Word: ravinia
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Americans are learning that the U. S. has a musical institution quite as deserving of pilgrims from afar as Germany's annual Wagner festival at Bayreuth or the famed Opera at Paris (lately mediocre indeed) or La Scala at Milan (which badly misses Conductor Arturo Toscanini). To rustic Ravinia on Chicago's North Shore (20 mi. out) go more and more visitors each year, to hear what is easily the best summer opera to be found anywhere in the world...
Last week began Ravinia's 19th season, with a personnel including such international figures as Sopranos Lucrezia Bori and Elisabeth Rethberg, Tenors Edward Johnson and Giovanni Martinelli, Basso Leon Rothier. Again its conductors are Gennaro Papi and Louis Hasselmans, its chief dancer Ruth Page. Again the orchestra is taken from the Chicago Symphony. The repertoire will be chosen from 40 or more operas. New this year: Vittadini's Anima Allegra to be given with Bori, Smetana's The Bartered Bride with Rethberg, Meyerbeer's Les Huguenots with Soprano Yvonne Gall, leading soprano of the Paris Opera...
...Impresario. Ravinia owes its existence to Louis Eckstein, a genial, versatile gentleman whose vocations have been many but whose one and only avocation is Ravinia. President Eckstein ("president" is the title he gives himself for managing and financing an opera company) was born 65 years ago in Milwaukee, attended public school and a business college run by Robert C. Spencer of handwriting renown. Passionately fond of music, he studied the violin, never became particularly expert, never considered making music his profession. His first job was with the Wisconsin Central R. R. for which he became passenger traffic manager while still...
...Ravinia is Louis Eckstein's chief active occupation.* Nineteen years ago he snatched it from a group of directors who wanted to turn it into an ordinary amusement park. Concerts had proved unprofitable but Eckstein was determined. The second year of his administration he engaged the Chicago Symphony for ten weeks. Excerpts from operas were included in the programs, became increasingly popular. Important members of the Metropolitan and Chicago Opera Companies were engaged. They liked to be invited to Ravinia. Last autumn Bori received a cable asking her to sing this spring at London's Covent Garden...
...President Eckstein has never been able to make Ravinia pay. He owns the land and the buildings, charges no rent. He gives his full time, engages the artists, makes out the programs, attends every performance. Last year he and Mrs. Eckstein made up $97,000 of a $217,000 deficit. His comment : "Art pays dividends in beauty. It cannot be expected to pay in material things...