Radio Digest (June 1932-Mar 1933)

15 at JfOME Babb the first Chicago Civic Opera on the air, has worked out for the Metropolitan. Despite the success of the first attempts, however, all was not clear sailing in regard to broadcasts from the Metropolitan. Time remained to tell how the radio audience would receive the operatic program, and what effect broadcasting would have within the Metropolitan Opera Company itself. It was feared that attendance at the opera house might suffer; that when listeners found how perfectly they could hear the broadcast music in their homes they would not take the trouble to go to the opera ; and that decreased attendance might cripple the company's finances to the point where the quality of its productions would be endangered. "I do not share this fear." Paul D. Cravath, chairman of the board of directors of the opera company, declared, however. "I believe that interest in opera will be so stimulated by broadcasting that listeners will flock in such numbers to the opera house — where they can see as well as hear opera — that we will have to build a new and bigger opera house to hold them." Cravath was right, and evidence began to accumulate with the first broadcast. The attendance at the Metropolitan on Christmas night, following the afternoon broadcast of "Hansel and Gretel," was greater than it had been on any Christmas night in years. Throughout the remainder of-the Metropolitan's first season on the air, new faces were seen in the audience in ever increasing numbers. Nor, at the end of the first season of broadcasting, was there any question as to how the radio audience would receive the Metropolitan Opera Company. Thousands of letters to the National Broadcasting Company and to the opera company testified to the enthusiasm with which vast audiences welcomed the very best in music. Veteran opera lovers, whose residence away from the big cities kept them from enjoying their favorite artists ; lonely housewives on the western plains, who had never had an opportunity to hear the works of the masters ; and school children, eager to hear the music of the great composers whose names they had learned ; wrote to echo the Cleveland conductor's Christmas telegram. Now, with the resumption of broadcasts for the second season, opera regularly is at the command of millions of Americans for the first time. An entirely new audience, heretofore unfamiliar with opera, lies within the reach of the radio speaker. Far from decreasing attendance at the opera house, those in authority at the Metropolitan and NBC feel that broadcasting may be the incentive to an operatic revival in the United States. "I cannot help but feel that a new and wider interest in opera must be the outcome of our efforts," the NBC president, M. H. Aylesworth, said. "Radio may be the instrument of an operatic renaissance that will stimulate the building of more new and modern opera houses. Not only will New York and Chicago profit, but longer tours by the leading companies, with appearances in the local theatres throughout the country, seems a logical consequence of radio opera in the millions of American homes." That this revival of interest created last year had more than a temporary effect was obvious from the opening of the new season this year. Instead of long rows of empty seats it was found on the morning of the opening day that only fifty of the 3,600 seats were left for last-minute purchasers. For the first time since the days of Enrico Caruso a man was to have the leading role at an opening performance. The man was Lawrence Tibbett in the Verdi opera, "Simon Boccanegra." Tibbett had received a great deal of radio publicity through his Firestone programs last year, and his new commercial programs are under way with the same sponsor again this year. The first opera to be broadcast was "Lakme." Absence of Deems Taylor as commentator brought various reactions from the radio audience in the way of mail. Milton Cross, the announcer, presented a synopsis of the story of the opera. On December 17, the first full-length opera was broadcast over the NBCW JZ network. It was Mozart's "Don Giovanni" and consumed practically the en Lily Pons, French prima donna, whose artistic discovery made her popular not only as a singer but also as a romantic figure. tire afternoon. The cast was as follows : Donna Anna Rosa Ponselle Don Giovanni Ezio Pinza, ba>^ Don Pedro Leon Rothier, bass Octavio Tito Schipa, tenor Donna Elvira Maria Mueller, soprano Zerlina Editha Fleischer, soprano Leporello Tancredi Pasero, bass Masetto Louis d' Angelo, baritone The opera, of course, was picked up in its entirety from the stage in the course of the regular presentation. Tullio Serafin conducted the orchestra. With the manifested appreciation tor this kind of music and radio entertainment broadcasters feel that the trend is distinctly on the up-bound, a condition that will effect a new kind of creative effort in American musical composition and art