parterre box

47 comments

• rysanekfreak says:

  I was lucky enough to see Magda three times…Medea (Kansas City), Fedora (Dallas), and Tosca (Dallas, the Met on tour). The Fedora was the first time I was present for mass audience hysteria. That’s what made me want to start going to the opera as often as possible, to see how many more times such audience adulation could be duplicated, and for me to be a part of it. She certainly knew how to set an audience on fire !

  And I remember that her Vissi d’arte was sung flat on her back on the sofa, arm across her eyes, never once looking at the conductor. It was such a stunt that the audience went berserk.

  on February 1, 2009 at 5:41 PM
• pavel says:

  All this talk of various Met Toscas got me surfing around in the Met Archives. I was amazed to find out that in her one and only Butterfly at the Met, Galina Vishnevskaya sang her role in Russian (except for “Un bel di”) while the rest of the cast sang in Italian! What a hoot that must have been!

  on February 1, 2009 at 6:19 PM
• iltenoredigrazia says:

  Supposedly Freni and Berganza were also kept away by IRS problems. But another reason was that Chapin wanted to showcase American singers – which was good – and felt that he could do fine without the Nilssons, Berganzas and Frenis of this world. I’ve always thought that Bing would have been able to resolve the issue.

  Other artists that missed some seasons at that time included Ghiaurov, Cossotto, Sutherland, Ludwig and Kraus. Merrill and Siepi were simply dismissed to allow for younger singers.

  I remember an interview with Harry Theyard where he said that he had told his manager that he would not accept any offer from the Met for less than $500 a performance. When the Met called it offered him $2,000 per performance. Chapin sure knew what the singers were worth.

  on February 1, 2009 at 6:20 PM
• richard says:

  iltenoredigrazia, Freni and Berganza both broke with the Met in 1968. So if any intervention could have been done with the IRS, it was on Bing’s watch. He was GM into 1972. Berganza never returned to the Met after two seasons, Freni did return but much later.

  Two other factors in the mid 70s that kept some European artists away were 1) a US recession with high inflation and a very weak dollar and 2)Rolf
  Lieberman who took over the Paris Opera around this time and was given virtually a blank checkbook to
  build the Opera into a world class house. He paid very high fees and some singers like Ludwig gave hin was was previously their Met time allotment. I remember Ludwig going on with great enthusism at the “very favorable conditions” in Paris. She gave only very limited time to the US in the mid 70s.

  But I agree with you that the weak leadership at the Met made things worse. Bing really baby-ed his favorites and some of them really expected that treatment

  on February 1, 2009 at 6:59 PM
• arepo says:

  I would be happy to share Magda’s address with anyone who would care to wish her a happy 99th.
  Perhaps her feistiness in the classroom helped her get to this age. She’s certainly no shrinking “Adriana violet.”
  Sra. Magda Olivero
  Corso Magenta, 77
  20123 Milano (MI)Italia

  on February 1, 2009 at 7:00 PM
• Nerva Nelli says:

  Hans Lick:
  “I can’t remember if it was that year or an earlier one that we had the “Royal Swedish Tosca,” i.e. the Met cast Nilsson, Ulfung and Wixell, with Ehrling in the pit. I guess I could go to the site and check.”

  Were you to do so you would find that Wixell never sang a Met performance with either Ulfung or Nilsson, and that Ulfung never sang Cavaradossi or any other Italian role at the Met! Nor did Ehrling ever conduct TOSCA there.

  Nice story though, Hans!

  on February 1, 2009 at 7:05 PM
• kashania says:

  I pity any soprano who had to sing Brünnhilde opposite Nilsson’s Sieglinde!!

  klingsor: Thanks for that lovely story about Lear.

  on February 2, 2009 at 12:59 PM