Comeback In Vienna

Vienna's magnificent old Opera House on the Ring was still recuperating from its wartime bombing and fire wounds; its reconstruction might take till 1953. But even so, Vienna last week opened its 1950-51 opera season with a wallop.

The shabby little (950 seats) Theater an der Wien was packed. And Vienna was particularly pleased to see that the first two right-hand rows were solid with Russians who cheered with everybody else. It was not greatly surprising that the Russians had come--after all, the opener was Tchaikovsky's Eugen Onegin, a longtime Russian favorite. The surprise was that they had joined inwith hearty applause for tall, dark-voiced U.S. Bass-Baritone George London (TIME, Jan. 9), who sang the title role.

A Russian cultural officer, it turned out, had showed up at dress rehearsal the day before and had expressed amazement that an American could "have such real feeling for his delivery of this Russian music."*

High Sheen. For once, everybody agreed with the Russians. In five years of rebuilding, chiefly under Conductor Josef Krips (who was barred from the U.S. last summer--TIME, July 31), Vienna's State Opera had made a triumphant comeback.

Greater voices could still be heard in the U.S.'s Metropolitan Opera; Milan's La Scala performed most Italian operas more brilliantly. But nowhere in the world could music lovers hear Mozart, Beethoven and Strauss operas performed with such polish or hear so much German, Italian and French repertory in a single season.

Once subsidized by the Habsburgs but now granted about $1,000,000 a year by the Austrian government, the company performs every night for ten months a year in two houses: major productions in the Theater an der Wien, lighter works such as The Gypsy Baron at the Volksoper in the U.S. zone. A good part of the company puts in an additional five weeks at the Salzburg Festival. Such continuous performing is one good reason for the high sheen of the company's ensemble.

Fresh Sets. Since the State Opera's reopening in May 1945, it has presented 438 performances of Mozart operas, 416 of Puccini, 355 of Verdi, 291 of Richard Strauss and 130 of Wagner, all with fresh sets, since all the old ones were destroyed in the war. In the works for this season are twelve new productions (compared to the Met's three), including Gian-Carlo Menotti's Broadway hit The Consul (TIME, May 1).

Since the war, Vienna's State Opera has been the touring company of Europe. The U.S. has heard and applauded some of its stars, e.g., Soprano Ljuba Welitch and Baritone Paul Schoeffler. Now the company would like to show the U.S. all of its wares. Veteran Importer Sol Hurok is negotiating, but it looks as if the U.S. might still have to wait a while. Neither Hurok nor the Austrians are yet prepared to ship over an orchestra (the Vienna Philharmonic) of 113, a chorus of 106, singing principals, sets and chief stage hands--in all, a 14-car trainload.

* London (real name Burnson), 29, is an American born in Montreal of Russian parents.

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