Evening star., 1954-04-26
CopitoI Opero Group

w ~RSsS
was very interested to learn from
The Star Of April IA that a non-proflt
corporation known as the Capital Opera
Association has been formed to stage
operas in Washington.
Also, that the first scheduled operas
on May II, IL, and 13 at the Roosevelt
High School will be 1.-THE Medium" and
"The Telephone" as part of city-wide
arts festival.
am pleased to see the D. c. Recrea-
ton Department sponsoring something
besides softball tournaments for a
change, and Recreation Director Chris
tiansen is to be commended for his con-
Germ with the cultural side of our lives.
The creation Of the Recreation De-
partment by Congress in 1912 conceded
with the demise Of the Washington
Civic Theater which achieved national
reputation under such leaders as Alan
Schneider, F. Cowles Strickland, and
Evelyn Freyman. Several players de-
veloped by it went on to careers in the
theater. These things can happen again
if the people of our fair city will support
the new venture as enthusiastically as
they did the civic theater.
II the community takes the interest
in this new opera company that 1t
should, and shows the civic pride and
interest so necessary to theater and
without which it will die, the new COM
pany will surely come to mean as much
to Washington as the Municipal Opera
meant to st. Louis for many, many
years.
The Act of Congress creating the
Recreation Department reads in part:
1.-The BOARD shall have power and
authority to adopt, conduct, direct, or
cause to be conducted or directed, under
its supervision, a comprehensive pro-
gram of public recreation which shall
include the operation and direction of
games, sports, arts and crafts, hobby
shops, music, drama, speech, nursery
play, dancing, lectures, forum for infor-
NAL discussion"
It doesn't take a Philadelphia lawyer
to realize that the power and authority
exists and that Congress expected, and
rightly so, that important and worthy
cultural programs would be carried on
by the Recreation Department. There
Is nothing in the act of the Congress
which says that distinguished work in
the cultural field is not expected of the
department. The musical director is
DR.. Frederick Fall whose work with the
Agriculture Symphony Orchestra which
he founded is well known and has had
wide critical acclaim. The Recreation
Department seems to be proceeding
with a sure hand this time.
Let us hope that the new opera COM
pany will provide Washingtons many
able singers, many Of whom have been
trained in church choirs, the opportu-
nifty to be heard; that it will eschew
the star system with imported big
names, since the star system is the
bane Of any healthy cultural program.
Let us hope, too, that the new company
will stick to opera in English: since the
Europeans always hear opera in their
own language maybe we can afford to
be simple. honest, and unaffected sans
blase sophistication for once.
Charles ID. Cram.
I read with joy the news item that
small group in Washington is attempt
ing to establish permanent opera COM
pany here.
It is amazing that the Capital Of this
great Nation is without not only civic
opera company, but suitable audi
torium in which to stage big musical
events.
Opera, to be enjoyed, must be seen
in comfortable surroundings, and the
summertime Water Gate events, while
better than nothing, present problems
with accompanying airplane engine
obligatos. unharmonic insects and
humidity
Congratulations to DR.. Frederick Fall,
conductor of the Agriculture Depart
ment Orchestra, who single-handedly
undertook to establish an opera associa-
tion here, which will present it's first
opera in May, Menotti's 1.-THE Tele-
phone" and THE Medium
It seems reasonable to believe that if
a stable opera audience is developed
here first, then the cry for civic opera
house will reach such a crescendo it
can no longer be ignored.
Washington can support the move