Word: ortrud
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...production's cast was youthful and predominantly non-German: Hungary's Sandor Konya as Lohengrin, Austria's Leonie Rysanek as Elsa, France's Ernest Blanc as Telramund, the U.S.'s Astrid Varnay as Ortrud, and Keith Engen, who sang King Heinrich (wearing his 1944 University of California class ring). While the principals were vocally uninspired, the chorus was in splendid form-despite severe hardships. Wieland's staging demands that the male chorus remain frozen-and conscious-for 70 minutes in the first act. In last week's premiere, several members retreated giddily...
...Metropolitan Opera stars were the center of attention in the opening-night Lohengrin. The part of Elsa was splendidly sung by Eleanor Steber, in her first German-language appearance in Germany; Astrid Varnay turned in a solid performance as Ortrud. Some critics said it was the best Lohengrin they could remember. Two 'other Met stars scored in the Parsifal: George London as Amfortas and Chile's Ramon Vinay as a slightly Latinate Parsifal...
Back in 1910, when blonde, Pennsylvania-born Florence Wickham was singing Ortrud in Lohengrin and Emilia in Otello at the Met, she never thought of composing an opera herself. Twenty-five years later, long after she had married and retired, she wrote a musical adaptation of As You Like It. Sponsored by her friend, Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt, it was produced in tiny Carmel, N.Y., later put on in Germany...