Word: wagnerism
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With Kirsten Flagstad, Helen Traubel and Lauritz Melchior departed from the Met, Wagnerian opera has gone into one of its periodic U.S. declines. From eight productions (including the four-evening Ring cycle) in 1940-41, the Met's offerings of Wagner now run to only about three productions a season. Meanwhile, Wagner fans keep their ears peeled for heroic-voiced artists to build up the schedule again...
...last out a four-hour opera, Soprano Harshaw seems a natural Wagnerian. She arrived at the Met in 1942 as a contralto, gradually developed her high notes until she became a full-fledged soprano. A fortnight ago, she began belting out impressive "ho-yo-to-hos" in one of Wagner's grandest roles -the helmeted goddess Briinnhilde in Die Walkure-with such success that some critics were comparing her with Flagstad herself...
...What was wonderful," said Olin Downes of the New York Times, "was the tenderness, the depth and subtlety of her scene with Wotan and the sweeping drama of the ensuing passage with Siegmund." Wrote the World-Telegram & Sun's Robert Bagar: "The lady did herself-as well as Wagner-proud . . . [And] she sprang about with something approaching the graceful...
...season 1954 shows few signs of a real Wagner boom, either in the U.S. or abroad. The favorite operas, Lohengrin, Tannhduser and Tristan are lucky to get three or four performances a month at La Scala, Paris and London. The 13-hour Ring cycle (Rheingold, Walkure, Siegfried, Gotterdammerung) is all but impossible to mount in small theaters, gets its chief performances nowadays at the Wagner shrine in Bayreuth. Like many German opera houses, the Vienna Staatsoper was bombed out, will not attempt the Ring cycle until rebuilding is completed in 1956. Covent Garden's policy: no Ring until another...
...Yardlings fought back in the final period and continued to keep the puck near the visitors' goal with many of Bill White's and Derick Nicholas' shots hitting the posts. But goalie Wagner, credited with 21 saves, maintained his shutout...