Metropolitan Roster

The Metropolitan Opera Company enjoys many unique advantages, none more noticeable than the prestige and humility which greets every pronouncement made by its Giulio Gatti-Casazza. Last week he announced plans for the coming year. There would be several premieres including: Strauss's already famous Die Aegyptische Helena, in German, with presumably Rethberg or Jeritza, both of whom have sung the role in Europe, singing Helen; Fra Gherardo, Ildebrando Pizzetti's new opera which was sung for the first time a month ago in Milan; and Jonny Spielt Auf, by Ernst Krenek, which is called a "jazz" opera, by Europeans who use the word to describe anything peculiarly modern or bizarre, rather than to indicate with idiomatic precision a certain distribution of rhythm in music.

The roster of re-engaged singers attracted, as usual, tremulous attention. It listed 34 sopranos, 12 mezzo-sopranos and contraltos, 16 tenors, 15 baritones, 14 bassos and five conductors. With less important names deleted, the roster reads as follows:

Sopranos

Frances Alda Queena Mario

Lucrezia Bori Grace Moore

Florence Easton Nina Morgana

Editha Fleischer Maria Mueller

Amelita Galli-Curci Rosa Ponselle

Nanette Guilford Elizabeth Rethberg

Maria Jeritza Marie Sundelius

Gertrude Kappel Marion Talley

Mary Lewis Marie Tiffany

Mezzo-Sopranos and Contraltos

Louise Homer Ernestine Schumann-Heink Margarete Matzenauer Henriette Wakefield

Tenors

Angelo Bada Giacomo Lauri-Volpi

Max Bloch Giovanni Martinelli

Rafaelo Diaz Lauritz Melchoir

Beniamino Gigli Alfio Tedesco

Edward Johnson Armand Tokatyan

Walter Kirchoff

Baritones

Louis D'Angelo Antonio Scotti

Giuseppe Danise Lawrence Tibbet

Giuseppe De Luca Clarence Whitehill

Titta Ruffo

Bassos

Michael Bohnen Pompilio Malatesta

Feodor Chaliapin Leon Rothier

Adamo Didur James Wolfe

Conductors

Giuseppe Bamboschek Louis Hasselmans Vincenzo Bellezza Tullio Serafin Artur Bodanzky

Six new voices will be added to the Metropolitan's census. It was interesting to speculate upon which one of these the fierce light of publicity would beat, during the white winter, causing utterances like the "divine spark" speech of Grace Moore, and bringing from far haunts rude, related delegations like the one which attended Marion Talley's debut. Marek Windheim was not in line for these honors : had he been a soprano even, he would still have been a Pole and the Poles are too remote for human interest stories. Aida Doninelli, a Central American diva, would be likewise unsatisfactory. Grace Divine and Pearl Besuner (a tobacconist's daughter), are, by a lamentable coincidence, citizens of the same city, Cincinnati. Both have recently won fellowships in Dresden and refused them for Metropolitan premieres whose sameness must in some measure darken whatever advertising glory they might otherwise have possessed. Clara Jacobo owes her upbringing to Lawrence, Mass., a small town; she is the daughter of a humble merchant; she has already sung in choirs and with the San Carlo Company. There is no reason why she should not be well touted.

The pretensions of all these are as dust compared to the potential glory of Jane Carroll. She was born in Louisville, Ky., but she came to Manhattan long ago, to play in the Follies. Therefore she is no foreigner to the metropolis and its denizens would be glad to see, to hear about her family & friends. Her recent success in The Vagabond King, as Huguette, caused several interesting facts about her home life to be publicly known. She is a player of chess; her favorite novel is Somerset Maugham's Of Human Bondage; she is beautiful but apparently intelligent. Jane Carroll had, whether by inspiration or divine intervention, a severe toothache when reporters called last week. Said she: "I always wanted to sing serious roles, and I cannot tell you how happy I am. No, I am not married. ... All things are within the realm of possibility. . . . My father will come from his home in Reading, Pa., to attend my debut. My real name was Helen Howard, you know. Mother died some years ago. . . . My life reads just like the lives of Mary Lewis and Grace Moore. I do not cook. I am not an outdoor girl. Doesn't that sound banal?"