Word: wallmann
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...armor, horses too old to stand up, and soldiers a draft board would stamp instant 4-F, Ulysses S. Grant himself could not stir up a convincing battle. All the more amazing, then, that a 58-year-old, 5-ft. 1-in. woman can. But then, Opera Director Margherita Wallmann does not map her strategy in the thick of enemy attack but to the friendly strains of Prokofiev and Verdi, Puccini and Mozart...
Last week "Frau Professor" Wallmann's 127th production, a three-act spectacular, Clitennestra, by Italian Composer Ildebrando Pizzetti, had its world premiere at Milan's La Scala. Musically, the work was something of a dud-somber, repetitive, unnecessarily difficult to sing. But as exciting theater, the bloodthirsty Agamemnon legend is hard to beat, and Wallmann did not try: instead she moved her chorus in a plastic combination of Greek tragedy and modern ballet, guided Star Soprano Clara Petrella in a performance of icy majesty, and won unanimous critical acclaim for what Milan's Corriere d'Informazione...
Sudden Fall. The daughter of a Viennese leather-goods manufacturer, Margherita Wallmann danced as soon as she could stand. At 15 she was a soloist at the Bavarian State Opera in Munich. But her career as a dancer came to an abrupt end in 1934. During a rehearsal at the Vienna State Opera House, a trap door opened suddenly, and Margherita plunged, she says, "like Eurydice into the underworld." She fell 14 feet onto an iron framework, breaking...
...take me seriously, but were always playing jokes-hiding my score or shoes-and complaining to the manager that they were singers, not dancers, that it was below their dignity to move in such an effeminate way." Nonsense, cried the critics: by getting singers to move with grace, Wallmann had given Italian opera a new look. Because she insisted on mounting productions that were "brand new from the first costume down to the last piece of scenery," Wallmann became the natural choice to direct premiere performances, from Darius Milhaud's David to La Scala's now-famed...
...Director Wallmann started out as a ballet dancer, had to abandon her career when she fell through a trap door on the Vienna opera stage and broke her hip. She turned to choreography, gradually took on opera-directing chores, is now one of the most sought-after directors in Europe. She is an ardent admirer but not a disciple of Felsenstein, believes that his coldly analytical visions have no place in Milan's mistily sentimental house. Between them, Directors Felsenstein and Wallmann have done much to restore Puccini's fire-and-ice masterpiece to the fame it deserves...