Whistles at La Scala

The honor of a La Scala premiere is great, but the abuse is often greater. Verdi-happy Milan audiences, traditionally suspicious of new operas, have vented their scorn at scores of composers, including Puccini, whose Madame Butterfly took a fearful drubbing in 1904, and Menotti, whose Consul was hooted last year (TIME, Feb. 5, 1951). Last week a handsomely dressed full house in the 174-year-old Teatro alla Scala gave another honored visitor the works.

Argentina's foremost composer, Juan Jose Castro,* 57, had reason to believe he would fare pretty well. A panel of distinguished judges, including Stravinsky, Honegger and La Scala's principal conductor, Victor de Sabata, had picked his Proserpina and the Stranger over 137 other entries (16 from the U.S.) in La Scala's international contest for the best three-act opera. A philosophical soul, Castro was surprised but not overwhelmed at winning the contest. Said he: "I am always prepared for things not to go well. For me, submitting the opera was like playing the lottery." He got enthusiastic applause when he stepped to the podium to conduct. But almost with the first notes the clouds began to gather.

The curtains pulled back on a curious scene. The stage was split by two large pillars; on either side stood a robed and hooded chorus of commentators, eerie in green and violet light. The action took place on a center stage created between the pillars, and much of it was violent--a skirmish between Proserpina's lover and the police, an old-fashioned hair-pulling and biting scene between Proserpina and her jealous rival, and near the end, a rooftop death battle between a stranger and Proserpina's evil friends. Musically, Composer Castro offered only a dissonant mosaic. There were vigorous Latin rhythms and fresh and sometimes stringent harmonies, but no big, powerful themes, and only snatches of anything hummable.

After the first act, the tension broke. Out came the whistles (the ultimate in Italian expressions of disapproval). Partisans took up the challenge, shouted bravos. When Castro came back to the podium to begin the second-act prelude, he had to wait a full two minutes, back to the audience, for the din to die down. Before the opera was over, his critics were shouting, "Viva Verdi!", "Viva Wagner!" and even "Coca-Cola!"--from one listener who seemed to have North and South America confused.

Proserpina got six curtain calls. Said well-satisfied Composer Castro, calmly eating an orange after the final curtain: "Everything was very well organized, even the opposition."

* Who is officially ignored in Argentina: in 1946, he published an open letter declaring that Peronismo was leading the country to "utter confusion and ruin."

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