Evening star., 1959-12-20

SIlOulQ consider CQe sizes OF
the great German and Aus
trian opera houses.
The biggest opera house in
Germany, if my information
is correct, is the Bayreuth
FestSpielhauS-1,800.
The sizes of other impor-
tant houses are: Staedtische
Oper. Berlin, 1,514; Staat-
soper, Berlin, 1,456; Dussel-
dorf Oper, l,400; Hamburg
Oper, 1869; Prinz Regenten,
Munich, l,l22; Residenz, Mu-
Mich, l,O40; Cuvillies, Munich,
523; Staatsoper. Vienna,
1858; Volksoper, Vienna,
1920; Frankfort Oper, / 1,43O;
Stuttgart Oper, 400; Salz-
burg FeStSpielhaus, 1900.
What is the reason that
Washington needs a bigger
house?
Carmen" a SelIOut
Hanna Ludwig, whom I
have already mentioned, 1
had heard the day before.
Paul Galloway and I arrived
in Cologne at 7 o'clock Sum-
day night for the Nabokov
performance Monday. We
asked the hotel porter what
was playing and learned it
was Carmen" but that it
had been sold out for two
weeks. If a German hotel
porter says something can't
be done, one usually might
as well change plans; never
theleSs, we went to the opera
house and as the curtain had
just gone up had no diff
Guilty in finding the manager.
I asked for help, looking
opera-hungry and mention
ing the Washington Opera
and the Washington Abend-
stern Zeitung. The sympa-
thetic gentleman told us there
were no seats. that standing
room was not permitted, and
that there was no entrance
after the curtain rose. But
he called the ushers and
found two seats that though
sold were not occupied. We
slipped in.
Carmen was just coming
down a tall flight of steps
from a no-filter cigarette
factory. Now I have always
admired Bizet's opera greatly,
but I would have thought
that the habanera was a
piece of music that could no
longer raise my blood pres
sure. But Fraulein Ludwig
sang the piece so insinuat-
ingly, throwing it away in
half-voice, Smoldering sex,
that while she had no sue
cess with Don Jose she GER
tainly had with me. The
entire production that fol-
lowed seemed to me the best
I had ever Seen-the direc-
tion lively, the singers ex-
cellent, the chorus better
trained than any opera
chorus of my experience, and
the sets, except for a last
act bull-ring that looked like
a gasoline storage tank,
very Satisfa tory. And,
whereas here all too often
orchestral rehearsal for Car
men" is Skimpy C"The show
will pack them in anyway,
in Cologne the orchestral
playing proved what I have
often said but never really
believed, that the orchestral
writing in Carmen" is COM
parable to the best in all
French music.
I was told in Germany
that the Cologne Opera does
not have the classic reputa-
ton of being outstanding, but
that since the war, under
the direction of OSkar Fritz
Schuh,. it is becoming one
of the best. Certainly, the
two shows we'saw there were
far superior to a pedestrian
Magic Flute" under KNAPP
pertsbusch in Munich, a city
with a greater reclame for
opera.
80 Operas in Season
If you lived in Cologne you
could choose from 80 different
operas this season. There are
two world premieres-beside
the Nabokov, Die Soldaten"
by Bernd Alois Zimmerman
and two local premieres-
Stravinsky'S LIE Rossignol'
and Ravel's "L'Enfant ct les
Sortileges." Other new pro-
ductions include two operas
by Verdi and one each by
Mozart and Gluck. In ad-
dition there will be four other
Mozart operas, three by
Wagner, four by Verdi, Berg's
"Wozzeck," Lierbermann's
"Die Schulz der Frauen" and
Fortner's "Bluthochzeit." Also
there will be the basic Ger