Word: rolf
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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Stage Magic. The Met's General Manager Rudolf Bing spent most of his money and effort on sets and costumes (by Rolf Gerard), and for once the decor onstage was brighter than the intermission melee in Sherry's bar. Highlights: ¶ Living murals in the opening tavern scene, with a pair of bacchantes astride barrels, pouring wine and beer into golden goblets and steins waved by bare, disembodied arms...
...Fournet; Epic, 3 LPs). Maurice Maeterlinck's dewy drama of innocent love and death made luminous by Debussy's timeless score. The performance is excellent, and the recording has a presence that lends impact to the vaporous score. Prokofiev: Semyon Kotko Suite (Radio Berlin Symphony conducted by Rolf Kleinert; Urania). Eight orchestral selections from the 1939 Prokofiev opera. The plot deals with the 1918 Ukranian uprising against the Germans, but it would be hard to guess it from the suite; despite moments of real strength, its character is mostly sweetness and light. Ravel: L'Enfant...
...Iliad, and for 90 minutes the poetry was mostly drowned out in a clatter of tin swords on tin shields as Trojan and Greek struggled on the plain and seashore of Troy. The Trojans lost the war, but they won what few acting honors were available: Frederick Rolf displayed both majesty and grief as King Priam, while Michael Higgins' doomed Hector seemed far more a man and soldier than his rival, Achilles...
Richard or Johann? For three-quarters of the evening, it was impossible to tell that the words were in English (in a translation by John Gutman), but it hardly mattered, because most of the conversation that came through was a bore. Rolf Gérard's scenery, on the other hand, was both attractive and understandable: the vast gold and white ballroom in the second act had beautifully costumed couples waltzing in the background, and the third act's red-plush hotel lobby was an atmospheric masterpiece...
...Chicago Symphony, under Fritz Reiner, gave the U.S. première of Rolf Liebermann's Concerto for Jazz Band and Symphony Orchestra. The Sauter-Finegan Band-sporting bright red jackets amid the longhairs' white ties and tails-played tricky syncopations and harsh tones that showed Swiss Composer Liebermann to be a close follower of Stan Kenton's jazz-style arrangements. The symphonic parts of the work were less exciting, but everybody, from the musicians onstage to the last hipster in the auditorium, had a fine time. Conductor Reiner, who started off his career as a percussionist...