Swank in The Arts; 132; Nicola Rescigno & Dallas Civic Opera

I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Where's a highwayervan? Is a bar ещё? Where's aี่. of the 21st season of the Dallas Civic Opera, a theater which came to life largely through the efforts of two men, its general manager, the late Lawrence Kelly, whose dream it was

to produce opera as total theater, and Nicola Rashino, who was to attend the musical realities which could make that happen. They were experienced then only to a degree. With Carol Foxx, they had organized the Chicago Lyric Opera in Kelly's home city, but when management differences divided that trio, Kelly and Rashino chose Dallas as the US city which provided the greatest potential for the kind of opera they wanted to make. It was a crazy undertaking in lots of ways. Though they attracted powerful supporters quite early, there were money problems and the terrible difficulty of getting across what they were trying to do, to a city whose only experience of residential opera was a week's visit each spring from the touring metropolitan. There were glorious failures, but there were also glorious successes, enough of those to broaden continually the band of loyal opera lovers from all areas and backgrounds of Dallas.

Kelly and Rashino, from the first, insisted on top standards of musical performance and on total integration of music sets, costumes and staging. They brought in youthful rising stars to sing with established ones and gave them all plenty of rehearsal and coaching time. They trained a fully professional chorus. They built audiences in every part of the community and worked devotedly in the schools. Though the length of the season was inhibited and still is, by the tight schedule of the music hall, the only house in which they can perform, the reputation of the Dallas Civic Opera spread through this country and to Europe and South America. After the death of Lawrence Kelly, Nicola Rashino added the administrative duties of the company to his musical ones, and it was only with the arrival last year of Plato-Karianas as General Director that Rashino was freed to turn the biggest part of his energy back to music.

And a good thing too, a personal career which had always been healthy but had always been second in priority to the Dallas Opera began suddenly to blossom. His European bookings have increased heavily and he will make his debut with New York's Metropolitan Opera this December. This 21st Dallas Opera season has already opened with the Barber of Seville and a masked ball will open this Friday with Renata Scotto and Benjamin O'Prior, brand new productions of the Flying Dutchman and the Ballad of Baby Doe are still to come later in November and in December. Nicola, in that 21 years, what are the most profound changes in the Dallas Opera climate? Well I think one could easily say that it's a question of exposure and education. I think that whereas 21 years ago everybody knew what apprehended generically, we read

about it in books but to have a resident opera company was really the way to learn it and to love it or to discard it. In a way to be exposed to it. And I think that in the case of Dallas and Dallas of the Opera, it's been a crescendo if I might use a musical term. I think that we have learned a lot. I remember we started with a great concert of the great Maria Carlos who at the time was the reigning queen of opera without a doubt of the Empress. I don't know, whatever title you want to give her, anyone of great eminence. And we did not have a full house because not everybody knew who Maria Carlos was. Well in Chicago, New York or San Francisco they would have to give four concerts to accommodate

the people that would have wanted tickets to that event. And since then we've come a long way. We've come a long way not only in the knowledge of the different artists that comprise a cast in an opera but in the concept of opera itself. I must say that both Larry and myself, Larry with his fantastic devotion to the cause of opera as a composite of all the arts and when all of this goes well, there is a very little in art that is comparable, I think anyway, says I chauvinistically. But I think we've really exposed our audience to some of the best that there has been around and our audience is repaying us back now.

Our houses are better, the response you know is like quasi-italian in our opera house. The bravo's and the yells and the stamping and the standing ovation's are at the order of the day but with great discrimination. It doesn't happen unless they're really earned. So we were looking over the chronology of the company and I think we have seen now some 50 productions of which we own a good many. We own I would say about 30. Not 30. What were the major factors in deciding what you were going to give because some of those have been absolutely new work, some of them have been American debuts. You see with Larry, we talked and discussed a lot and we wanted to, every company I think has an orientation, ours, I would say, runs more along the traditional lines. Now by tradition, I don't mean a slave-wish recognition of what's happened in the past

and just because it's happened for 40 years or 50 years or 100 years, it necessarily is good. No, I speak of tradition as a more profound concept of opera, information of what has happened. Well you have not an imitation. You have not been terribly interested in experimental opera friends. No, we have not because I figured that especially in this part of the country, in Dallas to be exact, so many great musical works had not appeared. And so rather than bet on what I'd hoped would be a winning horse, I just chose a horse that I knew would win, at least musically speaking, from the standpoint of the value of a different work.

I mean you cannot discuss the value and the importance of the coronation of papaya, whether people like it or not is something else, but you know that you are presenting a masterpiece that had not been seen in Dallas, as a matter of fact, had not been seen in the United States. What stands out in your mind most, Keeney, do you have any particular recollections of production or of a unique experience? Yes, I enjoyed particularly, I have very many I must say, and you know, this is like asking do you like mama or papa better, I mean you know, it's hard to go, but I really enjoyed our very first production, the Italian in Algeria, which I thought was just wonderful. And I, for instance, enjoyed immensely Orfis in the Underworld that we did. I loved our Otello's, Otelli, you know what I'm saying. And you're two moors. In later years, I loved our Tristan, our first Vagnerian experiment, let's put it that way, which went very well, I loved last year's Macbeth and the men all, there are many, you

know, it's... Well there were some that were tougher, there were some, I remember the ties that was a real disappointment. Yes, yes. Well, you know, how do you deal with that when you've just done your best and circumstances? I think it's just, you know, I think Escoffier himself in the kitchen doesn't always produce a masterpiece, you know? And as we say in Italian, not all the downloads come out with the whole. Now, that doesn't mean that the ingredients aren't good or that the chef doesn't know his business. It just is part of the fallibility of life rather than the infallibility that we'd like to think at times we have. And every once in a while we are reminded, know that we are very fallible and that we and things just don't go the way you planned them, that's all there is to it. Well on balance, you had more important successes than you had important failures. Yes, I would, yes, yes, in all truth and honesty, I would say that we can say that, you

know. Well let's talk about you a little bit. Most of your energy in all years that I've known you since the beginning of the company have been, it certainly wasn't your only activity. We know that you've connected widely all over the world, but it was an important area for you now. Yes. All of a sudden your career is coming together in another way. Well, yes, careers are strange things, you know. I was listening to an interview the other night of Gregory Peck, you know, and I think Johnny Carson was interviewing him or something. And we're saying of being at the right, luck has a lot to do with it, apart from merit, and being at the right point at the right time. Now, you know, unless you are Saint Anthony and you have the virtue of by-location or trial occasion or whatever it's called, and you can be in a couple of places at the

same time, really you have one major thing going. And for years, that one major thing was for me, the Dallas and Civic Opera. And I think it would be the same care that a father or a mother, if we have to go into the unisex thing, has to lavish upon an adolescent child, as opposed to the care that one gives the child, one gives the same love and the same care. But at 2025, you figure the child stands on his own feet, whereas at 12 or 13, he or she need a lot more nurturing and care and being with all constantly, you know. And I think that my principal effort, as far as energies and artistically, were called Dallas and Civic Opera. That didn't mean that I didn't conduct here in the other place, as a matter of fact, that coincided with most of my European career, where I conducted all over Europe constantly

for many years. But the main direction, let's say the core of my activity was undoubtedly a Dallas and Civic Opera. Then I suppose word gets around too, you know, and then again, being in the right place at the right time. And now there's a great interest in my services. Well, you conducted in Vienna last year and in Gliedberg in the summer? Yes, yes, in the summer. And I recorded Tosca, the summer in London. And you go to the Metropolitan? I go to the Metropolitan, yes. Which really is very rewarding, especially because my father worked in the orchestra for 30 years. He was a member of the orchestra for 30 years and, operatically speaking, that was the house where I was born, the old Metropolitan, the old house on 39th, 37th, 38th, 39th,

whatever it was. And that's where I really heard my first opera starting at the age of two or three or something like that. And so it's really very nice going there. Well, that brings you back then. I believe you're handling the Dampa Squally, and that will bring you back to Dallas under another hat in the spring. That's right. That's right. The tour. Yes, I will be conducting that in Dallas, on tour, that's right. Some of those people who have gone on to sing here is very young artists. How do you find them? How does the grapevine work? Well, you see, I've been busy conducting around the world for many years helped that because, for instance, in Mexico City where I used to go quite often in years past, I heard a lady called Monserad Caballén, I thought, not bad, this would be very good in Dallas.

I heard a young man called Plathido Domingo, and I thought, well, this is Dallas stuff. And I invited them. And in Europe, other people in Europe, a lady called, for instance, Joan Sutherland, you know. And it's just working around, you know, you hear the celebrities before they are celebrities. And I might pay myself a compliment of saying, I really do love the human voice. I really do. And I'm quite knowledgeable about it. And I can see maybe a potential in certain artists where the talent hasn't completely blossomed out, you know. But if certain things happen, they should become stars. Now, you could never bet your life on that, you know. But you can take a good risk, you know. Well, you say that you have always loved the human voice, and I know that that's true.

You have been guest-conductor of the Dallas Symphony. I know that you have conducted many times in non-operatic situations. What is this, a real ambition of yours, or are you perfectly happy in that opera? I'm very happy in the pit. I'm very happy in the pit. As I say, I was sort of born in the pit, you know, because of Papa, and around the house although in our home there are always artists, and singers, and so on and so forth. But it always tended more towards the operatic, you see, because Papa worked at the Metropolitan. And so all the talk was that of a pit musician, rather than a symphonic musician. It was strange. Just a short while ago I was being interviewed by a journalist, and he was asking me the very same questions. I mean, what is opera versus symphony? Well, what is the beauty of dawn versus the beauty of your sunset, you know? Both Jean or have great masterpieces.

Many great composers have written masterpieces for both. I mean, you know, a Mozart opera is that, is it second to a Mozart symphony, no, I don't think so. You know, or is hearing Tille Euler's Spiegel, Mori Warding, then hearing Salome, or Rosin Cavalier. So it really, it's music. And if you could make great music, I mean, you've won the day. Upstairs or downstairs or in between, you know? How much does the audience itself in its reaction have to do with your feeling about what's going on? I remember, for instance, in the Houston experience, they were taping the performance, and the audience was asked not to applaud, not to interrupt the music. Dallas audiences, it seems to me, applaud very happily and very indiscriminately.

Is this a matter of impulse? Is this different in other cities? Well, as I say, I think I, for some reason, I remember what your question was, but I said that Dallas has, audience, is like an Italian audience, you know? And whatever, whenever they feel like, whenever the spirit moves, if they hear something they like, they applaud, which is what it's all about, you know, and I also have not adverse to the booing, you know, I mean, I prefer that to this sort of limbo of acceptance where, you know, I mean, you don't know. What's going to happen? Yes, I mean, do they like it? Don't they like it? Or should they just like it? They boo, and if they love it, they applaud and scream and yell, and you know, I understand where for technical reasons, as in the case of a recording, but it was strange because they recorded three out of the four performances. And the one they all preferred was the one where there was the greatest applause.

That's interesting, because basically it gets through, doesn't it? It gets through. I think you see, it's like a love affair. It takes two to tango, doesn't it? Yes. I mean, when you read that men like Giuseppe Verdi, who knew a thing or two about music, and about opera, really paid great respect to the opinion of the audience. And you know, I mean, this is who we're writing for. These are the people we have to please. You see the great importance of an audience and of their reaction. Now an audience can be unfair, too, you know, because, as again, we're human. But generally speaking, the audience has a way of selecting what's good. Even if the knowledge isn't that great. And that's a thing because music is not a thing of knowledge as such. It has to be knowledge for me, because I'm a musician, or for a composer, or for somebody

who plays the violin, or sings, or dances. But for the audience, it's an emotional reaction, isn't it? And when something inside of you vibrates, then you're a success, then you've carried out the intentions of the author. And they don't really have to understand what's going on? Not that technically, you know. I don't think you know. I don't think to enjoy a fugue. I don't think to enjoy the great fugue that ends false stuff, for instance, and ends Verdi's career, the great fugue in Doma Giore and C Major. I don't think you have to know how to write a fugue to enjoy it. Then that was his business, Verdi's, and he did it very well, you know. It's an emotional, I think, that's why music is one of the, possibly the greatest of the arts, possibly the greatest of the arts, because it leaves room for every type of feeling at the minute you're hearing it.

And you could hear it in six months and get a different reaction, because your receptivity is that right? Receptivity. Receptivity is different in that moment. So that, you know, your reaction differs, you know, whether you're happy, whether you're sad, you read one thing into it, you read one, which is very nice for us, too, as interpreters. You see. So I think that's one of the greatness of opera. Well, what you're telling me is that we have a good, live, sort of independent, free-thinking audience. Is that going to be the vital factor in the future of this company? What is? I think we've, and when I say we, I mean, the whole big operatic family called DCO, have done our best for Dallas. And I think that alongside with the appreciation and the support, the support has to increase.

You understand what I'm trying to say? By support, we've functioned through the generosity of many, many people, both financial, both in time and in devotion. But if we are to become greater, that devotion has to become greater, too. I think that's where the expansion of our company lies. That's where the ultimate foundation of the company is in the populace itself, in our board of directors, and in the people who support us. I mean, we do this for the city. The city has to do this for us. By city, I don't mean the city fathers necessarily, I mean, the broad basis of support. And I think that is really going to be the telling factor in the growth and in the permanence of a level, and maybe even bring the level higher.

And you're optimistic? Yes. Yes, I sort of linger on a little before I say yes, because I know it's asking a lot. You know, but I think that on the basis of past performance in this sector, future performance, I think we can, I don't say take for granted, but I think we can be optimistic about. That's good. Good luck to you. Well, thank you. It's very nice. It's nice to have you here, Nicola. Thank you. I'll hope to see you at a masked ball. As we say goodnight, you will see photographs made by the late Laura Garza of the distinguished 1976 production of Handel Sampson over music from the same work. Thank you.

Thank you. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye.

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