Variety (February 1955)

60 CONCERTS-OPERA Wednesday, February 16 , I955 CoL Artists Sues French for 200G; Conspiracy Charged in 1 Complaints Columbia Artists Mgt. Inc., filed ♦ suit in N. Y. Supreme Court last Friday (11) against Ward French, Robert Ferguson, Virginia Hender- son, Flora Walker, Vivian Taylor, Harold Welch and Ben Lobdlll for $100,000, alleging conspiracy to de- stroy part of CAMI’s business. Bu- reau also filed a second cause of action for $100,000 against French. Ferguson and Miss Henderson, charging they induced the others to enter the alleged conspiracy. Rosenman, Goldmark, Colin & Kaye were the filing attorneys, with Ambrose Doskow handling. French, until last November, was p:ez of a CAMI subsidiary, Community Concerts. Ferguson was veepee, and the others were execs of the outfit. AH were vet employees of CAMI. French and Ferguson were ousted by CAMI’s board of directors in a policy dis- pute, and with the others men- tioned above formed a competing outfit to Community, called Inter- national Concert Service. CAMI alleges that International was in the wo ks for some time, even while its execs were with Community. International wooed about five cities away from Com- munity, but folded after a month’s operations for lack of capital. The five cities have joined with Civic Concerts, a subsid of CAMI’s rival bureau. National Concerts & Art- ists Corp. Miami’s Opera Season Is Closing With ‘Lucia’; 85G Budget on Shows Miami, Feb. 15. The Opera Guild of Greater Miami will present “Lucia” here this weekend, for the second of its opera offerings this year. Three Met Opera stars, Dolores Wilson, Ferruccio Tagiiavini and Frank Guarrera, will sing the leads, with Emerson Buckley conducting. Re- mainder of cast, including chorus, is local. “Lucia” will be given four times, Feb. 19, 21, 24 and 26, with two performances in Dade County Aud here, one in Miami Beach Aud and one in Fort Lauderdale. This is the 14th year fot the opera company, which presents two works a season, for seven per- formances in all. “Barber of Se- ville,” with Eugene Conley, Robert Merrill, Nicola Moscona and Gra- ciela Rivers, was heard Jan. 29 and 31 and Feb. 2, with two shows in Miami, and one in Miami Beach. Company has been steadily building, in talelit, prestige and audience, and now has a budget of $85,000 for the two annual produc- tions. Seven performances take in about $40,000 to $45,000, with bal- ance being made up by cultural- minded donors. Arturo Di Filippi, a localite, is artistic director and general man- ager, and Buckley, from N.Y., has been musical director for the last six years. Orch of 40 consists of the professional members of the Miami U. Symph. Chorus of 80 is local. Gale’s Vic Herbert Fest Pulling on 12-Wk. Tour The Victor Herbert Festival, a Moe Gale package created and pro- duced for the agency by Emerson Buckley, is now at the halfway mark of a 12-week tour of 66 dates, with b.o. reaction good. Company of 18, headed by Robert Rounse- ville and Lillian Murphy, and aid- ed by two pianos, started out Jan. 10 at Lynn, Mass. It goes as far west as Minneapolis, and south to Texas and Florida, returning to N. Y. by April 3. Group, booked by the National Concert & Artists Corp., sells at $1,750, with special rates in certain instances. Rumanian State Dance Co. Cancels Brit. Date; London Mgr.’s 8G Loss London, Feb. 15. The Rumanian State Dance Co., due to have opened in London last night (Mon.), cancelled its season. Troupe had been scheduled for a three-week engagement at the Stoll Theatre under Peter Dau- beny’s management. When the company was recalled from Paris by the Rumanian gov- ernment 12 days ago, it was stated they would fulfill their London engagement, and Daubeny so far has had no official notice intima- tion of the cancellation. A mem- ber of his staff said last week that they had been told that if they did not hear by last Tuesday (8), they were to assume the dancers would not be coming. The Daubeny office is filing a claim against Fernand Lumbroso, the Paris impresario who, in turn, will claim against the Rumanian government. The cancellation in- volves a loss of between $6,000 and $8,000 and came too late to arrange an alternate program. CAN. BALLET HITS 46G IN TORONTO FORTNIGHT Toronto. Feb. 15. With every performance, includ- ing matinees, sold out to turnaway biz on the second stanza, National Ballet of Canada racked up a smash $24,700 last week, with the Royal Alexandra Theatre, 1,525- seater, scaled at $3.50 top. First week was $21,500, giving a hefty gross of $46,200 for the fortnight’s engagement here. * With William Morris Agpncy taking over its management, troupe opens a week’s engagement (14) at The Great Northern, Chicago. Ballet Russe 30G, S.F. San Francisco, Feb. 15. Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo was a disappointing $30,000 in six per- formances at the Opera House in a split \yefk at $4 top. Draw 'was better than Ballet Theatre or Festival Ballet, previ- ously, though. Two Polish Operas Set For Manhattan Bow Two Polish operas by Stanislaw Moniuszko, “Verbum Nobile,” (Nobleman’s Word of Honor) and “Flis” (The Raftman), will be giv- en March 6 at Manhattan Center, N. Y., by the Polonla Opera Co., under direction of Louis Kowalski. Soloists will be Longina Nano, so- prano; Ladis Kiepura, tenor; Casi- mir Zajac-Zan and Zygmunt Kos- sakowski, baritones, and George Pawlukowski and Casimir Ganski, bassos. Met’s Attracdre 60G ‘Arabella’ in U.S. Preem; 18G to Welfare Fund The Metropolitan Opera gave the U. S. premiere of Strauss’ “Arabella” in N. Y. last Thursday night (10), in a lavish $60,000 pro- duction that filled the eye and ear. It also filled the house at air upped $15 top, grossing about $34,000, and with extra donor gifts realiz- ing about $18,000 for the recently- established Met Opera Employees Welfare Fund. Opera finally reached the Met 26 years after its composition, and it isn’t difficult to see why. The only other Strauss work besides “Rosenkavalier” with a Viennese habitat, it draws inevitable com- parisons, none of them favorable. It’s a pleasant, minor - league “Rosenkavalier” (which it sounds like in many places). But minor Strauss is better than a lot of major contemporaries. A more modern drawing-room comedy, “Arabella” has a thin, vapid book and a lean, somewhat diffuse music line. But there are frequent moments of the lush ro- mantic Strauss orchestration, and some fine though isolated musical writing, as in the first-act duet of the sisters and Mandryka’s first and second act monologs. Sum to- tal is an engaging evening despite various flaws, and a praiseworthy addition to the Met repertoire. Opera was given in a new and quite serviceable English version by Met assistant manager John Gutman. But the difficult music made most of the singers unintel- ligible, with the strong exception of Eleanor Steber and George Lon- don. Miss Steber made an impos- ing Arabella, vocally and thespi- cally. London found this his best Met role, distinguishing himself as a robust singer and vivid actor as Mandryka. Hilde Gueden sang beautifully as the younger sister, Zdenka. Brian Sullivan made a manly though obscure Matteo, and Blanche Thebom a visually strik- ing and competent Adelaide. Roberta Peters was a pert filly in the brief but difficult Fiakermilli role, while Ralph Herbert made an amusing, adequate Waldner in his Met debut. Rudolf Kempe, recent Met baton acquisition, handled the difficult score, and orchestra pit, quite capably. Herbert Graf’s stag- ing was attractive and uncluttered and Rolf Gerard’s sets and cos- tumes were topdrawer. Bron. BACH ARIA GROUP SET FOR PRADES FESTIVAL Prades, France, Feb. 8. This year’s Prades Festival, headed as usual by the noted cellist, Pablo Casals, will open July 2 and run two weeks. Fest will be devoted to Bach, Schubert and Brahms. The Bach Aria Group of N.Y. will visit Europe for the first time to open the series, appearing again on July 8. There’ll be one replacement in the BAG, Eleanor Steber subbing for Eileen Farrell. Also appearing as soloists will be David Oppenheim, Columbia Records classical artists & reper- toire chief; Eugene Istomin, Yehudi Menuhin, David Lloyd, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau. "A WONDERFUL SHOW!"—Martin, Times. "Proved That a Legend of Groatnoss Wat Fact. It Wat, Indeed, Sheer Mafic!” — Terry, Herald Tribune. ■neagement Extandad Through Saturday, Fab. 2i PLAYHOUSE, 137 W. 48th Street ■ xclutlva Managamant: CHARLES E. CREEN CONSOLIDATED CONCERTS CORPORATION 39 Rockefeller Plata, New York 20, N. Y. Columbus 5-3580 First American Tour of the European Recording Phenomenon MANTOVANI AND HIS NEW MUSIC (Orchestra of 45) ^ Now Booking, Oct. 7955 By Arrangement with COLUMBIA ARTISTS MGT. INC. UNIVERSAL VARIETY AGENCY, LTD. 113 West 57th St., N. Y. C. London (Coppicus, Schang & Brown) London ffrr Records Era of Oldsters? Top names In the concert field last week were Wilhelm Back- haus and Vicente Escudefo. Backhaus, 71-year-old German-Swiss pianist, gave a recital In Carnegie Hall, N. Y., Sunday night (13 ) that not only filled the hall, but every available bit of seating space onstage. Dancer Escudero, well in his 60’s, opened an en- gagement at the Playhouse, N. Y., Monday (7) that brought raves about his zapateado (foot dancing), and an extension of the run. Last Thursday (10), a 65-year-old Myra Hess drew a full house for her appearance as piano soloist with the N. Y. Philharmonic. With 80-year-old Pierre Monteux and 79-year-old Bruno Walter guest-conducting in opera and concert around the globe; 76-year- old harpsichordist Wanda Landowski busy making recordings as well as concertizing; 78-year-old Ruth St. Denis still making dance appearances; a sixtyish Beniamino Gigli still tenortng to crowds abroad, and a fiftyish Alexandra Danilova still delighting ballet audiences in this country, who’s got room for kids? Arturo Toscanini, retiring last year at 87 as NBC Symph maestro, quit when he was ahead. Kid Impresario Scores in First N. Y. Concert Try; Recital Setup Mapped Concert Bits Emerson Buckley, former musi- cal director for the Mutual net- work, and Everett Lee have been added to the conductor roster for the N. Y. City Opera spring sea- son, starting March 17. Lee is be- lieved to be the first Negro musi- cian to conduct a major opera company in America. Troupe also added 13 new singers, including Lois Hunt, ex-Met and radio-tv so- prano; Adele Addison, Negro so- prano, and Gilbert, Russell, sdn of N. Y. City Center stage director Vladimir Rosing. Incidentally. N. Y.’s Board of Estimate last week agreed to give the City Center a 10-year lease at a nominal $1 a year rent, and forgive $57,000 of back unpaid rent, due by the pre- vious arrangement of lVi% of all receipts. William Steinberg, musical di- rector of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, flew to Europe after the orch’s performance in N. Y.’s Car- negie Hall Friday (ID. to appear as guest conductor in 16 concerts with six orchestras in a five-week period. Wolfgang Schneiderhan, who’s currently doing solo violin per- formances in Europe with the Vienna Philharmonic, is set for his first tour of the U. S. in the fall of 1956, under aegis of Columbia Artists Mgt. Interracial «SSSB Continued from pace 1 conductor is Kelly Wyatt. All are members of the American Gftild of Musical Artists, and Campbell put up the usual bond before the troupe went out. Troupe had a fall tour of three weeks (17 dates) that went as far as Virginia. The second, or winter tour, which just finished, com- prised 10 dates into North and South Carolina, as far as Green- ville. Third tour, in the spring, will run five weeks, into Texas, Arkansas and Mississippi, with one-niters, for about three a week. Negroes, of course, are the pro- moters or sponsors (colleges, fra- ternities, etc.), but whites come and sit with Negroes, says Camp- bell. and there’s no segregation. Whites are as happy to see an in- 1 terracial company as Negroes, ac- cording to Campbell. Eyeing. Off-Broadway Try Troupe has been coached in the opera by Herman Weigert. ex-Met conductor, and Ignace Strasfogel, i Met coach, with Charles Weidman staging it. Because “Salome” is a short work, Campbell added a 20- minute ballet, “Ballet Negre,” staged by Edward Christopher and J. F. Riley. For the r forthcoming spring tour, Campbell plans to al- ternate “Salome” with a concert version of the musical. “Finian’s Rainbow.” Campbell will stage, with Christopher as choreographer. Campbell also hopes to bring his troupe into New York in late spring for two or three weeks, at some off-Broadway house. Group would present “Salome” and “Fin- ian’s Rainbow,” or "Carmen Jones,” last-named depending on Oscar Hammerstein 2d’s okay. Campbell started off his touring ventures threfr years ago with “Carmen Jones,” starring his wife. When he lost the rights to “Jones” this season, due to the release of the film version, he turned to “Sa- lome,” introducing the mixed cast. wesicnesier, w. y., concert man- ager and pub-relations exec, made such a quick success of his first Gotham music venture, that he’s not only skedded a repeat, but plans to launch a regular concert series in N. Y. next season. Conlin rent- ed the 3,612-seat Met Opera House for an operatic recital next Sunday (20) with Met stars Renata Te- baldi, Mario Del Monaco, Ettore Bastianini and a symph orch. With an unusual high (for a re- cital) of $6.90 a box seat and $5 75 orchestra, and on three ads, the concert was half sold out on mail order, and the other half went the day the b.o. opened. Cortlin, who says he has enough mail orders left over to fill another third of a house, wanted to do a quick repeat Feb. 27, but couldn’t get the Met for the purpose. He’s taken it for March 15 instead. Conlin has two of the top concert draws currently in Del Monaco and Mme. Tebaldi, but even then he was warned by major music execs against trying such a ven- ture, due to its unusual nature and the risks involved. With the three singers. Met conductor Fausto Cleva and a full orch, the budget runs to about $10,000, certainly the most expensive in many a season for a recital setup. Gate, with standees, can run to $16,000. Conlin and Richard Petrucci, both recently out of the Army, set up as pub relations execs and im- presarios in Westchester this sea- son, skedding six events at the County Center. Both men, each 26, are probably the youngest con- cert managers in the business. The Westchester series, in their first year at it, has gone well. The Voice of Firestone orch drew 3,500 people to the 4,500-seat aud; Andre Kostelanetz and the N. Y. Philhar- monic pulled over 4,000, and the Boston Pops Tour Orch was SRO. Mischa Elman drew fairly well. Two remaining events are the Longines Symphonette March 16 and Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo April 11. Conlin went In oh his own for the Met Opera recital event. While continuing the Westchester ar- rangement with Petrucci, he wants to set wp as a local manager in N. Y., doing a minimum of six con- certs a season with big names. Con- cert setup in N. Y. is unusual. Al- though the metropolis is filled with music bureaus and conrert managers, all handling artists, there is none as a manager or impresario whose business is solely to present various artists of the different managements in concerts. Artists who appear in recital in N. Y., do it on their own, with the help of their own managements. Nearest approach to a "local’’ im- presario is the Hunter College series in Gotham, Academy of Music presentations in Brooklyn, or the Carnegie Hall and Town Hall booking setups. SUB-TEEN COLORATURA Gianna Jenco, 11-year-old Italian coloratura soprano, was due in yes- terday (Tues.) aboard the Constitu- tion. Through the San Carlo Opera Co. management, she’ll make he American debut at Carnegie l‘ al * N. Y., March 2. Sir Thomas Beecham will act as guest conductor of the Hou^t Symphony Orchestra for the hi quarter of the present season^ * will direct eight concerts. Ma 14 to April 5.