David Hocker, musically directed by short, swart Sylvan Levin, the Philadelphia troupe has 22 singers, average age about 27, all but one homegrown. The simple fooleries of The Bartered Bride, set to simple, polka-dotted tunes, showed off some notable young talent: Basso Luke Matz (music supervisor in the Unionville, Pa. public school), as a jovial village marriage broker; Soprano Frances Greer (Philadelphia church singer), as the unwilling betrothed of the village simpleton (Tenor John Toms, voice teacher); Tenor Edward Nyborg (Philadelphia tailor’s helper), as the boy who finally gets the girl.

Enemies of opera in English often argue that most translations are bad. For his Bartered Bride Director Levin took a standard translation, freely paraphrased it, so that the marriage broker sang, “I know a honey with lots of money” instead of the conventional translationese, “One I know who has money galore.”

> Last week the Chicago Opera was in the middle of its six-week season. This year’s new angel and ardent publicizer: Publisher Robert (“Bertie”) McCormick of the Tribune. There were other novel ties. A chorus whose average age was 25 tickled Chicago eyes as well as ears. The Ballet Theatre, which earned huzzahs at its Manhattan debut last year, joined forces with the singers. Last fortnight a performance of Carmen got columns of publicity: in the last act 18 Chicago cops, led by Chief of Traffic Captain David Flynn, took turns appearing as Spanish dragoons riding nine police-department horses.

Musically, the most notable Chicago operas were two performed last week: Richard Strauss ‘s Salome, blazingly conducted by Artur Rodzinski; and the best of modern Italian works, The Love of Three Kings, conducted by its Composer Italo Montemezzi. Best opera in English was Verdi’s Falstaff, retranslated from the Italian to sound something like Shakespeare. Baritone John Charles Thomas patterned his make-up from a Falstaff beer advertisement, said “Falstaff is just a plain red-nosed comedian to me,” acted that way. He got one of his laughs by singing, right out, “Go to hell!”