“I don’t like traditions, I am very personal, very independent, I don’t like intimate ladies, I mean in German lieder there’s a lot of copy, a lot of imitation, a lot of tradition, and this I have put it aside.”
On this day in 1952 the Johnny Mercer musical Top Banana opened at the Winter Garden Theatre, to run 350 performances.
Dan Soda (Windy City Operaman) is a Chicago native whose first visit to opera was at age 17 and Massenet’s Werther with Troyanos and Kraus. Nothing was ever the same. Opera and concert performances, recordings and video are an obsession. He prepares Parterre Box’s daily birthday and anniversary tributes. He also enjoys concerts, live theater and movies.
Parterre Box concludes the thrilling first year of Talk of the Town by inviting your lightning rod opinions on several more categories of operatic argumentation.
