Word: rothier
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Died. Leon Rothier, 76, French-born, grand-mannered basso at the Metropolitan Opera (1910-39), who sang a record-breaking 1,687 performances in 75 roles, was best known for his Mephistopheles in Gounod's Faust; of a heart ailment; in Manhattan. After retiring at 68, he gave voice lessons, ran a radio program, brought the house down at a soth anniversary concert in 1949, admitted: "My voice is still very good, you know, but it can't compare with the golden voice I once...
Married. Léon Rothier, 76, famed French-born basso, who appeared in some 75 different roles (best known as Mephistopheles in Faust) in a record-breaking 1,687 performances at the Metropolitan Opera; and Clara Balog, 49, manager of his voice studio; both for the second time; in Manhattan...
Composer Wickham had rounded up some old friends, retired Met Bass Léon Rothier and the Met's veteran Hansel and Gretel witch, Dorothee Manski, and some new stars, including Soprano Evelyn (The Medium) Keller, to help put her Hex over. Unhappily, she had failed to decide exactly what kind of music they should all sing. To many a mystified listener, Hex sounded like Faust one moment, Friml's Rose Marie another...
...full of memories. Enrico Caruso still seemed to him a "semi-god." He also bowed to Basso Chaliapin : "What a stage personality! I would never undertake Boris [Godunov] after Chaliapin." To Rothier, singers are different today, although since his retirement from the Met in 1939 he has tried to teach newcomers the old ways. "Nowadays," says he, "there are very few great voices because everybody is in such a hurry to become a star. They win a contest by singing one aria - and they are stars before they are ready...
...anniversary night last week, friends, students and long-remembering fans got to hear more than a remembrance of a great voice. Although he puffed a bit through his program of Lully, Berlioz, Debussy and Bizet, Basso Rothier proved he still had a voice as golden in its middle range as an old $20 piece and as round and sound at the bottom as a mahogany log. And when he finished up with Schumann's The Two Grenadiers he also proved he could still bring down a house...