Jazz Opera?

There seems no immediate probability that the sacrosanct wall of the Metropolitan Opera House will echo to the strident syncopations of U. S. jazz. This in spite of the fact that Otto H. Kahn, Chairman of the Metropolitan Opera Company, has invited Irving Berlin, Jerome Kern, George Gershwin, famed composers of jazz, to submit a jazz opera for production in the very throne room of music. Irving-Berlin would "give his right arm to do it," but feels technically unfit. Jerome Kern, who refused to try an opera six years ago, favors the scheme, whether he or another carries it out. George Gershwin, whose orchestral piece, A Rhapsody in Blue, is so far jazz's loftiest flight, is regarded as probably the best-equipped to comply with the demands of operatic composition.

Mr. Kahn's interest is said to have been aroused by his son Roger's success as a conductor of jazz.