Word: martinu
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...comforts itself with the thought that the next best thing to profits is prestige. Since 1949, NBC-TV has boosted its prestige with more than a dozen operas, mostly without benefit of sponsors. Last week No. 16 on the list went before the cameras: Czech Composer Bohuslav Martinu's The Marriage. Like Gian-Carlo Menotti's Amahl and the Night Visitors (TIME, Dec. 31, 1951), martinu's opera is short (55 minutes), written to be sung in English, and constructed with TV in mind every minute...
Based on a Gogol story, The Marriage is a comedy about a reluctant bachelor in the grip of a marriage broker. Martinu's score is lighthearted and craftsmanlike, though it contains no particularly memorable music. The production itself comes across as first-rate entertainment, thanks in good part to the collaboration of Composer Martinu and energetic, talented Peter Herman Adler, 53, director of NBC's television opera program...
Best of all, from NBC's viewpoint is the growing number of network stations which choose to carry the opera series-26 for Martinu's Marriage last week. Adler and Chotzinoff are men with a mission these days. Says Chotzinoff: "Television is the only hope of opera in America...
...Martinu: Sonata for Piano and Flute (George Reeves and Rene Le Roy; EMS, 1 side LP). Melodic inspiration (vintage 1945) and superior performances make this attractive listening. The more astringent Martinu - and some spectacular pianism-are on the other side, where Charles Rosen plays five short studies and polkas and a longer work, Les Ritournelles. Recording: good...
Other winners: Bohuslav Martinu's Comedy on the Bridge (best new opera), Benjamin Britten's Spring Symphony (best choral work), William Schuman's Judith (best dance score), Gian-Carlo Menotti's TV opera Amahl and the Night Visitors (a special citation to Menotti...