Threaded Order Chronological Order
| re: Maria Callas-musicals? | |
| Posted by: magictime 05:50 am EST 11/29/18 | |
| In reply to: re: Maria Callas-musicals? - Michael_Portantiere 04:57 pm EST 11/28/18 | |
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| There was interest in her to do KISS ME KATE, but the offer intrigued her more than actualy moving forward. No more than 4 or 5 a week and for a very limited time in total. It was all about vanity, and even at capacity, no producer would have ever been able to get a return on an investment. Stratas made a full commitment to RAGS, Marilyn Horne, Barbara Cook, and Carol Burnett were in serious discussions to do a DIVA evening together. Renata Tebaldi, seriously entertained doing THE MERRY WIDOW, but too many previous conflicts sadly botched that up for her. Traubel gave her all to PIPE DREAM, Pinza of course to South Pacific and Fanny, and Siepi to two unsuccessful shows. I expect Renee Fleming will return again in something suitable. |
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| Callas in Kiss Me, Kate? A revival perhaps? | |
| Posted by: AlanScott 08:51 pm EST 11/29/18 | |
| In reply to: re: Maria Callas-musicals? - magictime 05:50 am EST 11/29/18 | |
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| Kiss Me, Kate came along in 1948 when Callas was not yet an international star. In fact, the earliest mention I can find of her in the Times is in October 1951, when she is mentioned by her married name. As simply Maria Callas, the earliest mention I can find is a year later. So would this have been a possible revival of KMK? Opera star Jarmila Novotná was pursued for KMK but I've never heard anything about Callas so perhaps you do mean that a revival was proposed at one point for her. It should be remembered that some of the big opera stars who starred in musicals on Broadway had some attendance problems in their shows. OTOH, many non-stars — and moderate names — crossed over regularly between opera and musicals in the past with no notable problems (although sometimes with alternates involved). But Stratas famously missed opening night of Rags in Boston, although once she came back, she doesn't seem to have missed many (if any) performances during the show's brief life. Pinza was said to have missed 50 performances of South Pacific in the first six months, resulting in angry letters to newspapers from people who had repeatedly tried to see him in the show. He seems to have had better attendance in Fanny, possibly because of a contract that docked him pay every time he missed a performance, but even there he missed a fair number if not the fairly outrageous number he missed in SP. Traubel was out of Pipe Dream for three weeks (due to bronchitis, or so it was reported) early in the run, and I think she missed another 20 or 30 performances altogether before her contract, over on May 31 (as was still common at the time), was up. At that point, she agreed to stay on until a replacement was ready, which turned out to be just a week and a half. |
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| Alan: any stats on Weede and his performance no-shows? nmi | |
| Posted by: StageDoorJohnny 02:54 pm EST 11/30/18 | |
| In reply to: Callas in Kiss Me, Kate? A revival perhaps? - AlanScott 08:51 pm EST 11/29/18 | |
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| nmi | |
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| re: Alan: any stats on Weede and his performance no-shows? nmi | |
| Posted by: AlanScott 09:30 pm EST 12/02/18 | |
| In reply to: Alan: any stats on Weede and his performance no-shows? nmi - StageDoorJohnny 02:54 pm EST 11/30/18 | |
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| I've never heard or read that he had many unscheduled absences in the musicals he did, but in Most Happy Fella he had an alternate, he was doing six performances a week. He didn't have an alternate in Milk and Honey or later in Cry for Us All but those were less vocally demanding roles. Actually, he missed the only Broadway preview of Milk and Honey due to a respiratory infection (or so it was stated in the press) and the opening was almost delayed, but he was recovered enough to go on opening night. It's interesting that Weede had a pretty minimal Met career. He lived in a time when there was a plethora of great baritones who specialized in the same roles he was known for, and the Met favored other baritones over him, which is easy to understand when the other baritones were Leonard Warren, Lawrence Tibbett, Robert Merrill, and Ettore Bastianini, but still a bit surprising, because he was really very good. The Met even seems to have favored over Weede lesser names but good baritones like Frank Guarrera and Mario Sereni, who both did a lot more at the Met than Weede did. He sang a lot elsewhere, but not much at the Met, and he also did not make many recordings. I have wondered why he did not have a bigger Met career and a bigger recording career. |
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| re: Alan: any stats on Weede and his performance no-shows? nmi | |
| Posted by: larry13 10:43 pm EST 12/02/18 | |
| In reply to: re: Alan: any stats on Weede and his performance no-shows? nmi - AlanScott 09:30 pm EST 12/02/18 | |
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| Yes, Weede deserved to have a much bigger Met career, commensurate with his talent and with his operatic career elsewhere. Although I've never read anything about him and Rudolf Bing, I can't help but think Bing must not have liked him, just as he didn't favor many American singers, especially ones whose Met careers predated his tenure. The only role Weede sang after Bing took over(1950)was Scarpia, a handful of times. Interestingly, none of the 6 wonderful baritones you cite had TOSCA in their repertoire at that time. Tibbett's career ended with Bing's arrival(not necessarily related). Bastianini and Sereni debuted after Weede's last performance there(1953). Warren and Merrill didn't play Scarpia until later. Guarrera never would have been right for the part. I wonder if Weede performed in musical theater prior to MOST HAPPY FELLA. No question Bing was very prejudiced against any singer who performed outside of the opera stage. |
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| re: Alan: any stats on Weede and his performance no-shows? nmi | |
| Last Edit: AlanScott 08:26 pm EST 12/03/18 | |
| Posted by: AlanScott 08:23 pm EST 12/03/18 | |
| In reply to: re: Alan: any stats on Weede and his performance no-shows? nmi - larry13 10:43 pm EST 12/02/18 | |
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| People do say that Bing had something against American singers, yet lots of American singers flourished under his regime. There were definitely others he did not favor, and we know he did not take kindly to singers who he felt undermined his authority in any way, but many did flourish, even if most of them had to first gain favor in Europe. It's also true that Weede did not record much opera. I don't know if this was because he perhaps also didn't have a big European career. I can't find much record of a European career. He seems to have mostly worked with the major U.S. companies outside New York and in South America. And, of course, there was no shortage of major baritones during his active career and so . . . Here is a paragraph from a 1995 George Jellinek article in Opera News titled "On the Home Front": "Radio City Music Hall in those days frequently featured operas in abbreviated form. When Peerce joined the Met, he was reunited with two former baritone colleagues from Radio City, Robert Weede and Leonard Warren. Weede's debut preceded Warren's by one and a half years, but it was the latter who made faster inroads, graduating to the declining Tibbett's starry roles at an increasing pace. At the Music Hall, Weede had been a featured singer, Warren a member of the chorus. Their rivalry, as Peerce explained to me many years later, continued for the rest of their careers. Weede, a highly esteemed artist who was underused at the Met, nonetheless flourished, particularly at San Francisco Opera and later in musicals." Was Jellinek trying to indirectly suggest that Warren, once he became a major name, tried to keep Weede from being hired at the Met with any regularity, especially in Warren's roles? I can't find any evidence of Weede having done much in musicals prior to Most Happy Fella, but I'm not sure if Bing was necessarily inclined to blackball singers who did musicals as long as they did not interfere too much with his own plans. Blanche Thebom, for example, did operettas and musicals in summer stock, but she continued to sing regularly at the Met under Bing. Siepi was welcome at the Met after the failure of Bravo, Giovanni! I think Mildred Miller was another Met mezzo who did operettas and musicals in the summer but Bing continued to employ her regularly in important roles. (She is someone who did not record much, which I'm sorry about as I love her voice on the few recordings of hers I know. I'm aware that she was not Bruno Walter's first choice for his final Das Lied von der Erde recording, but I love her on it. I know her performance there is not considered first-rate by some but she's one of my favorites in that music.) Miller also sang popular music on radio. She's still around. She'll be 94 in December. And there were others. There was so much more "crossover" back then there is now. More of it was with NYCO singers than with those who were Met regulars but even Met regulars did cross over. And, of course, Bing brought to the Met directors, designers, some performers and even lyricists (well, at least Howard Dietz) from Broadway. Returning to Weede: apart from the one LP of Carmen excerpts for Columbia (featuring Met forces and other leading singers), on which he got to sing the "Toreador Song," he also did an LP of Verdi arias for Capitol, recorded (I think) in 1953 and issued in late 1954. Some of that (maybe all of it?) is on a Preiser CD devoted to him, and of course a few broadcasts have been issued over the years. He may have recorded some commercial 78s. But it's sad how little opera he recorded commercially. That Capitol LP got great reviews, and yet as far as I know there was nothing more from him in commercially recorded opera after that. |
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| re: Alan: any stats on Weede and his performance no-shows? nmi | |
| Posted by: larry13 09:34 pm EST 12/03/18 | |
| In reply to: re: Alan: any stats on Weede and his performance no-shows? nmi - AlanScott 08:23 pm EST 12/03/18 | |
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| Thanks, Alan, for the detailed recording history of Weede. Yes, very sad that much more wasn't done. And, yes, Bing did favor several American singers, even a few who predated him there. But, generally, these were very big stars and/or indispensable(e.g. Warren, Rise Stevens, Eleanor Steber). He especially seems to have disdained singers who rose to fame at City Opera, especially after it moved to Lincoln Center and across the plaza from the Met, and, of course, most especially its biggest star, Beverly Sills. And, yes too, Europe was very important to Bing. If the singer--Sills, Weede--had not gained fame there, Bing looked down at the American bred product. Very interesting about Warren possibly being a/the cause of Weede not doing more at the Met. Weede, more than Merrill, would have been right for many of the big roles Warren did that Merrill either didn't sing or didn't do until much later in his career. |
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| re: Alan: any stats on Weede and his performance no-shows? nmi | |
| Posted by: PlayWiz 11:57 pm EST 12/02/18 | |
| In reply to: re: Alan: any stats on Weede and his performance no-shows? nmi - larry13 10:43 pm EST 12/02/18 | |
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| To your last point, Robert Merrill once got in trouble with Bing apparently for appearing in a film called (it's true) "Aaron Slick from Pumkin Crick". I've never seen it, but the title once heard, it's never unheard. I think Tibbett had gotten into vocal problems (and perhaps drinking ones as well) by the late 40s early 50s, though he did replace Pinza in "Fanny" a few years before he died. Tibbett was a wonderful singing actor, and some his early films still survive. He had great presence and a brilliant voice, maybe the acting a bit out of style by modern standards, but he sure wasn't boring. Warren famously died on the Met stage around 1959 in "La Forza del Destino" and Bastianini also died quite young. Weede should have had a bigger career in opera, but because of his recordings of "The Most Happy Fella" and "Milk and Honey" he is perhaps better known nowadays than some of these other names to non-opera fans. Robert Merrill, to a whole generation of baseball fans, sang or his recording was played doing "The Star-Spangled Banner" at many NY Yankees games for many years. |
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| re: Callas in Kiss Me, Kate? A revival perhaps? | |
| Posted by: Michael_Portantiere 10:16 am EST 11/30/18 | |
| In reply to: Callas in Kiss Me, Kate? A revival perhaps? - AlanScott 08:51 pm EST 11/29/18 | |
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| "Kiss Me, Kate came along in 1948 when Callas was not yet an international star. In fact, the earliest mention I can find of her in the Times is in October 1951, when she is mentioned by her married name. As simply Maria Callas, the earliest mention I can find is a year later. So would this have been a possible revival of KMK?" I had the same thought when I read that. Callas was almost a nobody in 1948 when KISS ME, KATE was first produced, and it doesn't seem likely that anyone would have asked her to do a revival of that show, or any show! I am sorry that the planned film version of TOSCA with Callas never happened. That project got so far as the soundtrack being recorded (and then, when the film was not made, the proposed soundtrack was simply released as an audio recording). |
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| re: Callas in Kiss Me, Kate? A revival perhaps? | |
| Posted by: magictime 04:35 am EST 11/30/18 | |
| In reply to: Callas in Kiss Me, Kate? A revival perhaps? - AlanScott 08:51 pm EST 11/29/18 | |
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| KISS ME KATE was for a revival, not the original production. Agreed that most opera stars, found it difficult to sustain 8 shows a week. It must be missing in their DNA! |
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| re: Callas in Kiss Me, Kate? A revival perhaps? | |
| Last Edit: PlayWiz 02:00 am EST 11/30/18 | |
| Posted by: PlayWiz 01:50 am EST 11/30/18 | |
| In reply to: Callas in Kiss Me, Kate? A revival perhaps? - AlanScott 08:51 pm EST 11/29/18 | |
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| I've heard the story of Maria Callas being in the audience and commenting on Julie Andrews after the show at "My Fair Lady", plus the story that Leonard Bernstein told Barbara Cook that Callas was in the audience opening night of "Candide" before the curtain went up; Cook wished he hadn't told her, but he reassured her that Callas wished she had Cook's high Es! But one thing people may not recall about Maria Callas was that she pretty much only sang opera. Even when she did recitals, they were of opera arias, and perhaps an art song or two (maybe). I don't think she did any orchestral works that had a soloist like by Mahler or anything that wasn't really written for the operatic stage. It's clear she did attend some musicals, and perhaps she might have considered them. She certainly was thinking about how Julie Andrews was able to do what she did 8x a week, so she probably gave some thought to if she could ever do that, since in opera one would do 2-3 performances a week usually. Callas was a great singing actress and would sacrifice vocal beauty at times if dramatically she felt it was right for the role, especially before she ran into vocal difficulties later in her career. She might even have tried belting to try it on for size if she were considering an offer for a musical. So she would have probably made a terrific Kate. But she really mainly sang opera in her fabulous career and her still too short lifetime. People forget she was only about 53 when she passed. Fun thought: I can imagine her doing her version of Patricia Routledge's tour de force "Duet for One" from "1600 Pennsylvania Avenue"! | |
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| re: Callas in Kiss Me, Kate? A revival perhaps? | |
| Posted by: Michael_Portantiere 11:34 am EST 11/30/18 | |
| In reply to: re: Callas in Kiss Me, Kate? A revival perhaps? - PlayWiz 01:50 am EST 11/30/18 | |
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| "But one thing people may not recall about Maria Callas was that she pretty much only sang opera." Also, I think the only English-language piece she ever sang professionally in her entire career was the aria "Ocean, Though Mighty Monster" from the opera OBERON by Weber. Obviously, she was 100 percent fluent in English (born and grew up in Brooklyn), even though she spoke it with a slight accent. So she could have sung more in English if she wanted to, but I guess she just wasn't interested in the operatic repertoire in that language. |
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| re: Callas in Kiss Me, Kate? A revival perhaps? | |
| Posted by: larry13 01:03 pm EST 11/30/18 | |
| In reply to: re: Callas in Kiss Me, Kate? A revival perhaps? - Michael_Portantiere 11:34 am EST 11/30/18 | |
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| Slight correction: Callas was born in Manhattan and raised there(Washington Heights). The family probably had continued to live in Astoria for the first few years of her life but never in Brooklyn. | |
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| re: Callas in Kiss Me, Kate? A revival perhaps? | |
| Posted by: Michael_Portantiere 02:00 pm EST 11/30/18 | |
| In reply to: re: Callas in Kiss Me, Kate? A revival perhaps? - larry13 01:03 pm EST 11/30/18 | |
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| So sorry. A friend of mine used to joke that Callas was born in Brooklyn, and that stuck in my head :-) | |
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| re: Callas in Kiss Me, Kate? A revival perhaps? | |
| Posted by: larry13 10:47 am EST 11/30/18 | |
| In reply to: re: Callas in Kiss Me, Kate? A revival perhaps? - PlayWiz 01:50 am EST 11/30/18 | |
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| I fully agree with everything you write about this supremely great singer except they were high Cs, not Es, that Bernstein told Cook Callas would have envied. And the one thing Callas was not known for was comedy. Her(only)live "Barber of Seville" flopped(the studio recording is much better). I very much doubt her "Duet for One" would have at all challenged Patricia Routledge's divine version. | |
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| re: Callas in Kiss Me, Kate? A revival perhaps? | |
| Posted by: AlanScott 09:46 pm EST 12/03/18 | |
| In reply to: re: Callas in Kiss Me, Kate? A revival perhaps? - larry13 10:47 am EST 11/30/18 | |
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| As Cook told the story in Then and Now, Bernstein said to her, speaking of Callas being there on opening night, "She'd kill for your E-flats." Maybe she told it differently elsewhere but E-flat is Cunegonde's highest note so it does make sense. | |
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| re: Callas in Kiss Me, Kate? A revival perhaps? | |
| Last Edit: PlayWiz 05:14 pm EST 11/30/18 | |
| Posted by: PlayWiz 05:14 pm EST 11/30/18 | |
| In reply to: re: Callas in Kiss Me, Kate? A revival perhaps? - larry13 10:47 am EST 11/30/18 | |
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| Thanks. I do believe Callas did perform in the comic operas "Il Turco in Italia" and possibly Norina in "Don Pasquale" live, or at least the aria of the latter. I find her recording of "Barber" quite charming and funny, especially the way she says the word "Ma" in "Un voce poco fa". But yes, she was not known generally for her comedic performances. She did have a sense of humor though. She spoke English, Greek, French and Italian, and when asked what language she counts in, she replied "I count in dollars!" | |
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| re: Callas in Kiss Me, Kate? A revival perhaps? | |
| Posted by: larry13 11:52 pm EST 11/30/18 | |
| In reply to: re: Callas in Kiss Me, Kate? A revival perhaps? - PlayWiz 05:14 pm EST 11/30/18 | |
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| Yes, she did do "Turco in Italia" a few times and left a memorable recording. She never performed Norina. And, yes too, the "Barber" recording is fine, much much better than her live performance, not just in terms of vocal beauty but in that she toned down considerably the very unappealing, shrewish Rosina she played onstage. | |
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| re: Maria Callas-musicals? | |
| Posted by: Zelgo 12:20 pm EST 11/29/18 | |
| In reply to: re: Maria Callas-musicals? - magictime 05:50 am EST 11/29/18 | |
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| She'd been a perfect fit for Oh, Calcutta! | |
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