Salt Lake Telegram | 1936-02-07 | Page 9 | Walter Winchell

Walter Walfer Winch ll I BROADWAY B R 0 AD W A t GOSSIP G 0 S S I n I Things I Never Knew About the Opera That the management of ot the Metropolitan was once offered by a society woman for ion forthe forthe the privilege of ot singing one night She was turned down with the re reply reply reply re- re ply Some people eople say say the opera is dying but we do not wish to toI I bury it That dogs and birds which are borrowed for tor opera productions are paid a regular fee of ot 1 an an hour That flowers flower ar are never given to the stars over the footlights but have hava to be sent bac backstage tage That La is considered a s. jinx jl x opera pera since Caruso made his l last performance In it That youths youths' p parts in opera are usually play played d by wom women n That a donkey almost wrecked a ape pe performance of ot So now th they us use ponies ponIe That only seven oper opera stars stars' have made good in n Hollywood That r Le di dl Figaro tt if It sung lung in English could never neve get past the censors One critic called It a moral blister That conductors conductor of ot opera were originally forced to to conduct from pl pianoforte sitting pianoforte no orte sitting down Th That Thit t Don Giovanni is considered con con- by bp other opera composers as as the greatest of all oper operas Gounod called it perfect That the Metropolitan opened in In 1853 1883 has hu seats and when the the- house louse is iI sold out takes in about That Lotte Lehman was told by b-a her first lr t singing te teacher cher that she would make an an excellent stenographer Now she zhe gets a abig abig abig big hand hind instead of a short band hand That no American opera has been an outstanding success al although although although al- al though there have been 16 of them That there have been about operas composed That Lily Pons who weighs in at lOS pounds proves that prima donnas dont don't have to be built like battleships That al altHough although although al- al though Dusolina Giannini American Amer Amen ican Jean soprano has sung all over Europe it took a managerial shakeup at the Metropolitan to get h her hera ra a job there That there is one fellow at the Metropolitan who does doe's nothing but marcel wigs all day Its It's a permanent job That Maurice Maurice Maurice Mau Mau- rice Count de Saxe a a. French general general general gen gen- eral along with other military impedimenta always Included a comic opera troupe when he I waged a a. campaign j That hat claques used to get geLaL as U high as 50 50 a a. performance and a free tree dinner Now they get 10 O and no meal That it is la an unwritten Jaw among music critics never to criticize an opera benefit performance That I some lome opera stars lose as much as al eight pounds a performance That Wagner used to play to empty houses but now he stands them In the aisle That Basso Ballo Ezio Ping st started ted his hi career as asa asa a soprano Baritone Lawrence Tibbett started as a a tenor and Tenor Tenor- Lauritz Laurits Mel Melchior hi r started as a baritone CAndI AndI And I started as 85 a baby That the th Girl of oC the Golden West Vest and Peter Ibbetson were Broadway successes before they were made into operas opera 4 That when Mascagni Macagni wrote Cay allenia he began writing writ writ- ing lug the end first Like Bernie Bernte pla plays a his his' songs That operas ate ars are occasionally l sung ni in two languages simul simul- Chaliapin sang Boris Borts In Russian while the th rest of ot the cast cat sang lang it in Italian Itala That Coq dOr is the only opera pera per in which the singers d do not not act The Tho a acting U g is il do done don b by the thi ballet That in Europe op operas s begin begin egIn inthe Inthe in inthe the late afternoon and continue Into the night And like ONeill O'Neill they give yo you time out for dinner 1 r That Emmy Destin t famous mou soprano weighed pounds and when she ahe he sang Madame Butterfly Butter fly the tenor In order order- to to tom cm- cm m- m brace her had to walk around her twice That Tha Pen Peri's Daphne e composed composed com corn posed in 1597 was the thc first serious seri aerI- ous opera oper- That rh t aIt although ough Beethoven c composed nine rune symphonies sym phonies phoniest five piano concertos concerto 38 sonatas and lots more more h he has o only ly one opera oper Fid Fidelio o to his credit a That the first opera ever given in this country was The Barber Barberot of ot Seville and it was was' sung in English c. c That practically every every ev ev- ery cry nation on the face tace of the globe is represented at the Metropolitan Metropolitan Metropolitan Met Met- except England There Is Js one Chilean n That in England England England En En- gland in the eighteenth century whenever royalty attended the opera the number of Instrumentalists Instrumentalists instrumentalists w was increased