Newspapers / Wilmington Morning Star (Wilmington, … / April 3, 1942, edition 1 / Page 8
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Philadelphia Providing Opera For The Masses By JACK SMITH PHILADELPHIA, April 2 - (Wide World)—The guys who yel at baseball umpires also go to the opera here. Hepcats and jitterbugs rub el bows with jeweled and ermine clad socialites and high school kid^ tag along with grandpa when the Philadelphia opera company pro duces. "Why?” asks Impressario David Hocker. "Because it’s opera for the masses.” The company—composed almosl entirely of men and women in their twenties—has flouted practi cally every hallowed tradition in the operatic book to enable Hocker to say that.. It produces only in English— when the traditionalists call for the original tongues. It limits the ’round-the-middle dimensions of the artists—when some of the world’s best have been portly. It casts only young people in youthful parts — although gray haired grand-dads for generations have played the roles of gay young swains. T + mori nnrtr'j \7 mn!t» characters—yet Seibel in "Fause.' Cherubino in "The Marriage of Figaro," and Octavian in "Der Rosenkavaliei," for example, have been played by women since the parts were created. "Look,” says Hocker, "how can we get a rise out an audience witn a woman making love to a lyric soprano?. "We’re introducing the average American to good music. When we get him in to see a good show with a good plot, he suddenly real izes that the music with it isn’t so bad after all. But it has to be a good show before he'll come in. “So we don't allow ham his trionics. We don’t have shabby or over-ornate scenery. We don’t let pampered prima donnas stop the flow of dramatic action to bow aft er singing arias. We don't conceai humor and pathos in Italian, French or German, which three fourths of an audience won't un derstand. "And the result is opera that far.s the enthusiasm of the critics the man in the street and the guy in the stiff shill.” The company, Hocker says, is the first to work without a promp’ er. It rehearses each production tediously, fires singers who can't learn their parts. And it has no stars. A tenor playing a bit character today may play a title role next week. Paradoxically, after breaking such revered traditions, the Phila delphians in some measure have fulfilled the artistic aspirations of operatic great and near-great from Christoph Willibald Gluck to Deems Taylor. For most compos ers have urged emphasis on drama. Gluck created a minor furore with the request as far back as the middle Eighteenth Century. The artists now giving new life to his hopes grew up in the era of talkies and bluod-and-thunder west erns and have a hearty respect for action and melodrama. They’re X | all Americans, and typically I American. Sylvan Levin, 39-year-old con ductor and artistic director, a pro tege of Leopold Stokowski, once was a honky-tonk piano player and William Hess. 26, a tenor, for more. William Hess, 26, a tenor, for merly was a Hagerstown, Md., football hero and blacksmith's as sistant. Soprano Frances Guyer. 25, was a model in a Los Angeles depart ment store. Howard Vanderburg, 23, a bari tone discovered by Lawrence Tib bett. formerly played tympani in a Buffalo high school band. Brenda Lewis, a soprano who joined the company at 16 and has just turned 20, clerked in a five and dime store in Sunbury, Pa. Dorothy Sarnoff. another so prano. 23. sang in church choirs in New York city. Basso James Luts, also 23. read meters for a Staten Island gas | company. ‘none* .Ml 3f) WAS a three-letter athlete and fancy div ing champion at Ohio State uni versity. Hocker himse'f. who at 30 is called the nation ? youngest major impressario, is a former bank clerK who never saw an opera or heard a symphony until 10 years ago. "Someone interested me in the Philadelphia vouth concert series (Leopold S'.okowski’s) and I was made a committeeman, then a bouncer. ' he says. "I once kicked out Eugene Crmandy for b ei n g over the audience age limit.” Ormandy now is the orchestra s conductor, Stokowski’s successor. The bouncer and the former beer-parlor piano player. Levin, met at the youth series and thus was the "Opera For The Masses” company born. They first startled Philadelphia music circles by announcing they'd produce only in English Then they dropped a bombshell by setting themselves up as cen sors of the works of the masteis. They said some of the best-known operas would not bear translation —‘‘if only for the reason that they'ie weak, flimsy stories.” Last month Deems Taylor se | lected them to world-premiere his (latest. “Ramuntcho.” In the same month Mrs. Frank 1 lin D. Roosevelt watched them in j a slangy English production of Mo zart's ‘‘Cosi Fan Tutte” and call i ed it delightful. Next year, with expected in creasing patronage from both the rank-and-file and main liners, they expect to break the last operatic tradition still intact in America. They believe they’ll finish the season entirely selfsupporting. Part of the reason for this is a national tour booked by one of the nation's best known managers. 4 -V In the fiscal year which ended June 30. 1941 total of 501 contrac tors dealing directly with the Bur eau of Yards and Docks worked on Naval defense projects involv ing expenditure of S656 659,000. i 5 * RIDE THE MILKY WAY TO UNPARALLELED FOOD SAVINGS^ KRAFT'S MIRACLE WHIP SALAD DRESSING £ 25cr SAILORMAN'S "CANNED FRESH" \ 8LACKEYE PEAS 2 - 17c • LIBBY'S HEALTH GIVING TOMATO JUICE 3 - 17c I geast \ «Bovt #*sW* 11; Southern Manor Tiny Green LIMA BEANS 2 *°-ns2 29c Stokely PEACHES N£n2* 23c Southern Manor SWEET PEAS 2 *°n2 27c Red Ripe TOMATOES 2 *°ns2' 19c California Bartlett PEARS N°an2% 19c Blue Label KARO SYRUP ^ 35c Sunshine RITZ CRACKERS "J- 21c White House APPLE JELLY 10c Kellogg’s and Post Toasties _pkg. 5c r l \ i ; PILLSBURY I FLOUR 59c I 220 N. 3RD STREET Free Parking While Shopping rriple Fresh BREAD pl”T 9c Double Fresh Golden Blend COFFEE 2 bags 41c IVE ACCEPT ORANGE AND BLUE FOOD STAMPS Mother’s Relish or Salad Dressing •loney Nut Oleomargarine [own Fruit Cocktail Thestnut Hill Corn "Sn210c 1 9,r 29c 2 lb! 33c 2 25c U. 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Wilmington Morning Star (Wilmington, N.C.)
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April 3, 1942, edition 1
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