New Heldentenor

Burly Tenor Ramon (Otello) Vinay was in a sweat. A Chilean trained for Italian and French opera, he had worked hard for over a year to huff himself into a German-style Heldentenor, and he was all set to sing his first Tristan, with Kirsten Flagstad as Isolde. San Franciscans (and Metropolitan Opera General Manager Rudolf Bing, who sorely needs a successor to Lauritz Melchior) were all set to hear him. But a fortnight ago, with debut day almost at hand, Tenor Vinay was bogged down in Chile. A stubborn Santiago impresario refused to let him leave the country until he fulfilled a delayed engagement. Last week, finally freed by persuasion and compromise, Vinay flew to San Francisco, took his big step, was cheered by audience and critics.

He had rushed in two days late, hurried through two piano rehearsals and one with orchestra. He was not worried about his own role of Tristan--although he had found Wagnerian themes "strange for the Latin ear." He had helped himself to memorize his role by sleeping with the speaker of a cerebrograph (automatic record player) under his pillow to embed the music in his subconscious. But, not knowing German itself, he expected to have a dreadful time following the other singers and catching his cues. Flagstad ("She was always there prompting me or giving me a signal with her eyes") took care of that.

On the big night, the audience in San Francisco's opera house found huge (6 ft. 2 in., 220 Ibs.) and handsome Tenor Vinay visually, if not vocally, a heroic match for Soprano Kirsten Flagstad. Wrote San Francisco Chronicle Critic Alfred Frankenstein: "To be sure, [Vinay] did not bring the music all the suppleness and vocal ease one hoped for, but he brought it something else that was almost equally important--a tenderness, lyricism and fragility of expression that were altogether unprecedented. For once, Tristan's ravings in the third act seemed only five times too long instead of ten or twenty or a hundred." Vinay's phrasing, particularly when set off against Flagstad's magnificent subtlety, seemed more memorized than inspired. But that defect might well disappear with time.

At 37, jolly, volatile Ramon Vinay has plenty of time. A onetime baritone who once gave up singing to run a box factory in Mexico (which he still owns), he already holds the title to the role of Otello at the Met and Milan's La Scala. Now, with Melchior gone from the Met, Vinay will have a good chance at the Tristan title too. A "delighted" Rudi Bing thought Vinay was already "one of the best Tristans I've ever heard."

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