Word: wagnerism
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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Bumbry went to Europe in 1959, was chosen after a single audition to sing the lead in the Paris Opera production of Carmen and the following summer became the first Negro ever to sing at the Bayreuth Festival. But she still does not consider herself a Wagner singer. "My style," says Mezzo Bumbry, "is really Verdi. This is my heart and soul...
...such as golden-haired Mrs. Winston ("Ceezee") Guest, who rode in a working hunter class in the afternoon, then appeared for the evening opening in a simple black sheath topped by a shocking-pink jacket. There was a scattering of celebrities, such as New York's Mayor Robert Wagner, Banker David Rockefeller, Actresses Zsa Zsa Gabor and Beatrice Lillie, and Playbore John Jacob Astor. But in general the crowd was so mousy that one society columnist was reduced to noting that ''one of the smartest dresses was a long wool plaid with jacket, on a nameless lady...
Grown men of solid accomplishment have been known to quiver with boyish delight over toy electric trains, newly netted butterflies, or the music of Wagner. But if their secret passions have left them with the remains of reason, they keep their infatuation from public eyes; the world never understands. The dark secret of Richard Dougherty is that he likes cops. A stretch as pressagent for the New York City police department did nothing, oddly enough, to tarnish his fondness...
Soprano Ingrid Bjoner was generally first rate as a shyly aggressive Eva. Bass Karl Doench was appropriately repellent as Beckmesser, the malevolent town clerk whom Wagner created as a caricature of one of his most caustic critics-Viennese Music Critic Eduard Hanslick. The chorus and extras were drilled with spectacular precision, creating at the end of Act II one of the most convincing pillow-throwing, hair-pulling riots a Met Meistersinger has ever seen...
...famous recent productions of Die Meistersinger-the one mounted by Wieland Wagner in Bayreuth in 1956-the tendency was to reduce realistic sets to a minimum. Last week's resplendent production,* with sets and costumes by Designer Robert O'Hearn, took a different tack-and was far more successful. The soaring stone columns and arches of St. Catherine's Church in Act I looked enduringly solid-a far cry from the standard productions in which they tend to flap and billow like a clothesline of wet wash. The steeply gabled gingerbread houses of Nürnberg...