Celli on Callas, Pro and Con "Great Artists of Our Time." the Pro Found Evaluation of Maria Callas Is a Gem
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48 LETTERS TO THE MACBETH ARTICLE TIMELY RECORDINGS EDITOR MR. WEAVER'S TIMELY article on Macbeth in your Jan. 31st issue is most interest ing, despite his indication that the Feb. 5th production at the Metropolitan will be the American Premiere. Thank you for the new series on Celli on Callas, Pro and Con "Great Artists of Our Time." The pro found evaluation of Maria Callas is a gem. This beginning makes one eager for COMPREHENSIVE ANALYSIS 31st, 1959! The article by Teodoro Celli additional numbers and many of them, on Maria Callas is the most elaborate in a long series. WE WISH TO THANK YOU for publishing apology for any public figure that I have JOSEPHINE DUNCAN. Teodoro Celli's article, "Great Artists ever read. Los Angeles, Calif. of Our Time: 1. Maria Callas." This is Of the roughly fifteen full columns of undoubtedly the first comprehensive the article, ten are spent defending Cal WEST COAST APPEARANCE analysis of Miss Callas as an artist that las's voice and justifying it musically. IN HIS ARTICLE on the Metropolitan we have been able to find. Coming on the But the article concludes with the quota Opera's forthcoming first production of heels of the innumerable psychological tion: "No! She did not have exactly a Verdi's "Macbeth" ("Verdi's Twice-Told studies of Miss Callas and the lurid press voice. But—" Mr. Celli's logic makes me 'Macbeth,' " SR Jan. 31), WiUiam Weaver stories, it provides a stabilizing hand. feel that he finds her voice leaving some says, "Its appearance finally at the DORIS L. ROTHGESSER. thing to be desired, does not want to Metropolitan on February 5 is to all Hillside, N. J. admit this, and goes out of his way to purposes its American premiere . ." prove the contrary. (emphasis added). THE BEST SO FAR THOMAS W. SMITH. We in San Francisco fail to grasp the New York, N. Y. SiNCEREST CONGRATULATIONS On the initial significance of that "to all purposes," since "Macbeth" was presented by the San "Great Artists of Our Time" series. I have INVALUABLE REMARKS never read a finer article on a singer Francisco Opera Company in 1955, with than Sig. Celli's dialogue on Mme. Callas. Inge Borkh in the name part, Giorgio MANY THANKS INDEED for the invaluable Tozzi and Robert Weede; and again dur But, there are still those of us who will remarks by Teodoro Celli on Callas and ing the 1957 season, with Leonie Rysanek always prefer the glorious voice to any her art. This is music criticism at its (who is just this season making her thing else in opera and request a hearing. highest instructive level and it puts the Metropolitan debut), Giuseppe Taddei JOHN M. GEHL III. entire Callas controversy in the most and Lorenzo Alvary. New Orleans, La. sensible perspective yet seen, in this country at least. OLIVE ENGLISH. San Francisco, Calif. APOLOGY NEEDED JOHN P. MANDAINS, M.D. Arlington, Va. EDITOR'S NOTE: The comment should have YOUR FIVE-PAGE spread on the most over been identified as an insertion by the rated singer of our times, Mme. Callas, SANS HYSTERIA editor, for which Wiiliom Weaver was should be in the nature of an apology not responsible. It was not intended to rather than in praise of the over- MY HEARTFELT CONGRATULATIONS to Messrs. discredit the performances by the New publicized diva. To this listener her voice CelU and Weinstock for daring to evalu York City Opera Company in City Center is one of the coldest, ugliest, and most ate the Callas voice in a climate of rea or the Little Orchestra performance in monotonous voices ever applauded by an son, sans emotion, sans the hysterical Carnegie Hall (both reviewed in SR) or extremely gullible press and pubUc. journalese that places the Callas per the ones in San Francisco. It was, rather, JENNIE SCHULMAN. sonality and its resultant sensational intended to underline the opportunity Brooklyn, N. Y. news-copy value as the guiding per thus provided for "Macbeth" to be heard spective. widely by Americans through a Metro STATING THE CASE ALAN W. AGOL. politan broadcast and an up to date com Visalia, Calif. plete recording (both already accom IN HIS ARTICLE on Maria Callas (SR Jan. plished). For Miss English and others 31) Teodoro Celli states that the "Callas EMPHATIC CONGRATULATIONS who wrote, a promise to be more explicit case" has not been clarified, but the in the future. last two sentences of his article certainly YOU DESERVE THE MOST emphatic con do clarify, more than satisfactorily, her gratulations for reprinting one of the all BUELOW NO LONGER "OBSCURE" "case." too jew informal and intelligent articles What has always interested me as re on the subject of Maria Meneghini Cal THE "OBSCURE" IN the sense of the four gards this singer is that so many critics las. I saw it first in Oggi last year and Italian words Hans von Buelow had set up standards for other singers which fervently hoped it might possibly gain entered into Johanna Strauss' Stamm- never seem to apply to Mme. Callas. If a more widespread audience. buch did not pertain to the words them selves. In translation, they mean: fanati Tebaldi, Steber, Milanov or other great DAVID WM. BROWN. cism may be compared to petroleum sopranos commit slight errors in tech New York, N. Υ. nique or taste, they are castigated, light, enthusiasm, however, to electric light. scolded, or simply dismissed or ignored. ARMED TO THE TEETH On the other hand, when Mme. Callas's I am indebted to Dr. Willi Schuh, the many egregious "eccentricities," so glar THANK YOU FOR PUBLISHING Teodoro Celli's Swiss Strauss biographer, for his advice ing that they are forced to be noticed, article in translation. I have heard about as to the allusion Buelow wanted to ex appear, she is excused on the grounds it in the past but never found anyone press with these words. "Young Richard that these blemishes do not really matter who knew exactly what he said. Strauss," he informs me, "at that time, in so great an artist. I am clipping this on to the previous passed through a period of admiration article from SR of some time ago— for Wagner, while Buelow, once a Wag GERALD HAMM. nerian himself, had now put Brahms in Philadelphia, Pa. "Maria, Renata, Zinka . and Leonora" —This prior article by Mr. Weinstock first place. The entry, therefore, is slight ly ironical: fanaticism (for Wagner) is WHAT A SHOCK! has succeeded in hushing to some extent —at least in my house—those highly nothing but a slowly burning flame, enthusiasm (for Brahms), on the other EVERY WEEK FOR THE past three years I critical of Callas—"because she can't have looked forward eagerly to each sing." Now I've a double-barreled shotgun! hand, is the blazing light." issue of the Saturday Review, but what LOUIS BARTLETT. ROBERT BREUER. a shock I got with the issue of January New York, N. Y. Elmhurst, Ν. Y. PRODUCED 2005 BY UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED 49 be called a non-conductor's voice. As the Countess, Elisabeth Schwarzkopf again shows that she is one of the most intelligent and evocative singing Strauss, Krauss and "Capriccio" actresses of our time. Her perform ance alone is worth the price of pur chase, Christa Ludwig excells in the role of the tragedienne Clairon—the By HERBERT WEINSTOCK Battista Casti, a somewhat scurrilous great French actress whose real name satiric poet, was set to music by An was Claire-Joseph Leris, and who was NTERPRISES of grand magni tonio Salieri and presented at Schon- famous for her roles in Voltaire's tude, sweep, and power can and brunn as half of a double bill on plays. As the composer Flamand, who E do get along without the perfec February 7, 1786. (The other half of embodies one side of the argument, tion of detail essential to minor master- the bill was the premiere of Mozart's Nicolai Gedda projects greater warmth works. Richard Strauss's "Capriccio" "Der Schauspieldirektor," a member and conviction than I have heard from never reaches for the spaciousness of the same family.) In 1934, Stefan him before; his opposite number, the of the epic, the purgations of tragedy, Zweig, who, being Jewish, no longer poet Olivier, is magnificently created or the inclusiveness of a truly great could collaborate with Strauss, sug by Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau. Hans work of art. But it is a minor master gested Casti's text to him. Clemens Hotter, assigned one of the two long piece, and it is flawless. All those in Krauss thereafter followed Strauss's uninterrupted solos in the opera, volved in recording this last of suggestions in expanding the text into brings understanding and vocal mas Strauss's fifteen operas for the first a serious, but always lighthearted, tery to the difficult impersonation of time evidently approached it on that amusing, and literally animated dis the theatrical director La Roche. In level. So "treated, "Capriccio" proves cussion of the possible relationships a large cast sprinkled with familiar to be a complete, compelling success. between poetry and music, text and names, other singers require praise: Conductor, cast, and recording en investiture. Very cleverly, they placed Eberhard Wachter as the Count, Ru gineers under the all-seeing, all-hear their version near Paris in about 1775, dolf Christ as Monsieur Taupe, Anna ing, unsleeping eyes of Walter Legge just before the first presentation of Moffo and Dermot Troy as, respec have joined to produce a superb en Gluck's Gallicized "Alceste," a period tively, the Italian soprano and tenor, tertainment.