Word: varnays
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Metropolitan Opera (Sat. 2 p.m., ABC). Simon Boccanegra, with Leonard Warren and Astrid Varnay...
...rock as one of the Valkyries and sing the part. Then the Met got a real sticker: Helen Traubel's doctor phoned to say that she had laryngitis, would not be able to go on as Brünnhilde. The Met's other Brünnhilde, Astrid Varnay, was not available. Finally, at 4 p.m., someone recalled that the wife of new Viennese Baritone Ferdinand Frantz, who was scheduled to sing Wotan that night, had sung Brünnhilde in Vienna and Munich. Musical Director Max Rudolf picked up the phone and called Madame Frantz (stage name: Helena...
...little after 7 p.m. when the phone rang. The voice on the other end was breathless: Could Miss Varnay get down to the Metropolitan Opera House at once? Helen Traubel was ill and the Met had to have a new Isolde right away. An hour later, Astrid Varnay, hastily bewigged and costumed, but with no spare time for even a few warm-up scales, was ready to go on stage...
...come to depend on Varnay. In the six years since her Manhattan debut, she has sung more Wagnerian leads than any other Met performer. She is a small woman with grey eyes who likes bad puns, saves box tops and chews bubble gum. Still young (she made her debut at 23) and still slim, as divas go, she strides through each new role like a veteran. Critics have been respectful to her rich voice, have called her performances "creditable," have applauded her plucky last-minute substitute jobs...
...opera season gets off to a fortissimo start in San Francisco this week. The opening Lohengrin will star a new Swedish tenor named Set Svanholm and the Metropolitan Opera's Astrid Varnay. In the orchestra pit will be 47-year-old, parrot-nosed William Steinberg, a favorite conductor of the paladin of all conductors, Arturo Toscanini...