Word: lunt
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...Lunt began working himself into a scene. He uncoiled from his seat, strode onstage and eyed the silent singers. "You've forgotten everything I've told you," he said, with cold distinctness. "Even being opera singers is no excuse for your acting . . . You look like bowls of cold, rancid oatmeal...
...Easy Lessons. When General Manager Rudolf Bing first asked Actor Lunt to direct Così, he told him that all he had to do was to make it "light, gay and elegant." Protested Lunt: "You cannot get those opera singers up on their points with six lessons from Madame LaZonga."* But once he had listened to Mozart's elegantly subtle score (unheard at the Met since 1928), Lunt accepted the challenge...
...problem, as Lunt's practiced eye saw it, was "taking the affectations of our ancestors and making them endearing." He laid out his action first with the help of some young Broadway actors. When he finally got a chance to drill the singers, he had most of their movements plotted like a minuet ("If you beat your breast, I'll kill you!"). All told, he had the cast onstage for 17 hours of instructions, cajolings and threats...
...Regular. When the curtain went up, Stage Director Lunt himself pranced out in maroon livery and powdered wig. He cleared his throat commandingly, waved a couple of latecomers to their seats, then went through the stage business of lighting a row of electric footlights with a taper, all to great applause...
...strictly an ensemble opera. But all hands -Eleanor Steber, Blanche Thebom, Patrice Munsel, Frank Guarrera, Richard Tucker, John Brownlee-somehow seemed to sing and look better than ever. They sang in understandable English, and carried themselves with the flawlessly sophisticated artificiality which Così, and Director Lunt, demanded...