Word: scala
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...taken some sharply critical looks at culture in the U.S., has cast an occasional wistful eye at the old-world advantages-including fat government subsidies-of European opera houses. Despite the fact that, artistically speaking, there are really no big managerial plums after the Met (Milan's La Scala is not likely to hire a non-Italian boss), gossip that Vienna-born Manager Bing was about to leave has persistently cropped up. Last week the Met's directors announced that Bing has been signed to a new five-year contract, and that the Opera was reserving the option...
Opera's most flamboyant diva and one of the cinema's hottest box-office blondes were on the outs with their employers. At the Edinburgh Festival, tempestuous Soprano Maria Callas waved a note from her doctor, walked out on Milan's La Piccola Scala (her second such disappearance this summer), said she was going back to Italy, explained: "I'm tired." In Hollywood, irked by a long-term contract with Columbia Pictures that calls for a humiliating $1,250 a week, straw-haired Kim Novak refused to show up for a film, was suspended...
...music houses is an annual event for U.S. and European record companies. Costs are lower ($8 an hour for a violinist v. $42 in the U.S.), the big stars are on hand for Europe's summer festivals and therefore easier to get at, glamour names like La Scala Orchestra and Chorus help to boost sales back home. Philips, Columbia's European affiliate, has snapped up the San Carlo Opera House in Naples, HMV-Angel has moved into Milan's La Scala and London-Decca into Florence's Teatro Co-munale. One of the busiest...
...Unlike Cerquetti, slim, dark-haired Soprano Clara Petrella, 32, has built her success as much on sheer dramatic ability as on her voice. Her voice is lyric rather than dramatic, and at La Scala she has become one of the foremost performers of contemporary music. At her best in lighter roles, she has recently turned histrionic, now longs to sing Minnie in Puccini's Girl of the Golden West...
...Soprano Eugenia Ratti, 22, is the youngest of the current crop of Italian stars. The shapely daughter of a Genoa streetcar conductor, she joined La Scala three years ago, displayed a talent for the soubrette roles of Rossini and Donizetti and has moved some critics to predict that she will surpass Callas both as actress and singer. Her diction is flawless, her voice cool and clear as crystal. Her artistic ideal is Callas, but she has a reservation: "I still have a heart, Callas...