Word: americanization
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Dates: during 1910-1919
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Twelve weeks of Opera in English is the program of Mr. Edward M. Beck, managing director of the Boston English Opera Company. His aim, as expressed in an interview yesterday, is to provide for the American singer in this country an opportunity comparable at least to that given to the foreigners who have hitherto dominated our opera...
...ever going to build up a truly national musical culture and a truly national opera" said Mr. Beck, "it is absolutely essential that we train young American singers and give them a fair chance. That American voices are as good as any that can be found in the world is proved by the few great American singers who have surmounted tremendous obstacles and become world famous...
...They know that once American singers become strong enough in the operatic field to dispense with a foreign trade mark, then the next logical step is the employment of American directors, and American conductors, and the shift from a foreign to the native language. Not only this, but our singers instead of studying abroad, would be taught in this country...
...That is why for their own selfish interest, these foreigners discourage opera in English, discourage American singers, deny to young American voices a fair chance, and seek only to strengthen the strangle hold that aliena now have upon the production of opera in this country, where opera pays the largest rewards of any country in the world...
...continued Mr. Beck, "opera can be sung in English, and produced as well under American direction as under any other. More, it gives greater enjoyment to the mass of the people which comprise the average audience when it is sung in an understandable language than when foreign singers use a medium that but few of the audience can comprehend...