Word: annie
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Dates: during 1930-1939
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...cast: fat Lauritz Melchior sang the title rôle; Soprano Maria Muller of the Metropolitan Opera was an able Elizabeth, but (said a U. S. correspondent) "her impersonation wanted in true virginal tenderness and womanliness." The Venusberg scene did not represent "frenzied eroticism" but "revue calisthenics." Venus (Contralto Anni Helm) was "tender, but in a maternal way." Nevertheless the audience was enthusiastic, applauded (mostly for Toscanini) a full ten minutes...
...clamoring for Pontius Pilate to order the Christ crucified. Comment at the village inns that night and on trains back to Berlin ran on the dignity and beauty of the new Christus (Alois Lang), the bewildered aspect of the old Judas (Guido Mayr), the rosy simplicity of the Virgin (Anni Rutz). Reported Alexander Woollcott to the New York Times: "The play triumphed even over the village of Oberammergau . . . uproar, bedlam, mean scramble . . . seats reserved and paid for at a distance may not always be had at the last moment without a dash of bribery. . . . Americans buying something to take home...
...Virgin. Anni Rutz, awkward, homely, sweet-tempered daughter of a widowed candy shop proprietress, will play the Virgin this year. Anni is a typist in a saw mill, the first blonde to play Mary in the living memory of Oberammergau. No trouble has she had in fulfilling the obligation of the chosen Virgin to lead a seemly life. For a while it seemed that her younger, much prettier and lazier sister might receive the vote, but the Oberammergau electors are discerning men, not to be influenced by appearances...