(Dear Diane: Just to avoid future confusion, my room-mate,Jerry Ferraira,inadvertently e-mailed you my below reply under his name instead of mine. This correction gives me an excuse to add something I found out after the initial reply was sent. Dr. Adler resigned from the NBC Opera in 1960 and was Music Director of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra from 1959-1968. Jim Castanzo) >Like so many of my generation, I'm sure, this is a subject close to >the heart, since this company provided my first experience with " >live" opera. I'm not expert on the subject, but I can tell you what >little I know on this and it may get you started. I was helped by an >article written by Samuel Chotzinoff entitled "The Triumph of >Opera In English" that appeared in the Demember issue of >HiFi/Stereo Review. If you can find it, the article has complete >lists of productions per year between 1949-1960. >The NBC Opera Theatre, and NBC Opera Company began with the >basic philosophy that opera is drama which an audience must find >both understandable and visually interesting. It was the brainchild >of Samuel Chotzinoff and conductor Peter Herman Adler in the late >1940's. Chotzinoff (the man who got Toscanini for David Sarnoff) >was an NBC exeecuive and Adler was conductor of the New York >Opera Co. Both men believed that opera in American should be sung >in English as well as well-acted. The result, in 1949,was the >launching of television opera, underwritten by NBC (those were the >days!) .At first the experiment was in 15-minute or 30-minute >segments of excerpts from The Barber of Seville, The Bartered >Bride and La Boheme and a complete (I believe) Old Maid and the >Thief. >Apparently there was an immediate,favorable response since the >second, l950-51 season had them doing 7 full opera productions. >The success of that season lead to commissions for the program >from Menotti (including Amahl and the Night Visitors) and operas >from Martinu, Foss,Hollingsworth and others. There were also >American(Billy Budd,War and Peace) premieres and (at least 6) >world premieres. >Outside of an occasional star, such as Siepi for Don Giovanni, the >company preferred young unknowns who looked good on camera in >addition to being able to act and sing. To archive these priorities, >NBC was not above using lip sinking actors, i.e John Cassavetes >provided a lean-looking Baptist in their Salome. Some of the young >singers, such as Leontyne Price, went on to be stars on their own. >Much care was given to English translations, many of which were >provided by the likes of W.H. Auden, Chester Kallman, Joseph >Machlis, John Gutman and Thomas and Ruth Martin. Many (perhaps >all) shows were directed for television by Kirk Browning and >Dr.Adler conducted. I'm not sure whether Toscanini' s orchestra >itself was used or it was a pick-up band. >I know there were at least 50 different, complete operas aired >between 1949 and 1960 and most, if not all of them were aired >"live." What I'm not sure of is when the shows stopped, though I >believe it happened in the early '60's when NBC decided it could >spend its money more profitably elsewhere. 1952-53 saw 8 >shows, but by 1958-59 they were down to 2. >This wonderful endeavor gave birth to an actual school and >traveling company which trained young singer to sing the great >operas in English in many American cities. >This is about the extent of my repertoire on this subject. I hoped it >helped. >Jerry Ferraira > ---- To signoff SCREEN-L, e-mail [log in to unmask] and put SIGNOFF SCREEN-L in the message. Problems? Contact [log in to unmask]