Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-04-13
New York Now to Have
Open-Air Grand Opera
BY HARVEY ANDERSON.

NEW YORK, April IA few years
behind other cities, including Los
Angeles, Kansas City, st. Louis and
chicago, New York is at last providing
for cpen-air grand opera. To make
up for lost time, it promises an OUT
door theater and series of produc.
lions on much larger scale than any
other such enterprise in America, if not
in the entire world.
1t was learned today that the newly
organized Long Island Open-Air Opera
Association would proceed Immediately
with the temporary construction of an
open-air auditorium near Great Neck
Long Island, to seat 10000 persons,
this to be replaced later by a perma-
nent structure of possibly greater seat
ing capacity. Great Neck is in the
New York suburban area.
The site of the new open-air civic
opera Is beautiful wooded, natural
amphitheater. easily accessible by many
highways and ideally suited to land
Scaping and architectural needs. but
chosen primarily for exceptional acouS-
tic properties.
Among the organizers and supporters
OF the project is Otto Kahn, New York
tinancier and patron Of the arts. Others
include many persons prominent in
New York North Shore society. The
first production will be "Tannhauser,"
which will be given early in June.
Bennett Challis and Hans TaenSer,
members of the German Grand Opera
Co., were active in launching the plans
for the opera, and will arrange and
supervise the productions. The incor-
poratorS of the association are Col.
Arthur S. Dwight, Walter Bockstahler,
George Nichols, James H. Baker and
Mrs. Roswell Eldridge, all of New York
and Greet Neck.
AS Long Island has only few slight
suggestions of hills it may never hope
for such magnificent mountain-top
amphitheater as the incomparably
beautiful Hollywood Bowl, nor will it
be able to find such a natural setting
as that of the famous Greek Theater in
Berkeley, Calf. With these advantages,
California has taken the lead in spec
tacularly beautiful outdoor produc-
lions.
The Bohemian Grove. on the Rus
sian River, in California, is perhaps
the most magnificent outdoor theater
IN the world, with the great redwoods
providing a mountain setting a mile
in depth, lit by flares, for the action
of the play. The annual play of the
Bohemian Club of San Francisco,
usually operate in form, attracts
visitors from all parts of the world,
and the grove productions have been
re-enacted in Europe, with which, cul-
turally, California is in some ways in
closer contact than it is with New
York. California enjoys another adj
vantage in great outdoor opera and
drama in a rainy season which accom-.
modatingly adaptS itself to these SEQ
Sonal requirements. This, with its
beautiful wooded and mountainous set
tings, is one explanation of CALIFORNIA;
leadership in great outdoor art
New York has an offsetting advan-
tage in being the money center Of the
country. The Great Neck project is
regarded as merely a beginning, ex-
perimental in it's opening stages. but
the North Shore colony is ready to
pour in its generous resources in max
ing its open-air civic opera the best
in the world.
CommercialiZed entertainment Of the
Broadway stamp has been slipping dur
ing the last few years, and New York
has been hearing Of widespread cul-
tural renaissance springing up In the
West and the Southwest. The new
opera project is one Of several instances
in which the great Eastern De Medicis
are moving with the stream of cultural
attainment.
(NonvriOhf 1oanN