Word: rethbergs
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Died. Elisabeth Rethberg, 81, top Metropolitan Opera soprano for two decades; in Yorktown Heights, N.Y. Blonde, blue-eyed and almost fearsomely robust, German-born Rethberg tried out at the Met in 1922 and stayed for 20 years, drawing raves with a clear, effortlessly powerful voice that made her a standout in an era of great Met sopranos, including Kirsten Flagstad and Lotte Lehmann. She also brought a lively offstage presence to U.S. opera-once, during a tour with Met Basso Ezio Pinza, she collected not only bouquets but also a $250,000 suit from Pinza's wife charging alienation...
...Liszt's rarely performed Saint Elizabeth, when one soldier lost his tights, causing Conductor Artur Bodanzky to go into such a seizure of laughter that the orchestra had to finish the scene by itself. During half a century, Mezzo Belleri has also developed some unshakable critical judgments. Elizabeth Rethberg was "absolutely the greatest soprano" she ever heard, while Margarete Matzenauer was "the mezzo of the ages." As for Lauritz Melchior, "I will never hear another Lohengrin like...
...ever allowed on an opera stage with her father. But as a child, she traveled with him on his tours, listened to him from opera-house wings, dressed up in his paints and costumes. That touring ended the day daddy made the tabloid headlines. Mme. Pinza sued Soprano Elisabeth Rethberg for $250,000 for alienation of affections. She later withdrew the suit, but divorced Ezio and took Claudia with her to Italy...
...dozen of the Metropolitan's once-great singers went to Manhattan's Town Hall last week. Frances Alda, Giovanni Martinelli, Maria Jeritza, Karin Branzell and Elisabeth Rethberg sat in the audience. On stage was the oldest of them all, roly-poly, 69-year-old Giuseppe de Luca, onetime star of the Met's "Golden Age." It was his first Manhattan recital in 29 years. Said De Luca afterward: "Even before I began to sing they make a big ovation. They don't even know can I still sing. They are saying...
Most of the oldtimers in the audience had sung with De Luca during the 20 years when he was one of the Met's great baritones. With Jeritza, De Luca had sung Carmen, with Alda, La Bohéme, and with Rethberg and Martinelli, Il Trovatore. When the Met's new manager, Edward Johnson, was approved in 1935, he did not renew De Luca's high-salaried contract. Throughout the war, De Luca was in Italy. His 30-room villa was untouched by bombs which flattened the house of his neighbor, Virginio Gayda, Mussolini's press...