(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
>
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