toOPERAi
Even in; the very earlyrd^ their existence as 'a people, -the musical :art among; Jews held a>' prominent^place^yXtideveloped and; . passed as a freasuredi heritage from generation >to generation. , Unfortunately,. space: does not -per-' mit .the description ik the role music and: espedaUy.jSong^.played among Jews at aU times and in all countries.-.' Our; task t-now has ^ but one defined aim,' to survey the contribution- of Jews to the ; development of Opera and ^ partic-i;;; ' ;larly'their;,place in AmericanOpera today, r
As far -as we know, there 'are at present about thirty Jewish ^ artists 1 in 'the^.Metropolitan'Opera , alone. More, many more, ^sartists areaffiiated with other compaines or find expression for their art at concerts and in various operatic theatres; In recent, years,^^^ had^a' considerable number of Opera -singers-(^ - aU; sorts. Ihis may appear odd to some. It may also serve -as? an. anti-Semitic protest that- *Jews monopolize-the Opera." But to Jews, and non-Jews, .familiar 'With; Jewish' contributions to music and song, this; will come as no great surprise.
Jewish artists were,among the first to show great'interest in the Opera, as.'6arly as 100,years bgo. And even a' litfle less than 300 years "ago, wheh'renowned mudc--jans, Italians' and others met in the home of Giovanni Bardi in Florence to esperiment with the production^of opera, Jews had already shown deep interest In .this form of art. Many Jewish arttets transplanted^ the religious; music of their' people into opera and in this alone their contribu-tion is'signiflcant From^the very beginning, Jewish ~ singing maes-"^ tros often filled the most important roles in the opera.
But Jewish ccntributicBS to the development and colossal success of the opera were not confined only to supplying talented singers. They ala> gave the Opera im-^ mortal composers.-We need only mention the names of Mendel-ESoiSi, Meyerbeer, Bizet, Halevy, Rubinstein-andBloch,,whose great musical works were presented successfully for many years on the Opera stages of all civilized people, , many of which are revived from
' tme^ to time. Jews also lent fin-
'y:^icial support to Opera- in all ' ountries, just as they did to other musacal enterprises.'' Even the 'Aryan" Richard Wagner, who became Hitier's' God, because of 'Bis'repudiation, in his later yearse, of Jewish contributions to; world.; music, was supported generously by Taussig, a Jew, when he first' began to organize his renowned annual - musical ■; Beyiouth: - festivals. Taussig gave the .tremendous
NEW YEAR EDITION
sumof $350,000 towards this endeavor. Wagner charged the Jews v/ith "bringing their Jewishness into music".i Thiis he sou^t.to placcvJewish':work in;?displeasure among other ^ German- "Aryans", even thou^rhi£i;own great success was attained l^.'the composdtions for which such;Jews asi Meyerbeer; and. Hugo von Hofmansth'al had written the libretto and lyrics. His disciple, Hitter, «went much further. He completely "nullified" Jewish' music simply becaiise'>!t was, "Jewish". Both< Wagner ;and Hitter were right as'-to the *'Jew-islmess"- of the musici Jewish composers for generationshave, to a.::Considerable'degree, poured Jewikh. sentiment into their',great works.'' Tlaa, toi (some - extent,' is alsotrue''of Jewish singers,^'who luive transposed a certain sp^k of the Jewish sigh; sorrow, and tra-, gedy into Opera. Verily, herein' lies' theirt greatness; and^itheir^'^suc--; cess. Artists of other nations did the same thing and as a result music in general'and song in particular-have'-becomer'intemational,; richer and more beautiful. - «
Among the thirty promin^t; Jewish artists int he Melxopoli-tan^-vOprai^ Company, there are ; certainly some in whose tone experienced listeners and observers discover Jewish sentiment. We hold'^ttiis'to be ei^cially'true o£ the two brothers-in-law "'Jan Pearcc: arid Eug^e Tucker, .whose orfeodos; Jewish background; has imbued them with the feeling for Jewish trouble and affliction "frota their very diildhood. Does this Ihea reduce' their great'talent or" does it rather lend gt^ce and poise to their voices? Ask the true professional, tlie"; true connoisseur 'of music and you wiU be told that it is that very-Jewish sentiment' which enhances .their artistic abil-' ity. ^ '
Another professional Cantor, who; attained success on the stage of the' .Metropolitan Company, be-fore ^cicer. is Friedrich Lechner, a German rrfugee. v Ledmer was born\:of religiomv^ in Stettin, a German port city on the Baltic Sea. His father was a music lover and himself a "mus-
■■'"'-:'^--r-i-'-"^ ,^,•:■:.-r'.i'.:^^■^.■^,■•'-:■/V^: ■■
iciari; of some;repute. His :family tree^^ goes back: to - the well' known English-Jewish philantturbpist of the last century; Moses' Monfefiore.; . Lechner ;came" to America''uf 1937, a victim of Hitter's; devastating poliiioB. Ke was sngagsd at once as Cantor by the Central > Synagogue in ^Nesw York where he at-: tracted 'much attention. Hfe appearance as a soloist' with ; the Pliilharmonic Orchestra ^ in ^Boston and in New York ^Soon;. won a name for him as-a glffe'd •singer."" • That the genre of profesdi«al
: Cantors mi^t also be added Fried-jidi; Schoor, who for a long time-held a prominent place among the truly gifted artists of the famed Opera. Company, Schoor hails
. :^om a family of renowned Cantors. His father, Meier Schoor, was Caiief Cantor of the large Polisli
::$ynagogue .in Vienna.. His tmcle,; Bantch Sc^dbrwas the" Chief Can-tor of liembofe'^and'on6;;of the'' best known' of 'this :dayV Today's;
;^etropoUtan: Opera v^.s Irom a family of 'Cantors, as'he does, has - certainly imbibed their ^usic/ ttieir specially Jewish music,? which he, like the others, has
.wtransfened into modem opera.
i Kini; Baum, one of the yoxmgest, but already recogriized and successful artists of the'Metropolitan, also comes from a; family;,of Cantors. His father, an orthodox Jew, was a Cantoi; in Prague and his iliildren, Kurt''among them, were given a strict religious, upbringing.' Yoxmg Kurt absorbed Judaism in . all its respects, Jewish music included. He came to America; m '■ i939, right after ffitter's occupation; of., Czed[i6.slbvakia'^and'-m Ms first appearanceiinir?^'Aida";With^; the; Chicago Civic Opera. After an extended and successful tour through Centralvsnd South Ameri-;" ca, he returned to New York where he was dgned up by tha Metropolitan Oi>era Company. \ Who are some of .the other Metropolitan's '.Jewl^ stkrs?.' Begina Besnick, born .in l^rooklyn of ^re-ligious Jewish parents, who > speaks Yiddish well and ;frequently> con-: a verses glibly in that tongue with her aged grandmother^; anviimmi-; grant from Russia., . ^ ^
Ihelma iUtoan, a Jev^ from BuiSialo is one of the, fi.ve American - born Opera i singers chosen, recently to.; be. ^heard ^ .by the "Diamond Jubilee'? dt the Metropolitan..
Christina Carrel, the daughter of ^ orthodox; Jewish parents;..!rMartha idpton, a; New York ^Jewish girl; young:iiNathalie a-Bodanya, who made her debut with; the Phila-ddphia Grand Opera 'and 'at once sittracted the attention of opera lovers and mudc critics through-. • out the coxmtry. ,1 , <'
I Among the; older Jewish artists.....
Of the: Metropolitan.:' Opera :.Comr^; pany, ,an;.important..;place:;;is- held . by Alexander Kipnis, who comes ■ from poor" Russian-Jewish people. Kipnis has a long and rich mud-du pas^ behind h!?" tto - aantt- in
;a£.- ■ ■ . ■ ,. . t
i
. during the Hitter regime. | Gerhard Pechner, a potent forcc^
in- the Metropolitan- Opera Com-»v vpany was born in Berlin. He gotJ * ^ his musical training there and , he made early successful appear-4
ances, first in the Berlin ^ State : Opera and later : in ..the .Berlin^:
Opera.^ He appeared under the di-? .Erection of ;suchiimportant coM
tors ' as Bruno ^- Walte^^ .Blchardi
Strauss and Fritz Bush. * ,,, Walter , Olitzky, a nephew of
the once famous Metropolitan .Opera Star, Rose Olitzkaya, made '•^-hisdebut in the State Opera o^
Koenigsburg, where he played*
for ten years. He is now,one of? "the most:;rimportantrcorwbrkera V. of; the; Metropolitan Opera; Com-/
pany. . , ~ '-^ ,^
A very important place in the Metropolitan Opera Company isi occupied by the yoimg artistt
.: /Jexan a son of religious'
Jewish parents of Hungary. Be- * fore coming to the Metropolitan,! he appeared successfully in thc> largest,., -best known European,
' OperaSr where he participated inr
:' the:.-Salzburg ::festivalsj Later hej
.appeared, in ^ Buenos Aires and; Rio De Janiero,' South America..:
: Sved is often cast with Jennie i Toiurel, a French Jewish girl, who^
sjplays ''Carmen''. Miss Tourel js" now recognized as one of the best 1 "Carmens". Unfortunately, we;
' know very littte , of - her Jewish* backgfbimd. " ' ' ^
Among the Hew feces in Ameri-; can Opera is the recently arrived! Hungarian,; 5 Alvera' Lorenzo, who: comes from an old establishdJr Jewish family in Europe. Lorenzo; is a nephew ofthe late celebrated' German Jewish: writer, Jacob Wassehnann. ' " "
'V Jewish music conductors aipi also occupying' important posi-' tions - in /imericari r:Opera • and*. |n; the nausical^ field in geneo^i Among, themiyiin^^^o jestimatioh, i Emil Cooper of: the - MetroiraHt^^ j Opera Company isVJthe.:mbst im-.i portant. He was bom in Odes^, Russia. His 'brilliant mxiacalcareferl began in his childhood, whenf he , made a marked impressdoEL oh Ms I audience '^ata/performance ,^in' Petersburg." The Turkish ambias-sador to the Czarisi; ^court of tiial | iime vras so ^enthudastic about his playing that he presented little' -Cooper to the Stiltan Abdul Ham-id H. The Sultan'called the child? wonder -to the Palace in CJonstan- v tinople and; there- he ;completed(
Operas of Vienna, Berlm, his "higher inusical trainhig: In^
Plaris sni otiier cities in aU parts *e years ttiat followed he con-, ik tiie^wbrid. Kipnis has excdl^ - ducted orchestras in , London,;
Paris and other European cities.: E^;;also:5»n^ Op-J era in Moscow, where the famed i
ip the opera . of (the; well-known s^ti-Semitic maestro; ;W«gner. He was so beloved by his audiences in Germany that he was tolerated in the'opera'for a-iSme ^ven
Clialiapin played under, his di- i ' (Continued on P&ge 44)
