A Week at the Opera

The Metropolitan Opera's new season started last Monday with more than the usual amount of confusion. Rudolph Bing, the Met's General Manager and trouble shooter par excellence had his hands full as six productions were put into their final form for presentation this week.

The unprecedented six shows in the Met's opening week reflects Bing's desire to lengthen the Metropolitan's season without conflicting with the commitments of Met singers to other opera companies, especially the San Francisco Opera and the European spring festivals. Though there is much to be said for the extension of a Metropolitan season, (It would offer more performances to opera lovers and steadier employment to performers.) the appearance of six operas in one week presents enormous problems.

The company not only has prepared two new productions, Il Trovatore and The Marriage of Figaro where sets, costumes and staging are all unfamiliar but also is presenting a revival of Manon, Massenet's work, which was last produced during the 1953-54 season. A new production requires at least three stage rehearsals with orchestra, sets, costumes and light. A revival of a difficult work like Manon is usually given three stage rehearsals with orchestra, two of these in full dress. However, this week, four operas return to the repertory from last year and these each require at least one dress rehearsal. The past four weeks at the Met were fraught with tension produced by the mounting of two new shows without adequate stage rehearsal.

Figaro and Trovatore are both handsome and, in some respects, truly exciting renovations of what had been two of the worst "war heroes" in the Metropolitan repertoire.

Trovatore will be remembered for the debut of Giulietta Simionato, the great Italian mezzo-soprano who sang Azucene. Simionato is known to record collectors for her superb Rossini performances. Yet, her extraordinary range enables her to perform parts as diverse as Azucena and Santuzza with equal ease and brilliance. Her Trovatore could not have been bettered. In these days when dramatic singers with reliable techniques are rare, a good Azucena, so difficult a part, is harder to find than the "great American opera."

Another new artist of major importance is the young Swedish spinto soprano, Elisabeth Soederstroem who portrays Suzanna in the new Figaro. She acts charmingly and phrases with a sensitivity and delightful youthfulness that only a born Suzanna could achieve.

The production of Figaro holds especial interest for opera-goers because it has been designed by Oliver Messel, the distinguished English artist noted for his work in the Glyndebourne Festival. Messel is so flooded with commissions that, a few years back, he refused even to answer a letter from the Met seeking his help on another opera. He was a he is, finally got him to do Figaro--a favorite of Messel's.

Messel was well worth the lengthy dickering. His Figaro contains some of the most elegant, beautiful sets and costumes ever seen on the Metropolitan stage. Unfortunately, however, Messel's scenery was designed for an earlier production at Glyndebourne and has merely been adapted to the Metropolitan stage. Scaling up a small set doesn't always work at the Met and the second act decor, the boudoir of the Contessa, looks like an oversized parlor of an English country home.

Yet Messel's costumes, especially the glittering pair for the Contessa, worn with stunning stylishness by Lisa Della Casa, have a grand line that is perfectly suited to both the Opera House stage and the spirit of Figaro. Against the predominantly gray background of the settings, the pastel dresses of the chorus and ballet and the vibrant yellows and reds of the principals' costumes produce wonderful, eye-filling tableaux.

Reliable report has it that Figaro shall be played during the Thanksgiving week end. Take advantage of his trip and mail in your ticket orders early.