Word: opera
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Dates: during 1930-1939
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...Italian basso of Manhattan's Metropolitan Opera House is long-legged, sardonic Ezio Pinza. Last week, as Basso Pinza was plowing through a concert in Corpus Christi, Tex., he noticed that a small boy in the front row was waggling his foot...
Because music is so important to Lieder-loving Germans, music is also important to the German Government. For generations opera houses and music schools have been supported by the state. When, in 1933, the Nazis came into power, one of their first concerns was the organization, with characteristic German thoroughness, of Germany's musical life along strictly Nazi lines. Dominant in the official Nazi attitude toward music were: 1) the Nazi theories of race, 2) Nazi objections to all satirical, "unwholesome" or experimental types of art. Public performance of works by Jewish composers like Mendelssohn and Gustav Mahler...
...must be a member of the Musikkammer. The Kammer fixes and assures collection of composers' royalties, decrees what type of music shall be played and who shall or shall not be permitted to play it. Securely under its thumb are the activities of Germany's world-renowned opera houses, music conservatories, symphony orchestras. Periodically the Musikkammer makes recommendations to Chancellor Hitler himself who bestows upon deserving Nazi musicians the title of Professor (now an honorary designation without academic significance). Membership in the Musikkammer (and hence participation in Germany's professional music life) is limited to qualified...
...small, provincial opera houses. Assistant conductorships in the few permanent U. S. opera companies are very seldom awarded to U. S.-born aspirants, full-fledged conductorships almost never. U. S. audiences, long accustomed to judging other types of musicians impartially on their merits, still flock more eagerly to hear a fourth-rate foreign conductor than to hear a fairly well-equipped and conscientious native maestro. Boards of directors of U. S. symphony orchestras, sometimes influenced by socialite patronesses, usually demand colorful or famous personalities. Current in orchestral circles is the remark of a well-known pianist's wife:* "When...
...compete with full-fledged & experienced European rivals, many U. S. conductors have not only studied in Europe but have launched their careers there. European opera houses will occasionally take on a U. S. student for odd jobs. Second-rate European orchestras can usually be hired for concerts. But hiring a loo-man orchestra to practice on is a luxury that only a very liberally financed maestro can afford...