A Distinguished American Conductor Offers His Suggestions For American Opera At The Washington National Opera

"Deems Taylor: Peter Ibbetson; William Grant Still: Troubled Island; Howard Hanson: Merry Mount; Robert Ward: The Crucible; Nicolas Flagello: Mirra, The Sisters, The Judgement of St. Francis; Henry Hadley: Cleopatra's Night; Vittorio Giannini: The Taming of the Shrew; Louis Gruenberg: The Emperor Jones, Antony & Cleopatra.

This is a good start, but I'm afraid the default method of operation in most companies is best described as craven, so I hold out no hope. The performance culture in the United States has declined so much that I believe we are now in a period where the best we can do is seek to preserve our heritage through recordings. This is the best chance for any of the above works to be heard properly, at least."

JW

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ONE NATIVE OPERA AMONG 4 NOVELTIES; Metropolitan to Give Hadley's "Cleopatra's Night" and Maeterlinck's "Blue Bird." "ZAZA," WITH MME. FARRAR Revivals of Wagner's "Parsifal" in English, and "La Juive," with Caruso--Fifteen New Singers. New Stars.

The Metropolitan Opera Company last night made public its prospectus for 1919-20...

New York Times, 1919

"The Metropolitan Opera is a vibrant home for the world's most creative and talented artists working in opera, including singers, conductors, composers, ..."

The Metropolitan Opera Web-site, 2008




















Living American conductors Placido Domingo and John McLaughlin Williams. Will they unite for the sake of a living American culture and a living Washington National Opera?

[or, ... Setting Sun and Rising Sun .... As the World Turns, American culture slowly renews itself under the watchful and alert eyes of the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities...]

Photo credits: (c) Opera Today magazine and (c) www.elieshanelson.com. With thanks.