LUCIA DI LAMMERMOOR
Gaetano Donizetti (1797 - 1848)
Opera in two acts in Italian
Libretto: Salvatore Cammarano
Premièr at Teatro San Carlo, Naples – 26 September 1835
27 September, 05 October 1957
War Memorial Opera House, San Francisco
Conductor: Francesco Molinari-Pradelli
Chorus master: Gianni Lazzarini
Stage director: Carlo Piccinato
Scene and costumes: Golstein & Co.
Choreographer: William Christensen
Enrico (Lord Henry Ashton of Lammermoor) UMBERTO
BORGHI baritone
Lucia (Lucy) her sister LEYLA GENCER soprano
[Role debut]
Edgardo (Edgar) master of Ravenswood GIANNI
RAIMONDI tenor (9/27) / JAN PEERCE tenor (10/05)
Arturo (Lord Arthur Bucklaw) CESARE CURZI tenor
Raimondo (Raymond) chaplain at Lammermoor LORENZO
ALVARY bass
Alisa (Alice) companion to Lucy JEAN BURLINGHAM
mezzo-soprano
Normanno (Norman) follower of Ashton VIRGINIO
ASSANDRI tenor
Time: About 1700
Place: Scotland
Photos © ROBERT LACKENBACH, San Francisco
Photos © MARIA JEANETTE, San Francisco
GENCER AT SAN FRANCISCO OPERA
LUCIA DI LAMMERMOOR
SEASON 1957 – 1958
 |
| Kurt Herbert Adler (General Manager SF Opera), Leyla Gencer and Robert Watt Miller (President of Opera Union) |
LEYLA GENCER’S LUCIA SCORES
VARIETY
1957 May
LOS ANGELES EVENING CITIZEN NEWS
1957.05.04
OPERA MAGAZINE
1957 June
THE HERALD
1957.08.18
THE DETROIT FREE PRESS
1957 September
CHRONICLE TRIBUNE
1957.09.13
ABILENE REPORTER-NEWS
1957.09.17
CHICAGO TRIBUNE
1957.09.17
CHIPPEWA HERALD TELEGRAM
1957.09.17
DAILY AMERICAN REPUBLIC
1957.09.17
DAILY INDEPENDANT JOURNAL
1957.09.17
DESERET NEWS
1957.09.17
EUREKA HUMBOLDT TIMES
1957.09.17
FORT LAUDERDALE NEWS
1957.09.17
GREEN BAY PRESS-GAZETTE
1957.09.17
HOUSTON POST
1957.09.17
LOS ANGELES MIRROR
1957.09.17
LOS ANGELES TIMES
1957.09.17
LANCESTER NEW ERA
1957.09.17
LANSING STATE JOURNAL
1957.09.17
MARSHFIELD NEWS HERALD
1957.09.17
SAN BERNARDINO SUN
1957.09.17
SAN RAFAEL DAILY INDEPENDENT JOURNAL
1957.09.17
SAN FRANCISCO EXAMINER
1957.09.17
ST. LOUIS POST
1957.09.17
ST. LUCIE NEWS TRIBUNE
1957.09.17
STAR NEWS
1957.09.17
THE ANN ARBOR NEWS
1957.09.17
THE BLADE
1957.09.17
THE BOSTON GLOBE
1957.09.17
THE EVENING NEWS
1957.09.17
THE JOURNAL TIMES
1957.09.17
THE MIAMI NEWS
1957.09.17
THE MODESTO BEE
1957.09.17
THE SAGINAW NEWS
1957.09.17
THE TIMES
1957.09.17
THE WASHINGTON DAILY NEWS
1957.09.17
THE WAUKESHA COUNTRY FREEMAN
1957.09.17
THE WICHITA BEACON
1957.09.17
THE WINDSOR DAILY STAR
1967.09.17
TUCSON CITIZEN
1957.09.17
VENTURA COUNTRY STAR
1957.09.17
WALLA UNION BULLETIN
1957.09.17
ARIZONA REPUBLIC
1957.09.18
CORPUS CHRISTIE TIMES
1957.09.18
DETROIT FREE-PRESS
1957.09.18
HONULULU STAR-BULLETIN
1957.09.18
HÜRRİYET DAILY NEWSPAPER
1957.09.18
INTELIGENCER JOURNAL
1957.09.18
MİLLİYET DAILY NEWSPAPER
1957.09.18
SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE
1957.09.18
SAN FRANCISCO EXAMINER
1957.09.18
THE HERALD
1957.09.18
THE PENINSULA TIMES TRIBUNE
1957.09.18
TWIN FALLS TIMES NEWS
1957.09.19
JACSON CITIZEN PATRIOT
1957.09.19
THE MONTGOMERY ADVERTISER
1957.09.19
THE ROBESONIAN
1957.09.19
THE STATE
1957.09.19
PASIFIC STAR & STRIPES
1957.09.20
THE PENINSULA TIMES TRIBUNE
1957.09.21
OAKLAND TRIBUNE
1957.09.22
SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE
1957.09.22
SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE
1957.09.22
SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE
1957.09.22
SAN FRANCISCO EXAMINER
1957.09.22
THE DELTA DEMOCRAT TIMES
1957.09.22
THE OREGON DAILY JOURNAL
1957.09.22
THE LOS ANGELES MIRROR
1957.09.23
SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE
1957.09.23
THE LOS ANGELES TIMES
1957.09.27
OAKLAND TRIBUNE
1957.09.27
SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE
1957.09.27
SAN FRANCISCO EXAMINER
1957.09.27
OAKLAND TRIBUNE
1957.09.28
Turkish traslation of the above article from Turkish State Theater Magazine
1957 November, No.36
PETALUMA ARGUS
1957.09.28
INDEPENDENT STAR NEWS
1957.09.29
LOS ANGELES TIMES
1957.09.29
PASADENA INDEPENDENT STAR NEWS
1957.09.29
SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY SUN
1957.09.29
SAN FRANCISCO CALL-BULLETIN
1957.09.29
MARIE HICKS DAVIDSON
“LUCIA” ROLE
Laud
Turkish
Soprano
Leyla Gencer, Turkish coloratura soprano last night at the Opera House to the role of distraught “Lucia di Lammermoor” was superb in voice and stage presence. She was cheered in prolonged after her arias, and at the conclusion at the mad scene was given another ovation.
Her voice is pure and bright, and she sang without apparent effort in florid bravura of the Donizetti opera.
She took the high F after middle C with no more effort than had she been singing a lullaby.
With passing obeisance to Lily Pons, Mada Robin and others who have sung
the role, Gencer surpassed them all. It was a noble artistry, even in the famous mad scene, in which the was the deranged Lucia. Here was no "tearing a passion to tatters.” There was grief quietly borne Istanbul, we salute you appreciation of Leyla Gencer.
Second to Miss Gencer in the very able cast was the young Gianni Raimondi, lately come from Italy, in the tenor role of Edgar of Ravenswood His is really a "ringing” tenor, a true bel canto of the Caruso type. His histrionics, too, were convincing, even in the lugubrious graveyard lamentations of the final act where he addresses the tombs of his ancestors.
Umberto Borghi, in his American opera debut, as Lord Henry Ashton, sung brother of Lucia, sang in an excellent baritone. Cesare Curzi, San Francisco tenor, did much with the pale ungrateful role of Lord Arthur Bucklaw.
Lorenzo Alvary's portrayal of the chaplain role was fine acting. Lorenzo never does otherwise with a role. He is famous for extracting every whit of sence on a part.
Francesco Molinari-Pradelli conducted with flair. The chorus garbed all the Scotch relatives ever dreamed of…..
Laud
Turkish
Soprano
Leyla Gencer, Turkish coloratura soprano last night at the Opera House to the role of distraught “Lucia di Lammermoor” was superb in voice and stage presence. She was cheered in prolonged after her arias, and at the conclusion at the mad scene was given another ovation.
Her voice is pure and bright, and she sang without apparent effort in florid bravura of the Donizetti opera.
She took the high F after middle C with no more effort than had she been singing a lullaby.
With passing obeisance to Lily Pons, Mada Robin and others who have sung
the role, Gencer surpassed them all. It was a noble artistry, even in the famous mad scene, in which the was the deranged Lucia. Here was no "tearing a passion to tatters.” There was grief quietly borne Istanbul, we salute you appreciation of Leyla Gencer.
Second to Miss Gencer in the very able cast was the young Gianni Raimondi, lately come from Italy, in the tenor role of Edgar of Ravenswood His is really a "ringing” tenor, a true bel canto of the Caruso type. His histrionics, too, were convincing, even in the lugubrious graveyard lamentations of the final act where he addresses the tombs of his ancestors.
Umberto Borghi, in his American opera debut, as Lord Henry Ashton, sung brother of Lucia, sang in an excellent baritone. Cesare Curzi, San Francisco tenor, did much with the pale ungrateful role of Lord Arthur Bucklaw.
Lorenzo Alvary's portrayal of the chaplain role was fine acting. Lorenzo never does otherwise with a role. He is famous for extracting every whit of sence on a part.
Francesco Molinari-Pradelli conducted with flair. The chorus garbed all the Scotch relatives ever dreamed of…..
Whilst commemorating with appreciation artists such as Lilly Pons and Mada
Robin who had successfully sung this role, I must admit that Leyla Gencer is a
level above them. With her fine artistry; she literally became the opera
heroine experiencing the madness in the famous mad scene. It wasn’t an
excruciating scene full of passion, but a sincere and serene expression of
infinite misery.
Istanbul, we salute you for your outstanding Leyla Gencer. In terms of voice
and brilliant stage presence, Gencer was marvellous. Not only did she receive
enthusiastic applause at the end of her aria, but there were also prolonged the
cheers, bravos and ovation at the end of the mad scene. With her
clear and pure voice, Leyla Gencer was able to sing Donizetti’s extremely
difficult opera with such ease.
Turkish traslation of aabove artickle from Turkish State Theater Magazine
1957 November, No.36
SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE
1957.09.29
ALFRED FRANKENSTEIN
Turkish traslation of the above artickle from Turkish State Theater Magazine
1957 November, No.36
SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE
1957.09.29
MUSICAL AMERICA
1957 October
KERRVILLE DAILY TIMES
1957.10.03
OAKLAND TRIBUNE
1957.10.05
PETALUMA ARGUS COURIER
1957.10.05
SAN FRANCISCO EXAMINER
1957.10.05
VALLEY TIMES
1957.10.05
VALLEY TIMES
1957.10.05
SANTA BARBARA NEWS PRESS
1957.10.06
LAAGEBDALSPOSTEN
1957.10.11
CUMHURİYET DAILY NEWSPAPER
1957.10.12
INDEPENDENT PRESS TELEGRAM
1957.10.13
CUMHURİYET DAILY NEWSPAPER
1957.10.14
OPERA NEWS
1957.10.14
THE LOS ANGELES TIMES
1957.10.21
RANA BLAD
1957.09.21
THE WALNUT KERNEL
1957.10.24
LOS ANGELES TIMES
1957.10.25
VALLEY TIMES
1957.10.25
DAILY NEWS POST & MONROVIA NEWS
1957.10.26
LOS ANGELES EVENING CITIZEN NEWS
1957.10.26
LOS ANGELES TIMES
1957.10.26
OPERA NEWS
1957.10.28
VALLEY TIMES
1957.10.29
ÇAĞRI MAGAZINE
1957 November
STATE TEATRES MAGAZINE No.36
1957 November
MUSICAL AMERICA
1957.12.01
LOS ANGELES TIMES
1957.11.10
CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR
1957.11.11
AKİS WEEKLY MAGAZINE
1957.11.30
OPERA MAGAZINE
1957 December
THEATRE ARTS [Vol.42] Issue I
1958 January
MİLLİYET DAILY NEWSPAPER
1958.01.11
THE WALNUT KERNEL
1961.06.01
THE SAN FRANCISCO OPERA 1922 - 1978
1978
ARTHUR BLOOMSFIELD
From Arthur
Bloomfield’s book The San Francisco Opera 1922 – 1978
(1978 Comstock Editions)
……. Francesca project stemmed
from the fact that Tebaldi was learning the role for Maggio Musicale in
Florance. When that the Festival dropped the work, she was less interested in
doing it for San Francisco. It was more feasible for Adler to go ahead
substitute soprano than a substitute opera – the production was already built
when the unwooable Tebaldi made her decision – so Leyla Gencer, a Turkish
soprano with Italian opera experience, was imported. She turned out to be an
exceptionally interesting if uneven artist. Her physical beauty at the time was
marked, her poise sure, her pianissimi exquisite, her voice in general, when
well-projected, remarkably warm in tone. Whether she made more or less of
Francesca than Tebaldi might have done is one of history’s little question marks. ……. The report continued with a statement
of the position of the San Francisco Opera, which was, not surprisingly, that
Madam Callas was fired, and that a complaint, furthermore, was being sent off
to the American Guild of Musical Artists. The fact that a recording of
Cherubini’s Medea was on the ailing Callas’ September schedule – sessions took
place from 12th to 19th – did not sit exactly well with
Adler and Miller. Nor the fact that she “rested up” by going to an early
September ball tossed for her in Venice by Elsa Maxwell. Callas had wired Adler
September 1 that he should have a sub on hand “in case”. Bul Callas’ logical follow-up,
in Adler’s estimation, would have been either come on schedule and try to
perform, or to cancel outright, and stay home. Most subscribers felt Adler and
Miller were to be commended for their uncompromising action, and after Leonie
Rysanek’s Lady Macbeth and Leyla Gencer’s Lucia – both highly successful –
Maria Callas was, if not forgotten, hardy missed. ……. Gencer’s Lucia was not of the pretty-pretty
pyrotechnical variety. Here was a warm spinto soprano who simply happened to
have coloratura flexibility as well. The riches of her voice which, like Callas’,
has a certain sonic sex appeal, helped produce an adult Lucia. Also, vivid
acting: she conveyed a real sense of derangement in the Mad Scene. All in all,
this was the most memorable portrayal offered in San Francisco by a sometimes-remarkable
artist. Her success in the part indicated that another reengagement was in order,
and she returned in 1958. Her other assignments were Violetta and Liu, the latter
only in Los Angeles. ……. Mezzo Irene Dalis
appeared first in one of her best roles, Eboli in Don Carlo. She swung into it
with a fiery regality and sang it warmly, winning friends who would welcome her
back in many seasons to come. She shared to honours in the first two
performances with Tozzi, whose limping, swaggering Philip certainly one of the
best all-around characterizations her offered through the years of personages
more interesting than the stock Ramfis and Zaccaria types. Frank Guarrera was a
vivid Rodrigo, Piero Miranda a so-so Don Carlo. No soprano has ever known
better than Leyla Gencer how to stand about looking noble, but her vocal projection
in the role of Elizabeth was spotty. …….
Opening Night
1967 brought a revival of Gioconda, not seen nineteen years. Adler had waited
until he had the whopping sort of cast that can make this over-climaxed irresistible
warhorse run. Up through the summer of ’67 there were problems, two of his choices
agreeing the job and then backing off. Crespin was to do her first Gioconda,
and she had coaching with Zinka Milanov in Yugoslavia on her agenda, but
indisposition made it impossible for her to learn the role in time, and Peter
Glossop defected from Barnaba for Fallstaff with Sarah Chadwell’s American
National Company which toured the U.S. in the wake of the prematurely hatched
Met National troupe. Crespin was ably enough replaced by Leyla Gencer, absent
for nearly a decade from San Francisco scene. For Barnaba there were the
parched tones of Chester Ludgin, a man-of-all-work baritone who was encountering
vocal problems especially inconvenient for such a draftable singer. With Patané
exceedingly crisp, cultivated man on the podium. Grace Bumbry an ideally
handsome, mellifluous Laura, Maureen Forrester (a rare figure on the operatic
stage) a plummy Cieca, and Cioni a pingy Enzo, this was, despite problems, a
Gioconda lineup not to be dismissed. Gencer’s dramatic handling of the title role
made one respect her artistic integrity even as one worried over instances of
vocal abandon. Espaccially after the opening night, a traditionally troublesome
time for voices, she achieved a fairly even effect, always using her voice,
according to her habit, as a piece of highly charged equipment. There have been
more brilliant-sounding sopranos of the Gioconda type, but none more
resourceful. Gioconda being sort o character whor turns up from everybody’s
woodwork, she tends to be more than a bit tiresome, but Gencer put you on her
side.
OPERA WARHORSES
2007.05.16
WILLIAM BURNETT
Historical Performances: Callas Fired, An Opera
Changed – San Francisco Opera’s “Aida” at San Diego’s Fox Theater, November 7,
1957
This is the eighth of ten observances of historic performances of the San Francisco Opera that I attended during the company’s annual tours of Southern California
When purchasing a ticket for an opera, the opera
company’s often includes the statement that “casts and operas are subject to
change”. Over time, opera goers inevitably will experience cast changes, such
as I did earlier this year at Houston’s “Faust” (see my review elsewhere on
this website). But how often does an opera company change the opera itself,
especially on short notice?
I have known three occasions, all involving the San
Francisco Opera. As the most extreme example of an opera impresario’s agony,
Kurt Herbert Adler found himself with an indisposed Elsa (Hildegard
Hillebrecht) for a scheduled performance in 1965 of Wagner’s “Lohengrin” and
found no one in the world able to produce an Elsa in time for the performance.
His solution? Noting that a performance of Rossini’s
“Barber of Seville” was the next opera on the subscription series of which the
“Lohengrin” was part and that all members of the “Barber” cast, who had
performed the previous night, were healthy and accounted for, he reversed the
dates of the two performances, allowing time for Frau Hillebrecht to recover.
As a result, the “Barber” cast had to perform on
consecutive nights and “Lohengrin” then had to be performed twice the next week
with only a day’s rest between, but that seemed a better alternative than
cancelling the first “Lohengrin” altogether.
Presumably, most of the subscribers themselves were
indifferent to the order that they would see those two operas. However, the
subscribers are not the only persons that attend a given performance. You might
imagine the anger that the opera house doormen and ushers experienced (and I
had the testimonial of one such doorman) when those patrons who were NOT
indifferent discovered that the Wagner music drama for which they purchased a
ticket was now a Rossini opera buffa and vice versa.
Maria Callas had been scheduled to make her debut at
San Francisco Opera in September 1957, performing four times in San Francisco,
and, on the San Francisco Opera’s post-season tour of Southern California, to
perform three times at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles and once at the Fox
Theatre in San Diego. When she failed to show up for rehearsals in September
for “Lucia di Lammermoor”, Adler fired her and, in cooperation with the Chicago
Lyric Opera and New York Metropolitan Opera, invoked a lockout of Callas in the
major United States opera houses.
No opera company general manager wants ever to be
forced to change an opera, and there will be various strategies to safeguard
the opera company against the illness or indisposition (not always the same
thing) of a scheduled performer. One strategy is to have a cover somewhere
nearby, which becomes one of the great advantages of having an
“artists-in-residence” program, such as one sees at the Met, San Francisco,
Houston and elsewhere.
Sometimes the cover is a person who knows the critical
role but is performing in one of the opera’s supporting parts. In 2000, Paolo
Gavanelli became ill for a San Francisco performance of the title role of
Verdi’s “Simon Boccanegra” and Nicholas Putilin, who performs Simon at the
Mariinsky Theatre/Kirov Opera, was cast as Paolo, who was in turn covered by
one of the company’s younger singers. With Putilin as Boccanegra and a new
Paolo, the performance proceeded with minimum despair.
One suspects that these days every general manager has
some sort of plan for replacing every important cast member of an opera they
are producing. And, I suspect, that the more problematical an important opera
star is (such as an artist who is known to cancel a lot for illness or other
reasons), the more effort goes into having carefully developed contingency
plans. If one is really suspicious of an artist, I would imagine, the opera
company would have taken multiple steps to safeguard against the consequences
of a cancellation.
Earlier this month, in preparing a tribute to the
Young Rysanek at San Francisco Opera in the 1950s, as well as a contemporaneous
one for Leyla Gencer that will appear on this website later this month, it
struck me that Adler had developed what in retrospect seems to be some fairly
obvious defenses against Callas cancelling her 1957 San Francisco debut season.
Adler had scheduled Callas to perform two parts, Lady
Macbeth in Verdi’s “Macbeth” and the title role in Donizetti’s “Lucia di
Lammermoor”. There are not ever a great number of divas that sing these two
roles (and almost none that sing both). But there was a great Lady Macbeth in
1957 besides Callas, and that was Leonie Rysanek, who had just made a studio
recording of the role with the reigning Macbeth, Leonard Warren. There was also
an important rising star that was preparing the role of Lucia for performances
in Trieste later that year, to be conducted by a conductor associated with the
San Francisco Opera. That Lucia-to-be was Leyla Gencer.
Rysanek was engaged to open the 1957 season on
September 17th in the title role of Puccini’s “Turandot”. After that set of performances,
she was scheduled to rehearse the San Francisco premiere production of Strauss’
“Ariadne auf Naxos”.
Leyla Gencer had been engaged as Violetta in Verdi’s
“La Traviata”, opening September 19. Her assignments for the rest of September
consisted of student matinee performances of that opera, requiring her to be
there during the entire time that Callas was to be there. Those early October
assignments for Gencer and Rysanek meant that there was no opportunity to leave
San Francisco, so that they would be around when the tours of Los Angeles and
San Diego were to begin in late October.
Callas was to sing her first Lucia on September 27 and
her first Lady Macbeth on October 11. When she did not appear for rehearsals of
“Lucia”, Adler fired her. He did not need to search the world for a replacement
for Callas as Lucia, because Gencer was there, nor did her have to search for a
Lady Macbeth, because Rysanek was there. I suspect that there was never an
explicit agreement that either artist was covering Callas, but
they were international artists, and both knew exactly which roles they shared
with the temperamental diva.
So, it appears to me that Adler had “Callas-proofed”
his season very effectively. It also appears to me that he had NOT
“Stella-proofed” it. When Antonietta Stella’s emergency surgery required
cancellation of her scheduled performances of Amelia in Verdi’s “Ballo in
Maschera” and the title role in Verdi’s “Aida”, this created a real crisis for
Adler. Rysanek rose above the line of duty by adding two additional
performances – her German-language Amelia and an Aida, and Leontyne Price’s
star also rose in the firmament when she took on two performances of the latter
opera in San Francisco and one on the Los Angeles tour.
However, the longer-term solution to Stella’s
emergency operation was engaging Herva Nelli to complete Stella’s obligations
as Aida and Amelia, including the Southern California tour. The tour had been
scheduled to perform in San Diego on two nights a week apart – with Gencer
singing Violetta and Callas singing Lucia. Callas’ cancellation and replacement
by Gencer meant that San Diego would have two separate visits by the Turkish
diva.
The spacing of Gencer’s performances would have
permitted her to have performed in a San Diego “Lucia”, and, judging from her
spectacular performance as Lucia that I saw three days later at the Shrine
Auditorium, it almost certainly would have been a great success. However, the
disappointed ticket-holders had expected Callas, and having an unknown name
(Gencer was not a household word in Southern California in 1957, and most of
the other remaining members of the “Lucia” casts were relatively unknown) twice
in a week’s time for the only two performances of San Francisco Opera in San
Diego that year, surely had to have bothered the promoters in that tour city.
The promoters likely slept easier when offered the
prospect of replacing the “Lucia” with a performance of Verdi’s “Aida” that
would have at least three familiar names to the San Diego audience – soprano
Herva Nelli in the title role, the superb mezzo-soprano Blanche Thebom as
Amneris, and veteran basso Nicola Moscona as Ramfis. All three had been
stalwarts at the Metropolitan and San Francisco Operas. Nelli’s star turn in
five Toscanini NBC Orchestra performances were among the early LP recordings of
complete operas. Unfortunately, neither the tenor, Eugene Tobin, nor the
baritone, Umberto Borghi brought any star power, and the latter did not even
bring good performance reviews from his efforts earlier in the season.
Looking at the situation retrospectively, I, of
course, would have wished that Nelli, whose voice to me never really seemed
right for Aida, would have switched the Los Angeles and San Diego Aidas with
Leontyne Price, who had a perfect voice for the role. But in September 1957
Price was no better known than Gencer, and Nelli was at least a Callas
substitute of whom many people had heard.
The singers generally met the audience’s expectations.
This was the only time that I had a chance to hear Nelli, Thebom and Moscona in
live operatic performance, and I am happy to have heard them. It is a consoling
thought that I was to see Price in “Aida” and most of her other great Verdi
roles over the next three decades.
But whatever quantities of thought went into who would
sing the roles, apparently a lesser amount went into how they would stage this
iconic grand opera in the Fox Theatre. The most vivid memory of the staging was
the triumphal march, which consisted of nine spear-carrying men walking
diagonally across the stage, circling, then walking off the opposite side.
As noted elsewhere in this website, it is my plan to
attend a performance somewhere in the world of each opera whose 50-year
anniversary I am observing. For “Aida”, I have scheduled a return to San Diego
in April, 2008 to observe the San Diego Opera’s revival of their production
directed by Garnett Bruce in what I expect will be a more appropriate staging
than what San Francisco Opera cobbled together for San Diego 50 years ago.
As a personal note, not only did the San Francisco
Opera’s tours to San Diego provide my first opportunity to see Verdi’s “La
Traviata”, “Aida” and “Otello”, but the San Diego Opera’s Verdi Festivals
during the year’s between 1979 and 1985 were the place where I saw six other
Verdi operas for the first time, for a total of nine first seen in San Diego.
The San Francisco Opera tour to the Los Angeles Shrine
Auditorium, resulted in my first performance of a tenth, with an 11th performed
by the Los Angeles Opera at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. San Francisco Opera
introduced me to 11 other Verdis at the War Memorial, so, with another first at
the Met in New York City, I have seen 23 Verdi operas, 22 for the first time in
California, each with great international casts.
Since I regard “Jerusalem” as a redo of “I Lombardi”
and “Aroldo” as a redo of “Stiffelio”, I count only 26 Verdi operas total. Any
opera company planning future performances of “I Due Foscari”, “La Battaglia di
Legnano” and “Alzira” should alert me, as I would be very interested in bagging
all three of those also.
https://operawarhorses.com/2007/05/16/callas-fired-an-opera-changed-s-f-operas-aida-at-the-fox-november-7-1957/
