Gatti-Casazza

Well may the Sergeant of Police in The Pirates of Penzance have sung An Impressario's Life Is Not a Happy One. Because it isn't. He must hire and fire temperamentalists, must decide on policies, programs, productions, must superintend rehearsals and performances, must listen to "complaints," real and fancied, from inside and outside, from lower down and higher up.

Giulio Gatti-Casazza has done all this for the Metropolitan Opera Company for the past 16 years. Still far from broken, he continues to be liked by his company. So it was not surprising to learn last week that he had signed a contract to retain his directorship for five years more.

Although an Italian, nurtured amid brilliant stage-lights and full throated choruses in the Scala at Milan, he is still an ardent and perfect Wagnerite. Thus he pleases both the Verdi and Puccini enthusiasts, with their passion for the good old things, and the moderns, who want to get away from the bad old things. He lives solely for his job, arrives at the "House" early each day, leaves late.