The Cincinnati Enquirer from Cincinnati, Ohio • Page 66

TIM-. CINCINNATI ENQUIRER 4 til 4 JilDY, JLE I t. SK I ION THIil- PAGE SIX 19 fk fs'' Summer Opera And Met Have Much In Common BY HARRY K. M( WILLIAMS MR. ROBERT I Sidell, managing director of the Cincinnati Summer Optra Association, and Mr.

Rudolf Bing, managing director of the Metropolitan Opera Co. in New York City, see eye to eye al least up to a point. Mr. Sidell and Mr. Bing like the same operas or, at least, some ot Ihem.

During the 1953 season of i i I I 1 '-I if 5-v ir V. II r- I V-tfi; i IM, v1 hi i fa 4v.t. X. 1 i i 1 1' I A I I5RIAN" SULLIVAN will sing Rodolpho in "La Boheme" when it is per-, formed at the Cincinnati Zoo July 1 and 4. FOflREST TUCKER has to restrain Jan Sterling from tearing Rhonda Fleming into bits when Charles Heston kisses her in "Pony Express" (Capitol, Saturday).

Hollywood Facing Crisis Due To Tax-Exempt Law (Mr Berkeley is one of Hollyimod's top xcreen writers. Amonfi hi credits: "Green Gran Of Wyoming," "Kangaroo," and the Dr. Gillespie series.) Sesqui Year Sparks A Revival Of Community Festivals Governor Is Press Agent Critic Whips Up Puff, Too BY ARTHUR DAKACK BEFORE THE SUMMER OPERA Reason starts-and Harry McWilliams is lalklng about it on this page today in prose which has had many ot the lurid Adjectives disconnected so that thoy may be fitted into hjs advertising copy-yes, before opera starts I am RoinR to tell you about the Governor of Colorado. (No relation to McWilliams as far as I know). The Governor of Colorado is Dan Stevens and Gladys Swarthout their opportunities to sing "Car men before the then management of the Met would even consider them in the role.

Today, the Metropolitan is delighted to east either, of these world-famed as the lady who lives to love, since they proved their great vocal and dramatic capacities on Um Zoo stage. Grace Moore and Dorothy Kirsten made their debuts as "Tosca in the dramatic Puccini opera before Outdoor Theater audiences at the Zoo before they sang the role anywhere else. Other great singers imported to this country from Europe and South America have become members of the Metropolitan, only after they proved their worth in Cincinnati. BUILDING SINGING talent into stardom is not a one-way street, however. Many of the singers to appear in leading roles come to Cincinnati only after making a name for themselves at the Metroplitan or other opera houses.

Herva Nelli, who sings the title role in "Aida" at the Zoo on the opening night, Sunday, June 28, to make her local operatic debut, is already established as a star at the Met. Both Miss Nelli and Brenda Lewis, who will sing the role of Marguerite in "Faust" at the Zoo this summer. THE CINCINNATI Summer Opera started "Die Fledcrmau'-. a tremendously successful revival, a lew years ago, calling the Strauss operetta in English, "Rosalinda," after the name of the heroine. The Metroplitan followed with "Die Fledermaus" the fall of the same year.

The most successful Met opera of the season, "Die Fledermaus" was performed eleven times in the 1952 season and four times last. MANAGER SIDELL so far has resisted one argument that Manager Bing invited last season at the Met. That is the matter of "La Boheme" in English. Howard Pietz wrote English lyrics for the Puccini favorite after the success of his English "Fledermaus" and Manajer Bing produced it this past winter. There was a con-sidcrable controversy in New York about the English version and Manager Bing had to hedge bit: he scheduled the work In both languages! "La Boheme" was played in Italian this past year seven times and in English ten times.

This year, "La Boheme" will be seen and heard in Italian on Wednesday and Saturday, July 1 and 4, with Stella Roman, Helen George, Brain Sullivan and Cesare Bor-deli heading the cast. Perhaps the Zoo Opera will tell the story of love in a Paris garret next year in English. BY MARTIN BERKELEY HOLLYWOOD Is fast becoming a ghost town. A survey of some six blocks along Hollywood Boulevard reveals 24 stores for rent on a street where space has always been at a premium. Nearly 60 per cent of the teamsters customarily employed at the movie Mudios and about half of the 17,000 craft workers are unemployed.

Less than loO of the nearly 1400 screen writers have assignments. And the figures are just as dismal for the actors, i tors and musicians. A 1 1 this while the rest of America enjoys a boom. THERE ISN'T The U. S.

Congress must shoulder most of the blame. Some years ago, in order to lure workers into the insufferably hot oil-fields of the Near, East, a law was enacted offer' ing tax exemption to any American who worked beyond the borders of the United States for 17 cut of 18 months. The intent was commendable. The result has been disastrous. A SHREWD TAX expert uncovered the loophole and soon stars like Gene Kelly, John Wayne, Gary Cooper, Gregory Peck, Kirk Douglas and Errol Flynn were on the high seas.

One of them, his happy self-Imposed exile at an end, will soon return with 5600,000 in his Jeans Summer Opera at the Zoo which opens on Sunday, June 28, with Verdi's "Aida," Mr. Sidell Will present eight of the operas which Mr. Bing presented to Metropolitan music lovers during th season just closed. The operas given by the Met during the past winter to be presented here with many of the same singin" stars, conductors, choristers, include Cincinnati's opener, "Aida." "Carmen," "Madame Butterfly," "La Boheme," 'amson And Delilah" and "La Traviata." if ir it IS ADDITO.V Mr. Sidell has chosen Si.x operas not given this past season at the Met.

They are "Salome, "The Secret of Suzanne," "Faust," "The Merry Widow, "Lucia di I-ammermoor and "Andrea Chenier." On the other hand, the Met presented 16 operas which will not be given in Cincinnati this summer, but. nearly all have been presented here during other summertime seasons at the Zoo, Last year, the Zoo Opera and the Met agreed on eight operas. These included not only the six on which there is current agreement but also "Luola di Lam-mermoor" and "Salome." MKSSKS. SIDELL and Bing rIso agree on operatic talent. The singers who are heard at the Metropolitan during the winter who will be seen and heard on the stage of the Zoo Outdpor Theater during the coming four week season are: Roberta Pet ers, Eugene Conley, a Iwis, Herva Nelli, Kurt Baum, Brian Sullivan, Charles Kullman, Alesslo De Paolis, Paul Franke, Giulio Gari, Frank Guarrera, Giuseppe Valilengo, Robert Weede and Nicola Moscona.

THEUE ARE, of course, many singers who do not sing in both New York and Cincinnati, at least, not every season. In addition to the Metropolitan contingent coming this summer, Mr. Sidell has engaged Ethel Barry, more Colt, Elizabeth Devlin, Stella Roman, Barbara Gibson, Lydia lharrondo. Tomiko Kana-zawa, Vivian Delia Chiesa, Clara-mae Turner, Helen George, Anna Ayars and Patricia Raymond Miller on his list of sopranos. Among men from other parts are John Alexander, George Tallone.

Man. rice Mandell, Cesare Bardelli, George Chapliski, Richard Torigl, William Wilderman, Wilfred Engleman, Edward Doe and Michael Crowley. BOTH (iENEKAL managers watch the performances of each others company for new singing lalent and to see how the established talent succeeds when they attempt new roles. Many of the Metropolitans brightest stars sang at the Cincinnati Zoo before they were discovered by the company and audience that fills the New York house of the golden horseshoe. KOBEKTA l'ETEHS, who will sing the title role in "Lucia di Lammermoor on Sunday, July 12, and again on Thursday, July Ifi, made her debut in that opera at the Zoo two summers ago.

Mr. Bing was quick to see the merits of the sensational youngster in this Donizetti opera and immediately placed it in the Met schedule for his winter season with Roberta as his star. EIT.ENE CONLEY, who will be heard first this summer as the Duke in "Rigoletto, on Tuesday, June 30, and again on Thursday, July 2, was given starring roles at the Zoo in Cincinnati by the late Oscar Hild, then managing director of the company, before he was "discovered by the Met and the other great ipera houses of the world. Conley is now recognized by all the great opera managers as one of 'the worlds finest tenors. Happy indeed is Manager Sidell to welcome him back to Cincinnati this summer after an absence of several seasons.

THE CINCINNATI SUMMER Opera company gave both Rise a single camera turning at Universal, Warner or Samuel Goldwyn's. RKO and Republic have one each on the stages. MOM and Paramount have three apiece. Columbia has four. Only six are going at the once-flourishing independents! But 95 movies are being shot abroad.

And more than 50 per cent of the films being exhibited in our theaters today 350 of them -were produced entirely outside our borders. IS TV Or has the necessary retooling for 3-D, wide screen and the other exciting new sight-and-sound devices done It? The new gimmicks are only partly at fault for the slump started two years ago and TV hasn't been as destructive as many first thought in terms of employment. Lincoln Is Portrayed In Louisville Drama "THE TALL KENTUCKIAN" with Royal Dano and Louisa Hor-ton co-starred in the leading roles and Gene Lyons featured in the cast, opens a limited three-week engagement at the Iroquois Amphitheater, Ioulsville, Kentucky, on Monday evening, June 15. The play by Barbara Anderson wilh music by Norman Dello Joio Is the story of Lincoln's connection with Kentucky and Kentucklans and their influence on his political and personal life. It is pre sented by University Festival, In corporated, a non-profit organization, and is the climax of a program planned in celebration of tho- 173th anniveraary of the founding of the city of Louisville.

NORMS IIOFGHTON' has directed the production for which Alvin Colt has designed the sets and costumes. The choreography is by Bob Ilerget. In addition to Mr. Dano, Miss Uoton and Mr. Lyons the cast includes Kurt Richards, Charles Tate, William Pickett, Jean Tachau and a chorus of seventy-six singers and dancers assembled from the schools and colleges of Kentucky and the bordering states.

"THE TALL Kentuckian" will be given nightly Monday through Sunday with the final performance scheduled for Sunday evening, Julv 5. The curtain rises at 8:30 P. M. BY E. B.

RADCLIFFE FROM A SHOWMANSHIP angle Ohio'a present sesquicentennial celebration has stimulated considerable community theatrical activity of a healthy cultural and financially promising nature. Cincinnati had its big Sunday parade not so long ago, and it had community theater identification with the historical event. Other cities have in plan or operation special events of longer duration and scope. All functions, in addition to stimulating and widening interest in area heritage, are crowd-drawing ventures which certainly don't harm downtown business enterprises in their respective communities. BIGGEST SHOW at present Is Toledo's.

Its part in Ohio history has been dramatized in song, dance and dramatic sketches that are a part of a show which opened Friday at the Toledo Zoo. The show will run through 12 performances by July 5. It has a cast of 300 and it was written by 14 Toledo area writers. Ted Lewis went from Beverly Hills here to Toledo to have his show featured on the three opening nights. Lanny Ross is headliner for the Toledo show and its emcee as the Timeless Balladeer.

The show is linked with a big exposition in Walbridge Park. The exposition has booths for all types of 'religious, civic and social organizations in Northwestern Ohio. The midway, Village of Pioneers and Armed Forces Show are high spots in the exposition. PARADES, sports activities, beauty and bay' contests and a whole week of special events are scheduled as the Indian Lake sesquicentennial promotion for July 13rl9 at Indian Lake. A special gimmick used for frontier movie premieres and celebrations is being used as an exploitation feature.

Male residents of the Russell's Point and Lake View area are urged to let beards grow for the pioneer festivities. There will be special kangaroo courts and $1 fines for the smooth-6haven fellas. Gals will be fined if they use cosmetics during the week. Violators, in addition to liability for fines, will be forced to wear badges designating them as "Indians" or "snake hunters." GREENE COUNTY is planning a big sesquicentennial deal June 29 to July 4 at tho Greene County Fairgrounds, Xenia. A pageant spectacle for the occasion is now in rehearsal in Greene County towns.

A cast of 500 will be used but all dialogue and exposition will be done by a commentator. Progress in public school scenes, in living conditions, and development of social and recreational activities are to be traced in pageant scenes. Civil war scenes and a square dance spectacle are among the colorful items on the program. it OTHER OHIO communities are planning sesquicentennial events similar to those outlined. As more complete information about them is received, it will be relayed to you.

Our elders and forefathers who promoted Fall Festivals and other events of the present sesquicentennial type realized the wholesome civic aspect of providing special community-participation events as a means of bringing folks together in holiday mood. It's about time we caught up with the common sense of yesteryears' community leaders. WHILE we are on the subject of festivals I'd like to make note of one I'd love to have attended last week. It was Brandeis University's second annual festival of the Creative -Arts. It began Thursday at Wal.

tham, and it included a study of the "Comic Spirit" as its theme. I should like to have been present to hear Fred Allen, Irwin Corey, Arthur Kober, Alice Pearce, Jack Pearl, S. J. Perelman, Jimmy Savo and George Jessel talk shop about comedy. What a battery of discussion leaders on comedy techniques! There also was discussion of movie comedy and "the 10 funniest film sequences" (by vote of critics of the nation) were shown and discussed under leadership of Richard Griffith, curator of film li-brary, Museum of Modern Art, York.

The Brandeis program, directed by Leonard Bernstein, included a new play by Cincinnati's Louis Kronenberger, Time critic and author, and special programs of opera, poetry and dance. The university certainly Is on the right track in making its annual convocations serve the arts by expanding public under standing of them. rRADCLIFFE'S Thornton, and he wrote me a letter, a long time no. In a way, this answers it. (iOVF.KNOK DAN', who is either Republican or a Democrat, wrote me because lie knew that when I returned from Colorado, last summer, I spattered some tinseled Adjectives over this page lettinR each person know that Colorado is indeed what Governor lnn claims it to be.

In his letter, the Governor referred to the fact that Colorado has "so many attractions worth talking nbmil" that he could not resist turning press for the nonce. And having visited Colorado once I think I understand how he feels even thotiRh I have received no votes in Colorado or any plaee else. Till', LETTER tells of the Central City Festival which opens June 27. Central City is near Denver and each year they present two carefully staged operas In the open house which drips of the western lore of the IKCiOs when gold was as plentiful as 7000-liMt Rocky Mountain peaks. It was, as a matter of fact, Rocky Mountain gold that luiilt the opera house when rich prospectors decided that man cannot live on gold alone.

These early settlers apparently believed that what they needed in addition to gold and a fearless sheriff was nothing so much as a Mozart aria or two. So they chipped in and brought opera to Central City. This year Central City will present "Carmen" end "Merry Wives Of Windsor" in alternating performances totaling 33. LOR MY TASTE, and begging Governor pan's pardon, I would like to whip up a jniff for Aspen, Colo. Central City is fine, but you ought to see Aspen.

Aspen opens Us own summer activities on June 29 and continues them through August 30. Just petting to Aspen is half the show, if you like mountains and I do. The scenery is tremendous. It's like the farmer's giraffe the iinimal which on first sight caused tho farmer to say "there ain't no such animal." You see it but it takes a while to believe. And the music at Aspen is played (and mng) by people like Vronsky and E-abln, Mack Harrell, Szymon Goldberg.

Herta Glaz, Martial Singhrr and Roman Totenberg. This year they will have William Primrose, the New Music Quartet and Claudio Arrau. And that brings me to mv next subject. MY NEXT subject Is Claudio Arrau, the Chilean pianist. Not so long ago I received a letter from Arrau's manager expressing disappointment over my review of Arrau's pertormance of the Tchaikovsky concerto with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra.

1'riede F. Rothe said she had not heard Arrau play it herself as yet and suggested that perhaps Arrau played it "exactly as it is written" and thus unintentionally exposed som" of its weaknesses. She asked me, in Closing, to mention the fact that next year Arrau is going to play all 32 of the peethoven piano sonatas in a series of seven Town Hall recitals. Schnabel was the last pianist to do this, 17 years ago. AM) NOW, since I am making noises like a press agent, let me tell you about Aerosol Record Spray.

It is something which when "dispensed by finger pressure on the valve of a hand-held can. deposits a micro-fcopically thin layer of long-wearing lubricant in grooves of the record. Its manufacturer says it also makes records and needles last longer by reducing friction, serves as an insulator to reduce static elee-tricity noise caused by friction, helps fill in ebrasion imperfections in the record, and constantly cleans dust and dirt from the grooves." MY FINAL scoop for the day consists of peddling some second-hand information and commenting thereon. When the Boston Symphony Orchestra played in Chicago, a fev weeks ago, it was greeted by certain Chicago critics who were out to give the conductors (Munch and Monteux) their comeuppance. According to a column which The Enquirer printed, by Boston critic Rudolph Elie, these Chicago critics used "gutter language" in reviewing the performance of the Boston Orchestra, I DID NOT hear the concert and did not read the Chicago reviews.

I did, of course, hear the Boston Orchestra when it played here and felt like everyone else that it was a tremendous concert. I find it difficult to believe that the same orchestra could have played in Chicago in a manner to rightly cause critics to use "gutter language. iTms phrase was used primarily in reference to a character named Roger Dettmer.) WHEN THE Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra played in Chicago it too was given a rough going over by Chicago critics. I do rot know wat conclusions ought to be drawn from this analogy but if misery needs company it would seem that there could be none better than the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Or, you might say that the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra is now in a class-with the Boston Orchestra.

And that is some class. WON MOVIES Title Theater Kat'f. "Split Sernml" I'alare A "Mnn In The Dark" trand "Fort Tl" 3-D Albee "Lone Hand" Keith's "Messallna" Capitol "Queen Crowned" Hyde Park A "Castle. In Air" (iulid Technicolor every cent free of taxation. This talented young star couldn live long enough to accumulate that kind of money under our present tax schedule.

And who. can blame him for what he has done? It's all legal. BUT IT affects you. it hurts. Your proportionate share of the total tax burden has been increased by the exact amount the 30-odd sfars and directors do not pay and that burden will be increased further by what the Hollywoodians cannot pay because there are no jobs.

Another result of this law will soon be felt. Pictures filmed abroad show foreign cars, furniture, textiles and fashions. Films are accepted as the finest salesmen in the world the popularity of our goods abroad has proved this and the display of foreign commodities in the U. pictures will create a demand for them at the expense of our own exports and that drop will reflect itself in lower payrolls and higher taxes for those on them. THIS LOOPHOLE in our tax laws has had repercussions its makers never dreamed of.

It has acted like a pebble tossed into a still, silent pool. No one can, or should, blame those who have taken advantage of the law. It is human nature to have done so and I am sure that you, too, would have grasped at it if given the opportunity. THE SOLUTION is to change the law. To put a ceiling on the amount that remains tax-free say $23,000.

This will pro-tect those the law meant to protect and close forever the door on future temptation. Rep. Cecil R. King Calif.) has introduced just such a bill and Hollywood is behind it. The -bill is bottled up in the Appropriations Committee.

Hollywood wants the bill voted out of committee and taken to the floor for a showdown. I hqpe you will agree with Hollywood. Get Hep To The' Hoppers FOUR KANGAROOS, two being wallaroos or mountian kangaroos, completed a 12,000 mile air trip to Cincinnati during the week and they are now comfortably getting their first impressions of Cincinnati visitors and vice versa. A grey kangaroo, established at the Zoo for two years, is now proudly displaying her baby in her convenient pouch, much to the delight of women and children patrons. THE ZOO sight seeing train is now in daily operation making frequent trips about the grounds, thus furnishing an easy way for people to see the animal collection w-ith a minimum of effort.

Numerous outings are being scheduled. A large one is likely to develop on June 24th when the Madisonville Business Association will attempt to deliver the entire community to the Zoo for a series of games and contests. y. ROYAL DANO, who plays Abe Lincoln, the title role in "The Tall Kentuckian," confers with Gene Lyons. He plays one of Abe's friends representing the Southern point of view.

Both appear in the spectacular music-play (score by Norman Del Joio) opening tomorrow night at. 8:30 at Iroqu6is Park, Louisville, and running nightly through July 5. NEW YORKERS find themselves up against quite a problem in "The Beasts Of 20,000 Fathoms" (Albee, Thursday). The picture deals with liberation of a prehistoric monster iced up for centuries and then unthawed that he might scare the daylights out of folks in King Kong fashion. Karin Dayas In Recital MME.

KARIN DAYAS of the artist piano faculty of the Cincin nati Conservatory of Music will nr wJll give her annual mmer recital at 8:15 p. m. Monday. June 15, in the Conservatory concert hall. Born in Finland and i of the Liszt i at the age of 14, Mme.

Dayas has performed in all of the imtwrtant European music John Payne Sings HOLLYWOOD UP) Thit Las Vegas nightclub money is luring John Payne. Payne, who started as a singer ln the movies, is now in a two-fisted action cycle. His latest is "Crosstown." He admits that he wasn't too much Interested in an offer from the Flamingo Hotel in the gambling resort. "I told them that I wouldn't Work for less than $7000 a week. I figured that would be a polite bow-out Instead thev answered yes so quick, I wish now that I had asked for more." Now, he is busy getting his act together.

He has composed some 55 songs, some of which he will sing. He's enthused about the new venture. "For one thing," said Payne. "I may convince people that I'm also a singer. No one believed it when I played in musicals." centers as 1 1 DAYAS as with leading orchestras in this country.

She gave the first American performance of the Busoni Concerto with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. Among her former pupils are some of the outstanding young artists and teachers of the day. The public is invited to attend. The program: SonitM Snrlttt! Vwutlonj In Bhown Nor-tunu, op. ti.

No, 1 Chopm frhma op. 39 Chopin S-nt ln Minor Lut I Sciri ritm r.rrnadr DftusT AlbOTMit iti irltrasc Rivd M2Q 232 i 1.