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DIED. Paul Dessau, 84, East German composer of operas and incidental music best known for his collaborations with Bertolt Brecht (Mother Courage, The Caucasian Chalk Circle); in East Berlin. Following a career as a violinist and conductor of the Staädtische Oper in Berlin, Dessau fled the Nazis in 1939 for America, where he began writing the dissonant scores that so effectively complemented Brecht's scripts. An old-line Communist, Dessau returned to East Germany after...
...finely detailed Palekh lacquered boxes that were fashionable in Russia after the 1917 Revolution. The Canadian bass Victor Braun and the American coloratura Jeanette Scovotti, both of whom work primarily in Europe, made a valiant pair of lovers. John Moulson, a member of East Berlin's Komische Oper, sang the wizard with an uncommonly sweet and powerful tenor. From Pittsburgh Soprano Marianna Christos, in the minor role of a slave girl, came the most exciting singing of the evening. Here is a voice with joy and heartbreak...
...perhaps the most unlikely growth industry in the world today. Just moving an opera company across town is a money-losing proposition; to transport one across an ocean, lock, stock and spears, is to risk bankruptcy. Yet in 1975 the Metropolitan Opera flew to Japan, and both the Deutsche Oper Berlin and the Bolshoi Opera visited the U.S. And now, beginning this week, two of Europe's most important opera companies will be mounting productions in the U.S. for the first time. Whatever the outcome of the new musical season, nothing is going to outshine the anticipation and excitement...
Until last week, Montezuma had been performed only once-and poorly -over a decade ago at The Deutsche Oper in West Berlin. Among those in the audience, however, was Caldwell, and ever since she has been patiently trying to get the money together to stage the opera in Boston. Montezuma is indisputably twelve-tone music's finest hour on the operatic stage. Whether it finds its way into the standard repertory or, like Berg's Wozzeck (which it rivals), stays on the fringes, is something only the years can determine. For now it is enough that Montezuma...
Died. Walter Felsenstein, 74, director of East Berlin's Komische Oper since 1947; of cancer; in East Berlin. One of the century's most influential operatic impresarios, Vienna-born Felsenstein was a demanding perfectionist who sometimes rehearsed for 36-hour stretches. Once, when a reluctant chorus member declined to jump from a 7-ft.-high perch, Felsenstein made the leap, broke his arm and returned 45 minutes later waving his cast and demanding "Now will you jump?" Felsenstein retained his Austrian citizenship and commuted daily from his home in West Berlin to the East, where he turned...