Hall of song: The 'Met,' 1883-1966; 1913 Through 1918

The following program was produced for national educational radio under a grant from the National Home Library Foundation by W. B U R Boston. Boston University radio presents Hall of song the story of the Metropolitan Opera from 1893 to 1966. Will. Warm the. World. It'll. Show hosts are my own past and Deek music critic of The New York. World. Tribune.

And Milton Cross. Has might have been expected. The Mets 913 season got off to one unlucky start. This time the trouble was caused by a scandal back in the days when growing cotton Reed had run the house. They found it convenient to give the ticket agencies a 15 percent reduction on their purchases to ensure a large pre-season sale. This practice was abandoned in 1911 when the demand was great enough but the agency still continued to buy large quantities of tickets prior to the start of the season. For one thing many of their customers preferred to charge their purchases at the agency and the brokers also had access to some choice locations in the house and charged a special service fee for seats in those areas. The trouble developed when the opening of the season drew near and a large group of

people who had bought their subscriptions through Tyson and company still hadn't got any tickets. Complaints began to reach the Met management and when they investigated they discovered that Richard J Hartman the director of Tyson's had pledged two hundred and twenty thousand dollars worth of opera tickets as collateral for a loan to buy other theater tickets. The Metropolitan felt partially responsible since they had endorsed the agency and so they pressed for an indictment against Hartmann. The district attorney intervened and gave Hartmann time to raise enough money to release the tickets which he managed to do in time for the opening night. When everyone finally got the tickets for the performance on November 17th the Tribune reported that they had formed a throng that was the largest ever in the homes. The choice for this season opener was logic Conda with Caruso

destine mats now and a motto. It wasn't one of her best efforts and Henderson decided Cheerio as he sang it that night wasn't even an echo of his delivery of the same number five or six years ago. The audience still applauded wildly for him to repeat it but he didn't want to. The enlarged repertory of the season was now expanded further by the admission of Strauss's Darrow's and cavalier and more intimate scenes. The love of three kings. The performance of Rosen Cavalier was approved but the opera itself was roundly criticized. Henderson found it a commonplace score with an ending that was a piece of lamentable bungling. After the story is complete he wrote they may end on for nearly 10 minutes more and finish with a ridiculous piece of pantomime evidently for the sake of doing something unexpected. In another review written a few days later he summed up the thing as no standing as a work of art. There's not even a good piece of workmanship

in the light of this remark it is interesting to find it a well-established favorite in the repertory today. The first metropolitan marshal and was Frieda Hempel without a guard says Baron Ochs and the case is Sophie and Margaret O'Brien as Octavian Wellbred made her debut a few weeks earlier as OP trued in Lohengrin and Graybill found her interpretation to be the creation of a true tragic actress. She like Mattson hall before had a distinguished career in both German and Italian opera and from the latter repertory gave frequent performances as as a chain in Trovatore e a. It. Was it.

Was. Oh. Yes. Oh. Yes.

It was. Close. Yes. Little. I'm like Rosen cavalier. The love of three kings had a tremendous popular and critical

success. Much of the credit went to Toscanini Tennison attended the dress rehearsal and at one point he turned to the representative of the recording publishing house and asked why on earth wasn't this opera success in Italy. The man from Ricordi not adored the maestro and said they never heard it in Italy. An interesting footnote to this however occurred in Chicago in Malta Mitzi arrived there shortly after the success of the Opera New York Alexander small and was in Chicago at the time and when mama Mitzi learned that small and had had the Toscanini interpretation he asked the conductor to demonstrate how the opera had been treated in New York while Mom sat down at the piano and played part of the opening episode using Toscanini's vigorous tempi stop cried the composer wrong all wrong. The 1913 season also marked the beginning of the 33 year career of Giovanni Martinelli when he made his debut on November 20th as Rodolfo in LA Boy him.

Ai ai ai ai was was loaded AA. Was was was was me. OK he was gay

was was gay but. Whoa whoa whoa whoa. Whoa whoa whoa. Oh man my Ok might be a war gave. A low blow. Oh yeah you nailed. I was I was showing

a I was showing was leaking. Oh I know you loathe you. It was no more all over. Oh I. Am. Oh oh.

Oh yeah. Oh no. Oh a load o u O M O L O V. Oh oh oh oh. Oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh I am. Looking ahead a bit we might mention that the very last program in our series will be

devoted to the reminiscences of Giovanni I'm out in L.A. and we shall then they see as they talk together and look back on their careers which combined over a period of metropolitan history from 1913 to the present where the outbreak of World War One some of the Metropolitan singers who spent the summer in Europe one able to get back to New York for the next season. Another consequence of the wall was that there were very few debuts and Gatty had to rely on his old hands scarcely a hardship in any case and a variety of new works and revivals to keep things running well. Giordano's Madame song's yen has given its world premiere. There were also performances a very round rock called Iris and Princie gong. All of these except all recall all were conducted by Toscanini and at the season's end he had run up a total of twenty nine operas but to much to everyone's deep regret. This was to be the last season for Toscanini the management's official

statement said that the maestro couldn't return because of the war and the patriotism which compelled him to remain in Italy. The truth in so far as it will never be fully known was that he and Gotti had crossed swords over the old problem of whether opera should be produced for the sake of art or profit. Rising costs led to Gotti to cut back on rehearsal time and that was something Toscanini wouldn't tolerate especially in view of the frequent cast changes which occur during a season. The maestro withdrew rather than give in leaving the Metropolitan sadder at the news of his departure. But a good deal happier for his having been there at all. The effects of the war were felt more and more during the following season as America's involvement deepened. Rumors began to circulate that all German works would or should be dropped from the repertory. It soon became clear that this was not to be the

case at least not in the 1015 season as Arthur Bodansky arrived to take over the direction of the German operas filling the vacancy left by the departure of Hertz at the end of the previous season. Upon his arrival but Dansk expressed very firm and definite ideas concerning the business of cuts. If the length of a Wagnerian music drama bores the public he said it should be cut and I intend to see that such cuts are made in the works under my direction as a result audiences found that the evenings of Wagner were passing a lot more comfortably than they had in previous years. Not all of the critics were in agreement on the practice but it was when they didn't do it throughout the desk his 25 year career. And no one denied that the Wagner operas he conducted were bound to be the highlight of nearly any season. The most outstanding talent to join the company in 1015 was the robust baritone Giuseppe de looka who made his debut as a figure on the Barber of Seville in the course of his 25 metropolitan seasons he sang a variety of roles including Fenton

and Falstaff from which he recorded the lively Duro Poggio. OK OK if you want. It then it will be

me. The WITH there was great sadness when it was learned that year that the great Zebari had been forced to withdraw from opera and definitely because of a throat ailment. She was to be absent for six seasons. This void was filled as much as it could ever be filled. When Claudia moved Scio made her debut in 1916. The Metropolitan was hardly new to her though even at the time of her first official appearance because her father had been stage manager of the company in the Maurice grow and she had been in and out of the Met ever since she was eight years old. New CEO's career ended tragically with her death in 1036 at the age of 42. But while she was at the Metropolitan she made a lasting impression in many rows not the least of which was Tatiana in Tchaikovsky's Eugene Omega and here is her hauntingly beautiful interpretation of say for

Salon jello for daily. So the. Above. The the.

Where are. You.

You. Eat. You.

There used to be a charming little legend and it's still believed by a few people who don't want to know any better which told Hall opera sing is another musicians can live in an idyllic little universe of their own and not worry about what's going on out side. That myth was exploded though as World War 1 took its toll on the Metropolitan stage as well as on the European battlefields. The first casualty was your how to guide ski whose career in America was terminated on April 13th 1917. Her husband Hans Tauscher was the United States representative of the Krupp munitions Corporation and he had thrown a big celebration party at their home after the sinking of the Lusitania. He had also been implicated in a plot to blow up the Welland Canal. Some critics try to say that God skis retirement was a consequence of vocal deterioration but the real reason

was all too clear during a performance of Reginald the covens credibility pilgrims in 1916. The news was received that President Wilson had asked Congress to declare war. Well done ski's stopped the opera to play the Star-Spangled Banner and Margaret Ober fainted on stage with the United States actively participating in the war. All German operas were removed from the repertoire in 1917 auto Goritz not only hurt your disembark and market it vanished with them this turn of events placed an almost impossible burden on Tara and Caruso who had to fill the vacuum left after the disappearance of forty five performances of German opera which were originally scheduled PM on tour was engaged to ease the strain on the company's other French conductors The only significant vocal debut of the season was Florence Easton's on December 7. But even in her case the

war had a chill affects Eastern achieved what was probably her greatest acclaim in the Wagner repertory. But she had a good number of years to wait before she could display a talent as Brunnhilde in the great duet from the last scene of Siegfried. A portion of which she sings now with one of her later colleagues Laurence Melky O.

Word. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Oh OK. The. AOA out what you mean. You are an IED. OK.

The EAA enough. To issue a. Week. You say Oh yeah yeah yeah O'HOY eyin. The OEM Lowie. Oh and the

beard. Yes. Wow I am I out the MLA Ian. Fortunately the Metropolitan survived the war just as it survived many other crises. The season of 1918 saw the signing of the armistice and also the Dubuque of a marvelous new talent rose upon sale. Next week we'll have the honor of hearing this unique artist reminisce about her years with the Metropolitan. For now this is Milton Cross on behalf of Myles custom Deek inviting you to