Show f i 12r THE' OGDEN OGDEN UTAH STANDARD-EXAMINE- R SUNDAY MORNING DEC 4 1960 'Super Soprano' Eileen Farrell Ready For First Appearance in Met T uesday Donna EDITOR'S NOTE— Prim usually com equipped with tamperament as awe Eileen as their musical range some Farrell has the vocal ever insulted a stage to It off she has the her family is just her art) range but she's manager And to revolutionary idea as important as " AP Nawsfaaturas Writer NEW YORK CAP)— When soprano Eileen Farrell makes her lohg awaited Metropolitan Opera debut in Gluck’s "Alcestis” this coming Tuesday the critics are certain to miss one little known milestone in her musical development They may hail her as the greatest living dramatic soprano a sort of super soprano the likes of which the world hasn't seen or heard since the days of Rosa Ponselle and Giannini They may salute her Met appearance as the crowning work of a career already distinguished by her superb solo soprano work with the Bach Aria group her triumph with Toscanini in Beethoven’s Ninth her miraculous (so the Italian critics said) Verdi "Requiem” at the Spo-let- o Festival her magnificent American revival of “Medea” — even her rowdy rollicking jam sessions with Louis Armstrong’s unclassical cats They may dwell appreciatively on her singular lack of artistic donna-lik- e un-pri- lung-bustin- g in America Only grand opera was left After years of pleading her busy schedule her family her waist line Miss Farrell finally screwed up her cour - age and took the big step In March 1956 at Tampa Fla she made her operatic debut in "Cavalleria and followed with “Medea’' and “II Trovatore” in San Francisco and “La Giocanda” in Chicago At last the secret was out The cop’s wife could act as well as sing Maria Callas confirmed the suspicion when she flounced 'out of the Met after heated words with General Manager Rudolf Bing and Who haughtily told reporters: needs the Met? They don’t have any big names They haven’t got Farrell have they?” The music world gradually began to suspect that somewhere out there —out there on Staten Island in New York harbor— was a voice as great and maybe greater than Callas or Renata Tebaldi Still the question remained: “Why isn’t she singing at the Met if she’s so good?” And always came Miss Farrell’s stock answer: “I’ve never been asked and I was taught that it’s polite to wait until you’re asked” Early this spring Rudolf Bing did the polite thing He asked Eileen Farrell ' to make her debut in “Alcestis” and then to do “La Gioconda” The Gluck Opera was a particularly happy choice It was in the role of Alcestis that Kirsten Flagstad one of the last great super sopranos made her farewell appearance at the Met in 1956 The fact that Eileen Farrell perhaps more than any other artist Rus-tican- By Hugh A Mulligan temperament her career giving an average 60 concerts a year but always in two week bursts so ' she could return to her family She hit the big time with her concept version of "Medea” the part that had launched Maria Callas’s career at Lascala but never had been done approach to perfection her tender devotion to her husband and children her unfailing good humor her booming boisterous vocabulary that could sometimes make a stevedore blush her staggering concert schedule her failure to make the grade in auditioning for THE MET AT LAST— Eileen Farrell soon will make her Here first appearance at the Metropolitan Opera House who Farrell Miss plays in rehearsal for “La Gioconda Gioconda leads her blind mother La Cieca played by Joann Grillo to the church steps There they are ap— a” United States Information Agency international ' music Calendar for here and 1961 covering events in 96 coun embassies libraries abroad and schools and public tries will be published in January ' libraries Copies of either can be’ ordered J This “showcase of American mu- for $2 from Committee headquar-sic- ” for international eyes displays ters at 734 Jackson Place NW the “increasing growth of cultural Washington DC A musical exchange program is support and interest throughout the another phase of the country” said Mrs Jouett Shouse work From African Somalia to chairman pie committee is part of the peo- - Trinidad home of calypso music The it WASHINGTON (UPI)— For Amer- - a healthy chart showing 10200 pieto-peopl- e come requests for records teaciv program a ‘ of from US music events scheduled late organization for expanding inter- ing assistance and information icans who feel the pulse culture is weakening the Presi- - 1960 to jun6t national relations on the personal The committee has 360 colleges dent’s Music Committee has issued level collecting records to send the coun- Mrs Shouse announced that the try they choose LIVELY ARTS Culture on the Wane in US? Not So Commission Reports people-tcnpeo-committ- non-prof- ii Successful Actor Given Same Role NEW YORK (AP) — Robert Morse a success in three straight long-ru- n hits is eyeing next the of ’How to Succeed in role jggd Business Without Really Trying Burrows The Frank Loesser-Ab- e for scheduled musical is production next May Since coming to Broadway five years ago Morse has clicked con “Say Darling” and "Take Me secutively in "The Matchmaker” Along” bfeans symphony opera band jazZf Camber music folk festivals and music workshops Its distribution list includes Avoid Leg Accents If your legs are not so attractive that you want to draw attention to them steer away from unusual hemlines such as scallops and nev ter wear decorated shoes ( Klv FsCHERf HEAVENLY LINGERIE NOW the world’s most famous fragrance in a magnificent mist! 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How can I mother was a church organist and Franz Lehar He was assigned to weight (185) her diction her soar- harmonize with a buch like this? gave voice lessons and both for investigate a forgery in a dress ing high notes (E above high C) They won’t even stay on the same a time worked with the University shop She was shopping for a dress her ultra pure pianissimo her song much less the same key of Connecticut’s dramatic club and i an(f emerged with a husband All range her power her acting tal--1 ” What am I gonna do with them?” glee club that was needed for a rousing finale ent anless lessons or more was for the police department glee voice still "Mom The’ gives But one thing they won’t men- swered question itself Bob was called away up in Woonsocket and she’ll be club to join with the Bach Aria tion and you can bet your old for a summit meeting with two down for my Met opening” Miss group in a medley of popular and player piano on it is that Eileen plasterers and a plumber over some Farrell confided “That’s why I classical airs That was in 1942 Farrell once sang a duet with Hugh alterations in the kitchen Robbie don’t worry too much about critics Bob stayed with the force until A (for andante) Mulligan the drifted back to his homework Kathi She’ll be the first to tell me if I’m his retirement two years ago mainbasso profundo of the E train went to the telephone to spill the lousy She always is” ly because 1m loved police work Actually it wasn’t supposed to beans to a friend about "the creepy two for Eileen studied years Now he runs the house and helps be a duet Not at the beginning any- visitors who show up at the house as a child did piano some singing at organize her career although Eileen way is going to sing at Woonsocket High School and in a still does much of the cooking now that It started out as a quartet with the Met”mommy church choir but didn’t start tak- irons his shirts and helps with the Miss Farrell— or more properly the at we were And there piano ing voice lessons from her mother kids’ homework Mrs Reagan— at the piano surHer devotion to her family has until she was 18 rounded by her husband Bob Rea- doing our duet not diminished her love for music After flunking the Major Bowes Miss Farrell’s high notes drifted gan a retired Staten Island cop out across New York She still takes lessons three times harbor high audition she got a job singing in and her two bubbly ebullient chilfrom Eleanor McLellan her week a CBS was chosen and clear up with the seagulls far the radio chorus at Robbie and dren since 1944 She alvoice teacher Ponof Rosa voice the to imitate out where the ferryboats plowed old Kathi of opera roles dozens knows docuof Time” “March in selle a dissolved ready a widening wake and in four still strugbut hit such that a and made languages PICTURE FAMILY tremulously in the distant Jersey mentary — own with homework her show own “Eileen soon had her the she in gles there You see it Was this way The hills Mine died right ItalPresents” She every- "right now I’m on irregular photographer wanted a shot of the draperies above the pianoafternoon Farrell from Blues to sang ian verbs It’s not so bad I underBeethoven ' whole the thing Somewhere during family around the piano and stand there are only 7642 of them” to — somewhere between taking Kathi from charming Lieder numbers well you know how kids are In the She still sobs uncontrollably at the "Mr Mulligan” Eileen called to dancing school and bringing booming Wagnerian arias incredemotions generated by a Puccini the out "Why don’t you join us and Bob’s suit down to the cleaners process she developed Aria almost as uncontrollably as amazes still ible that maybe the children will settle down and listening to the plasterers plas- criticsvirtuosity when Kathi is hurt or Bobbie is a bit These characters are such tering and the plumber plumbing— sick me can tell radio that interview "Nobody hams They always make such a there was an "Music” says Eileen Farrell “is FarMiss harmful a for is of beginher early singer” Eileen told big deal out of picture taking” - everything I to me everything musiwhole owe insists "I rell and Conn my Willimantic Miss Farrell announced the selec- nings in to it want without live wouldn’t six to those cal and Her years development parents tion would be “Jingle Bells” a tra- Woonsocket RI My family is everything and everyditional English air of limited vocal an older sister had been in vaude- in radio” went Miss Farrell there From O’Farrells” thing more Hell let’s face it I’m the as ville "Singing range Lifting the piano lid warily ' concert lucrative she trilled a few warm-u- p cadenzas: but by the time she came along “It’s liable to be dusty-y-y-y- y ” Awfully not better "It Sang back Bob in a lusty tenor that had ' done its duty with the police de-partment glee club “I just paid a man $90 to have it It was like something out of Menotti Or maybe Sid Caesar Kathi broke the spell by preempting the south end of the keyboard “Mommy” she pleaded "can I show the man how I do an ar-wha- ee ed TILL 9 PM I |