Grand Opera: The Story of the Met (59 page)

1
. There has been no full-length biography of Rudolf Bing. “How would you”: Rudolf Bing,
5000
Nights at the Opera
(Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1972), 9. Although there were aspirants for Johnson’s position, there were no formal candidates. Aside from Frank St. Leger, the following were mentioned: Lawrence Tibbett, Lauritz Melchior, John Brownlee, Richard Bonelli, and Charles Kullman, all
singers, and Laszlo Halasz, general manager of the New York City Opera. Looking back, Bing wrote, “Supporters of Lawrence Tibbett, I was told later, had actually established a campaign headquarters with a desk and a telephone in an office.” Bing,
5000
Nights,
11. For Belmont’s report to the Met executive committee, see Martin Mayer,
The Met: One Hundred Years of Grand Opera
(New York: Simon and Schuster, 1983), 238. “socially acceptable”: Mayer,
The Met,
237.

2
. For Bing’s initial contract negotiations, see Bing,
5000
Nights,
13. “For the first”: John Erskine,
My Life in Music
(New York: William Morrow, 1950), 236, 237. “ladies”: Belmont’s review of
My Life in Music, Opera News
(Nov. 27, 1950): 26–28.

3
. It is generally acknowledged that Bing, an avowed Catholic, obscured his Jewish birth. In Howard Taubman’s early profile, we have as direct a reference as Bing made to his origins: “He made clear that he had every personal reason to despise Nazism. When the Nazis came into power in Germany he had to leave, and his family and friends were victimized by them” (“The Curtain Rises on Rudolf Bing,”
Times,
March 5, 1950). In newspaper accounts of Bing’s appointment, he is mistakenly credited with having directed the Darmstadt and Charlottenburg operas two decades or so earlier. A month after the announcement, on July 3, 1949, a letter from Carl Ebert correcting the record was published in the
Times
. Ebert’s inference was that Bing had embellished his resumé. On the day Ebert’s letter appeared, Bing wrote to the
Times,
subscribing for the most part to Ebert’s correction, all the while protesting that the error had been made by the Metropolitan’s press office.

4
. For Johnson’s objections to the press conference, see Quaintance Eaton,
The Miracle of the Met
(Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1976), 304. Bing later wrote that he had heard Melchior on a visit to New York in 1939 “looking like a moving couch covered in red plush (though he sounded fine).” Bing,
5000
Nights,
9.

5
. Bing’s message to Tibbett is dated March 8, 1950. For the Warren dispute, see Mary Jane Phillips-Matz,
Leonard Warren, American Baritone
(Portland, OR: Amadeus Press, 2000), 181–82. The Associated Press published a photo of Traubel holding the score of
Die Walküre
together with the sheet music of the “Saint Louis Blues” (Sept. 28, 1953). “Miss Traubel used”: Bing to G. Wendell Hawkins, Oct. 9, 1953.

6
. “he is a”: Bing to Kleiber, Nov. 25, 1950. The exchange between Ruth Kleiber and Bing is dated Dec. 17, 1950, and Dec. 28, 1950.

7
. “conductor-personality”: Bing to Belmont, Sept. 18, 1951. “After all we”: Bing to Belmont, March 2, 1953. Some years later, Leinsdorf took this swipe at Bing: “With ex-Nazis he [Bing] took diverse attitudes according to the artistic interests of the Met. Those whom the opera needed had not been tainted, and all those who were suspect the Met did not need.” Erich Leinsdorf,
Cadenza: a Musical Career
(Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1976), 177.

8
. “to open the”: Margaret Webster,
Don’t Put Your Daughter on the Stage
(New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1972), 204. For the height of the
Don Carlo
sets, see Rolf Gérard, cited in Lilian E. Forester, “Don Carlo: Duet for Director and Designer,”
Opera News
(Nov. 6, 1950): 4.

9
. “not the best”: Martin Dickstein,
Brooklyn Eagle
. “singularly powerful if”: Olin Downes,
Times
.

10
. In his January 18, 1950, letter to Bing concerning Tebaldi and Rigal, Erede suggests Mario Del Monaco as a possible Don Carlo and, for roles in other operas, Victoria de los Angeles and Maria Callas, the last “a very good Aïda and Norma, Leonora but a step back [from] Rigal and Tebaldi.” Bing navigated the choppy waters of the McCarran Act with characteristic sarcasm. Having given up on Christoff, he quipped, “I have now engaged Siepi who was in Switzerland during the war, so I hope he may be all right; but I have just discovered that in Milan he lives in the via Moscova [the river that flows through Moscow] which strikes me highly suspicious!” Bing to Alfred Diez [agent], Oct. 10, 1950. Fedora Barbieri was detained at Ellis Island. The reason given was her affirmative response when asked whether she had attended a Fascist school. Like all Italians of her generation, she had, of course, gone to school under Fascism. Stignani, whose forty-seven years and dumpy mien kept her from the Met, sang with the San Francisco Opera before and after the War, and in Chicago as Azucena in 1955. “a new standard”: Bing to Del Monaco, Aug. 1951, informing the tenor that his presence at rehearsals was expected.

11
. “The whole present-day”: Mordecai Gorelik,
Times,
Dec. 5, 1954. “When the curtain”: Robert Sabin,
Musical America
(Dec. 15, 1950): 15. On Welitsch in
Der Fliegende Holländer,
Bing to Diez, Jan. 6, 1951: “We agreed jointly that she [Welitsch] should not do Senta after all because I felt in the condition in which she now finds herself she might have risked a severe set-back with press and public and I thought it was imperative, not only in our own but in her interest, to avoid that. . . . [I] would never have done
Hollander
without Welitsch.
Hollander
is an unpopular work, but last year’s success of Welitsch made me feel that I could risk it. This year nobody cares about Welitsch at all; nobody asks at the boxoffice for her because she had one or two bad notices and has no doubt disappointed her audience. The cruelty and speed with which the New York public forgets is extraordinary, and, as I said, in this case I think quite unjustifiable.” Only Jeritza and Schorr, in 1931, had drawn large audiences to
Der Fliegende Holländer
. In the late 1930s, not even Flagstad and Schorr could turn a profit for the opera.

12
. “Fleder-Mice”: Johnson in
Cleveland Press,
cited in Irving Kolodin,
The Metropolitan Opera,
1883–1966: A Candid History
(New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1966), 492.

13
. “Mr. Bing should”: Rudolf to Bing, Aug. 21, 1950. The Met principals who sang their roles in the Columbia recording were Welitsch (Rosalinda), Tucker (Alfred), and Kullman (Eisenstein). The Met’s Adele, Patrice Munsel, and its Orlovsky, Risë Stevens, sang in the RCA recording. Neither of RCA’s tenors, Jan Peerce (Alfred) and James Melton (Eisenstein), would ever sing in a Met
Fledermaus
. In fact, Melton was no longer on the company’s roster. RCA, with its starrier galaxy, eventually came out ahead in its rivalry with Columbia. In 1950, it released
Rigoletto
with Warren, Berger, and Peerce, in 1951 the Reiner-Stevens
Carmen,
in 1952 the resplendent
Trovatore
with Milanov, Björling, Barbieri, and Warren.

14
. “If it could”: John Chapman,
Daily News
. “With it Rudolf”: Miles Kastendieck,
Journal-American
. Second-string coloratura to Pons’s Lucia and Gilda since her 1943 debut, Munsel had at last found her repertoire and became the company’s star
soubrette.
Fledermaus
propelled her onto the covers of
Time
(Dec. 3, 1951) and
Life
(March 3, 1952).

15
. “laughing hysterically and”: cited in Nigel Douglas,
More Legendary Voices
(New York: Limelight Editions, 1995), 126.

16
. For Broadway, Armistead designed Menotti’s
The Telephone, The Medium,
and
The Consul,
and Marc Blitzstein’s
Regina
. “meaningless detail”:
Opera News
(Feb. 26, 1951), 6. For Walter on
Cav/Pag,
see Bing,
5000
Nights,
277. “a bargain-basement”: cited in Mayer,
The Met,
245. “find symbols to”: cited in “Lightning in Calabria,”
Opera News
(Feb. 26, 1951), 7.

17
. “The aftermath of”: Mayer,
The Met,
245. “Critics have the”: Bing, cited in “New Settings,”
Theatre Arts
(Nov. 1951): 90.

18
. For an account of finances early in Bing’s tenure and his conflict with the board, see Mayer,
The Met,
254–55.

19
. In a May 2, 1952, communication to Joseph Rosenstock, Bing outlined his objections to the New York City Opera repertoire. “It is just”: Bing to Rosenstock, May 25, 1953. “unfriendly”: Bing to Sloan, Dec. 11, 1954. “Not very long”: Feb. 6, 1953.

20
. “the familiar Bing”: Paul Jackson,
Sign-Off for the Old Met: The Metropolitan Opera Broadcasts,
1950–1966
(Portland, OR: Amadeus Press, 1997), 331. Bing wrote to Rudolf on June 28, 1953, regarding the Berlin offer.

21
. “professional . . . amateurs”: Tibor Kozma, “Ave Atque Vale—Fritz Reiner,”
Opera News
(April 6, 1953): 5–6. Downes,
10
Operatic Masterpieces
(New York: Scribner, 1952). “No smallest item”: “Worlds of Opera,”
Opera News
(April 6, 1953): 22.

22
. Bing’s Nov. 14, 1953 memorandum advises his staff to deny tickets to the chief claqueur.

23
. “I think the”: Bing to Reginald Tonry and Lincoln Lauterstein, Nov. 16, 1954. “standing room problem”: Tonry to Bing, Feb. 24, 1955.

24
. An undated “Memorandum of Events Leading Up to Cancellation and Reinstatement of Season 1956–57” is a diary of the negotiations between the Met and AGMA in July 1956.

25
. For the intersection of the Civil Rights movement and the 1961 strike threat, see Mayer,
The Met,
303.

26
. “Negro singers”: Met Online Annals, see Rudolf Bing.

27
. “Mr. Ziegler is”: Gatti-Casazza to Kahn, April 20, 1927. “It almost didn’t”: Joe Nash, “Pioneers in Negro Concert Dance: 1931–1937,” in
American Dance Festival
(Durham, NC, 1988), 11.

28
. “Dusky Harlemites, high”:
Time
(July 31, 1933): 28. “see itself clear”: White to Cravath, Aug. 17, 1932. For the auditions of Rahn and Brice, see Allan Keiler,
Marian Anderson: A Singer’s Journey
(New York: Scribner, 2000), 270.

29
. In 1962, seven years after Anderson’s debut, Elinor Harper became the first African-American chorister contracted by the Metropolitan.

30
. “Only recently have”: Ziegler to Arnold Hodas. “Nobody can admire,” April 20, 1950, cited in Allan Morrison, “Who Will Be the First to Crack Met Opera?,”
Negro Digest
(Sept. 1950): 54.

31
. In the Met version of
Ballo
broadcast on December 10, 1955, the line “Ulrica, dell immondo sangue dei negri [Ulrica, of unclean Negro blood]” became “Ulrica, del futuro divinatrice [Ulrica, seer into the future].”

32
. “Miss Anderson’s voice”: Winthrop Sargeant,
New Yorker
(Jan. 15, 1955): 94.

33
. For the story of McFerrin’s success in the Met auditions, see
The Encyclopedia of Arkansas History and Culture,
www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net/encyclopedia/
. “The SCLC regrets”:
Atlanta Journal,
May 6, 1961. The “color line” was coined by W. E. B. Dubois in 1903. “Leontyne Price at”: Bing to Bliss, May 21, 1963.

34
. For Bing’s favorite operas, see
Times,
March 5, 1950.

35
. For Webster on staging
Don Carlo
and
Aïda
at the Met, see Webster,
Don’t Put Your Daughter on the Stage,
202–24. Elena Nikolaidi (Amneris) and George London (Amonasro) made successful debuts in the opening night
Aïda
.

36
. The 1951
Rigoletto
was directed by Graf and designed by Eugene Berman.

37
. “special . . . found it”:
New Yorker
(Nov. 22, 1952): 106. “as it now”: Stiedry, “
La Forza
from the Podium,”
Opera News
(Nov. 24, 1952): 6. The 1952
La Forza del destino
was directed by Graf.