"Our Culture Is at Stake"

To opera-loving San Franciscans, it was the nearest thing to an earthquake since 1906. It was bad enough that the trustee of the War Memorial Opera House had refused to let Norwegian Soprano Kirsten Flagstad sing there next season (TIME, July 25). Last week the sponsoring Opera Association Board set off a temblor of its own: if Flagstad could not sing, for the first time in 27 years there would be no opera season.

Last year the opera had finished with a $119,000 deficit. "Without Flagstad," said an opera board member, "we might lose up to $250,000."

With that, San Francisco split wide open. An avalanche of letters rolled into the offices of the warring boards, almost all critical of the War Memorial board. For once, all four major San Francisco daily papers were editorially agreed. "When her own government has not seen fit to accuse her," cried Hearst's Examiner, "is it not presumptuous--and intolerant to the last degree--for persons in far-off San Francisco ... to keep pressing charges ... on nonlegalistic, hearsay evidence?"

At first, the War Memorial board stood firm. "O.K.," cried Trustee Richard Newhall, "so I'm one of the heels of San Francisco . . .!" Later, he announced, "I never heard of this Madame Flagstaff till this came up." His opponents howled at his howler. Acting Mayor George Christopher raised his voice: "I don't give a damn about Flagstad. But I don't want the opera to die. I'd sing her roles myself first. Our culture is at stake." He calle'd on the War Memorial board to relent. The American Legion's national headquarters wired that it had nothing against Flagstad. Still the dogged board refused to raise its ban.

In desperation, Acting Mayor Christopher wired the U.S. Embassy at Oslo: "Would the [Norwegian] government [object] to her appearance at a public concert in Norway?" It was a moot question: Flagstad has not sung in Norway since the war, and just last week the government brought suit to confiscate the estate of her husband, who had died before he could be tried for collaboration.

If a favorable answer came from Oslo, the board might relent. Then, said one perverse opera-lover, "I just hope she throws it back in their teeth . . . and says she won't come."

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