Variety (January 19, 1955)

72 COXfKRTS-WERJ Wednesday, January 19, 1955 14 ‘PROPHECIES’ By MARKS LEVINE The fact that the concert business is somewhat tied up with radio, television vaudeville, motion pictures, theatres, night clubs, opera, private entertainments, lectures and even the circus, not counting bond drives USO, benefits and other multicolored events, is immaterial to my prophetic muse and mood. My prophetic vision projects the follow- lnt l t in n i»56 people will still be asking: “What is the future of the concert business?” but the concert business will continue on its merry, or shall I say. musical way. ' . , . . _ , 2 In 1956 people will still be asking: “How docs television affect the concert business?” but television will thrive with Godfrey, Como, Sullivan and others, while the concert business will thrive with Rubin- stein. Horowitz, Milstein, Peerce, Sadler’s Wells Ballet, and others. 3. In a few years or a few months a new violin sensation will sud- denly burst out in Carnegie Hall and people will say “here is another Heifetz or another Kreisler," and everybody will become excited and forget that they were just as excited with every succeeding violinist since the days of Paganini. 4. In a few months or a few years a new pianistic sensation will suddenly burst upon us and for results see paragraph 3 above, only substitute the names of pianists for the names of violinists. 5 In a few years or a few months a new tenor or a new soprano or a new basso will burst upon us at the Met, and people will get excited and begin to compare them to Caruso, Flagstad or Pinza, respectively. C. The auditorium problem throughout the country will continue acute for some time to come until local municipalities will realize that music is a part of their general life, culture and business and will build scientifically designed concert halls in self-liquidating build- ings, so as not to strain the musical budget of the populace. 7. In about two or three decades the unions in every field of enter- tainment will join hands with the entertainers and their managers and devise a means of making the road expenses reasonable, so that it will be possible to tour road companies of every kind with fewer headaches than plague us now. 8. The so-called organized audience movement (which means Civic and Community Music Associations) will extend to other fields of entertainment, such as the theatre, lecture and even motion picture businesses, and perhaps they will all combine on a mutual assistance basis. 9. There will be a great attempt in the near future to relieve the entertainment business of the amusement tax, for the same reasoy that libraries, museums and educational institutions are not taxed or taxed to a minimum. 10. The great Foundations, such as Ford, Rockefeller, Mellon and others, will realize that music in all its phases is entitled to the same support as medicine, science, economics and other branches of the liberal arts. 11. The national music managers will complain about the local man- agers and vice versa, but both will continue to live in peace in the knowledge that they cannot live without each other. 12. The artists will continue to be temperamental or not, just as they are now. Cancellations will continue to plague us. Singers with colds, violinists with torn fingernails, pianists with chapped fingertips, dancers with sprained ankles will continue to blame their luck for these mishaps. 13. In spite of everything, including new atomic age inventions, the opera, the concerts, the theatre, the lecture hall will continue the same as now’, with or without good boxoffice results, and people will want to keep on going out to outside entertainment in spite of home facili- ties for such entertainment. 14. For years to come Variety will continue its annual Anniversary issue and ask the Byliners for cheery, sage, erudite and prophetic words, just as the earth will continue to revolve on its axis. Opera Belongs To Masses Continued from pace 71 casts of the world’s greatest singers. But. it is equally clear that this type of opera cannot serve as the basis for the kind of expansion which I confidently expect in the immediate future. Only a type of opera founded on the English lan- guage, on native talent, on a not too large and costly apparatus can be the basis for such a develop- ment. By eliminating from the repertoire, at least for the time be- ing. the heavier grand operas, by coordinating singing and acting to such a degree that the eye-minded American public finds it dramati- cally satisfying, the border line between this type of opera and the higher type of Broadway musical will almost disappear. Once this has been achieved,*there is no telling where the development may end. * I hope that the near future will see three flourishing opera houses in New' York. First, the Metropoli- tan, fully supported and encour- aged to be the above described representative home of interna- tional grand opera. Second, a pop- ular-priced opera presenting the most familiar repertoire operas (excluding only the very heavy ones) and a limited number of newer works fitting into a larger house like, for instance, the City Center. No 'Bargain Basement' This should never be conceived as a "bargain basement" Metropol- itan; similar types of opera houses in Europe have often, in spite of budget restrictions, proved more stimulating, more imaginative, than the rival grand opera house. More important to the ideas we at NBC are initiating, and as a nucleus for the expected expansion of live opera in the U. S., however. I envision a new intimate opera house, seating between, 1.200 and 1 500 people, where every word can be heard, every gesture can be seen, and where the small chorus and not too large orchestra will be sufficient for a carefully selected repertoire of opera com- ique. reaching from Mozart to Menotti. It will employ all the features we at NBC are slowly try- ing to develop in the NBC Opera Theatre on television. It will make use of the type of singers w ho have proven successful in our television productions. My optimism is based on the fact that the most difficult step has already been achieved: television opera, with a format which has never been seen before by America at large, before an audience, 95% ol which has never probably seen ar opera before. This accomplish- ment has given all of us at NBC the confidence that we are going in the right direction and can go even further. Greco 9G in 2, Brooklyn Jose Greco & Co., making what was to be their only New York concert dates this season, appeared twice at Brooklyn Academy of Music last Saturday (15*. grossing over $9,000 (tax-free*. The. 2,200- seater was SRO for both matinee and evening, with maximum of standees. Afternoon top was $2.75; evening, $3.25. As result, director Julius Bloom has skedded a repeat concert for next Tunesday (25). Szell's Composer Award The board of governors of the American Composers Alliance re- cently presented George Szell its 1954-1955 Laurel Leaf Award. Coveted award was presented to Szell as musical director of tlie Cleveland Orchestra, which orches- tra. within the last season, pre- sented more works by contempo- rary American composers than any other major symph in the country. Preem Tippett Opera In London Jan. 27 London, Jan. 11. World preem of “The Midsum- mer Marriage," a three-act opera w'ith words and music by Michael Tippett, at the Covent Garden Opera House will be on Jan. 27. Production will be directed by Christopher West and chore- ography will be by John Cranko. Leading roles will be filled by Richard Lewis, Joan Sutherland, ! Otakar Kraus and Adele Leigh, i 1st Natl Tour Set For Boston Pops Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops have been set for their first transcontinental tour by the Jud- son, O’Neill Sc Judd division of Columbia Artists Mgt. Group will be out for 12 weeks, in January- March of 1956, with the bulk of playing time Vest of Chicago. This is the Pops’ fourth consecutive tour under Columbia management, but the first cross-country trek, and the longest. Orch is being sold at $4,000 and $4,500. It will travel by. car, bus and truck. Fiedler will baton for most concerts, with the orch’s assistant conductor, Harry John Brown, leading it once a week. Columbia is also handling a 2 x: z- week tour of the Boston Symphony Orchestra next fall, the first time I ! the BSO has been under outside ; | management. Orch will travel in j its own special train from Boston i to New Orleans, and then to Ann ! Arbor and return, Oct. 10-25, with , Charles Munch conducting. It is ! selling at $6,000 to $6,500. Memo to Admen Continued from page 71 tv dancing limited to the technique ! associated with acrobatics or flash acts; a group of people moving in precision and other so called com- mercial dancing. Ideas Before Backflips Practically everyone is kinetieally | excited by a dancer doing backflips without using his hands or a girl flying through space and landing in a split. Like everyone else. I am excited by these things but, also like the general tv audience, I am more interested in an idea. Therefore, the search is never ending for new movement and ideas. To close the door on ballet, is to close the door on a vast source of ideas and is commercially un- wise, since ballet can be used to great advantage and the public is j more aware of dance and are will- j ing to pay for it. For example. Sadler’s Wells Ballet, is one of (he great theatrical attractions in j America today and its appearance on television skyrocketed the rat- ings of an already popular pro- gram. The motion picture industry has been awakened by a new movie which broke records and made millions of dollars in profit. It was titled “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers.” It could eas- ily have been retitled “Seven Brides for Seven Ballet Dan- cers”! With this title it might not have been such a tremendous success. However, its success was due in great part to the brilliant use of ballet! The dance sequences drew spontaneous applause from the movie theatre audiences, which is very rare, but commercial dynamite. Ballet can supply a never end- ing wealth of material. Television cannot afford to ignore a genuine source of ideas. The above statistics are ones which television executives can’t ignore completely. Dance has be- i come a vital part of theatre today, | | ard audiences have grown to ex- ; pcct the higher standard of quality j ballet has brought to all types of ciance presentation. I find it enor- j mously helpful in staging the songs ; as well as the dances when variety is so important, as it is on a ninety- ; minute television musical such as Max Liebman Spectaculars. In its biggest and truest sense, ballet is a television essential. A program of Bach, Beethoven 1 and Chopin, recorded by the American pianist. Eugene Istomin, during his visit to London last Oc- tober, is to be aired by the BBC’s Third Program on Jan. 22. J Inside Stuff—Concerts “Tosca,” which will be given next Sunday (23) on tv by the NBC Opera Theatre, will have David Poleri, now on Broadway in “Saint of Bleecker St.“; Leontyne Price, who sang Bess in “Porgy and Bess,” and Josh Wheeler as the principals, with Peter Herman Adler con- ducting. It will also be sung in the new English translation by John Gutman, assistant manager of the Metropolitan Opera, who seems to have cut out an auxiliary career as a translator. NBC-TV did Gut- man’s English version of “Rosenkavalier” two seasons ago. The Met used Gutman’s translation of “Alcestis” three seasons ago, his “Boris” two years ago, and will give the U. S. premiere of Strauss’ “Arabella,” in Gutman’s English translation, Feb. 10. A staged concert version of “Rosenkavalier,” prepared by Gutman with props, narrator and singers in costume, was given by the Philadelphia Orchestra last November, and Gutman is prepping a similar version of “Boris” for symphonic use. Last summer, he did an English translation of Cherubini’s one-acter, “The Portuguese Inn,” and is now working on an English version of “Mcistersinger.” On Jan. 25, Gutman is giving a lecture in N.Y.’s Town Hall on the forthcoming “Arabella” preem, with the Met soloists illustrating via song. Angel Records, which has already issued two plays in “Murder in the Cathedral” and “Importance of Being Earnest,” is going into the spoken, word further with two albums of readings of his own essays by Sir Max Beerbohm. It will also bring out a Shakespeare album with Dame Edith Evans reading the Bard’s sonnets on one side, and scenes from "As You Like It” on the other. Dame Evans will also do scenes from Restoration comedies. Listed, too, are T. S. Eliot’s cat poems from “Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats.” A special album will feature the diseuse Yvette Guilbert in an LP of songs she made famous. Gian-Carlo Menotti. composer-librettist-director of the new' opera on Broadway, “Saint of Bleecker Street.” recently jotted down some notes on opera as “basic theatre,” for the N.Y. Times. “Opera is the very basis of theatre,” said Menotti. “In all civiliza- tions, people sang their dramas before they spoke them, I am con- vinced that the prose theatre is an offspring of these eazlicr musico- dramatic forms and not vice versa . . . “It is unfair to accuse opera of being an old-fashioned and ungainly dramatic form. Actually, what people put forth as examples is largely the operatic output of the nineteenth century. Considering the length of time that has gone by since then, it is quite amazing what life there still is in those old pieces. How many plays of that same period have survived this test as well? Wouldn’t most of us prefer hearing a Verdi opera to sitting through a Victor Hugo play? I may even venture to say that many of the so-called great plays of this century will be for- gotten when dear old ‘Traviata’ is still holding the boards . . . “A great deal of nonsense htrs been said and written about opera in English and many are the people who still believe that most foreign languages are better suited to music thari English is. But I maintain that every language is, potentially, equally musical, and it is up to the composer to absorb and illuminate this language in his music. I insist that an opera must be dramatically understandable to its audience, and if some musical subtleties are lost in translation, there is still much more that has been gained, dramatically.” Classical Disk Reviews Strauss: Arabella (Angel*. High- lights from the opera offer a very pleasant, appetizing foretaste in anticipation of the work’s U. S.. preem at the Met Opera next month. Lyric comedy is a milder j “Rosenkavalier,” w ith melodious.! often lush music and a light, tune- ful score. Excerpts here get first- rate presentation, with Elisabeth Schwarzkopf a sterling soprano lead (especially in the “Mein j Elemer” scene*. Baritone Josef Metternich and Anny Felbermayer, J among others, are good support, | and the Philharmonia under Lovro von Matacic makes the score glisten. Bach: Cantatas & Arias (RCA Victor*. Famed Bach Aria Group, under William H.- Scheide, in its first Victor album, presenting complete cantatas as well as selec- tions from others. Works are mel- odic, moving, varied and haunting- ly beautiful sometimes. Jan Peerce and Eileen Farrell stand , out among the soloists. Liszt: Hungarian Rhapsodies (Vox*. Vol. 3 contains Nos. 14-19 and the Spanish Rhapsody. Pi- anist Alexander Borovsky offers a clear, skilled performance that makes familiar pieces sound fresh and inviting. Whole series war- rants high praise. Beethoven: Concerto No. 1 in C (Columbia*. Excellent version by pianist Rudolf Serkin and the Philly Orch under Eugene Or- mandy, done with vigor and spirit. Poetic approach to the slow move- ment and excitement of the finale stand out. Franck: Quintet in F Minor (Westminster*. Franck’s sturdy so- norous quintet, with its thick col- ors and weavings, in a dramatic reading by the Curtis String Quar- tet. aided by pianist Vladimir Sok- oloff. the instruments integrated beautifully and sensitively. Debussy: La Mer & Iberia i West- minster*. Two challenging, evoca- tive, impressionistic pieces, the rhythmic ardors of Spain effective- ly contrasted with the rigors and pleasantries of the sea. Neat per- formances by the Champs Elysees Orch under D. E. Inghelbreeht. Bach: Cantatas No. 203 & 211 (Vox*. Bach’s two secular cantatas are well performed here by Ger- man artists. No. 211, the Coffee Cantata, amusingly satirizes ihe coffee craze. No. 203, Amore Tra- ditore, has a robust baritone in Bruno Mueller and a lovely harp- sichord accomp by Helma Eisner. Grieg: Sigurd Jorsalfar (Lon- don*. Orchestral suite (including the familiar, colorful Homage March) is simple, tuneful music, played here gracefully by the Cin- cinnati Symph under Thor John- son. Poulenc: Sextuor Sc Francaix: Quintette (Angel*. Two contem- porary chamber works, both being brisk, supple music of lyric, pleas- ant nature, wyll done by pianist Jean Francaix” and the Radiodif- fusion Francaise Quintet. Moussorgsky: Songs And Dances of Death & Duparc: L’lnvitation Au Voyage (Columbia*. Baritone George London in vigorous, sonor- ous renditions of Moussorgsky’s moody, dramatic vignettes. The Duparc is less forceful”, except in the vivid “Le Manoir de Rose- monde.” Too much sameness in delivery. Broil. AGMA Pact Continued from page 71 Independent Mgrs. Guild. Last- named represents most of the indie managers, who wouldn’t haye signed with the union any other way. AGMA negotiators were prez John Brownlee, exec sec Hyman R. Faine and Peter Pryor and Henry Jaffe, of law firm of Jaffe Sc Jaffe. Pact’s Main Points Main points of the pact involve limitation on commissions; mini- mum an artist has to get a year (or he has the right to get out); limit on booking expenses for which the artist has to pay; defini- tion of a manager’s and an artist’s duties and responsibilities; limit on number of years a manager can sign an artist (four years); an ar- bitration clause, and the preven- tion of discrimination against mem- bers in Community and Civic Con- certs. Maximum commissions a man- ager can get from an artist's fees are: concerts (recitals, symphony, oratorio) 20%-, Community and Civic dates, 15%; opera, ballet, radio or recording, 10%. The net 20% concert fee can go down to 18%, if the artist (whose regular fee for a date is $750 or less) earns less than $7,500 in a year. An important provision of the new pact states that normal book- ing expenses shall be borne by the manager and normal promotional expenses by the artist. Also, a maximum of $750 has been set as the figure a manager may spend for advertising or promotion for any artist without the latter’s written consent.