Music: Beating the Met

San Francisco music lovers, who are as proud of their 28-year-old opera company as they are of their cable cars and bridges, like nothing better than to score a beat on Manhattan’s Met. Often enough in past years, with the help of showmanship, fresh scenery and one of the best-equipped opera houses in the world, they have done just that. Last week, at the 1950 opening-night performance, they got the jump again by offering the U.S. operatic debuts of three European stars in a bang-up production of Aïda.

Italian Mario del Monaco, 27, got the evening’s first big hand with his throbbing Celeste Aïda. Everyone agreed that he was an uncommonly good actor to find in grand opera, and one of the few in the business who can be made up to look like heroes, but critics found fault with him as lacking the maturity and the “finesse which marks the great artist.”

Greek Contralto Elena Nikolaidi (Amneris), who will sing at the Met later in the season, gave the same expert, big-voiced performance of the role that had helped her win a reputation at the Vienna State Opera.

But the big event of the evening was the first U.S. appearance of Italian Soprano Renata Tebaldi, 28, as Aïda. Tall (5 ft. 10 in.) and expressive, Tebaldi made a big impression both physically and vocally. Her flexible and powerful voice, known in the U.S. only on records, brought down the house in her first-(Ritorna vincitor) and third-act (O patria mid) arias.

The daughter of an orchestral cellist, Tebaldi always took a singing career for granted. Five years ago a scout from Milan’s La Scala heard her operatic debut in Rovigo, near Venice, signed her at once. Since then, she has been one of La Scala’s youngest and most promising stars.

Signed last May by San Francisco Opera Maestro Gaetano Merola after one hearing in Florence, Soprano Tebaldi flew to San Francisco without pausing in Manhattan, planned to return to Italy after the Los Angeles season. There was just a possibility the Met might still catch up with her. Met Manager Rudolf Bing, with a reservation for another performance of Aïda, is due in San Francisco late this week.