Winona

Once upon a time before Minnesota had any idea of being Minnesota or any other fixed locale there lived there an Indian girl Winona who loved as was the way in those days the bravest of her uncle's warriors. Now her uncle wanted her wedded to Matosapa, chief of a friendly tribe, who came to warn him of approaching peril from the Chippewas, and so relentlessly did he insist that she, despairing, sent for her true love to come back from the war. Home came Chatonska galloping over the plains only to be branded as a deserter, exiled. And Winona, beaten and wedded against her will to the hawk-nosed stranger, jumped to her death from a lonely rock.

Perry S. Williams, Minneapolis newspaperman, heard the story, dreamed and mulled over it as he typed his' daily stint, embroidered it, made a libretto of it. It was more than a dozen years ago that he finished it and sent it to Tenor Riccardo Martin of the Chicago Opera, more than a dozen years ago that Tenor Martin passed it on to Composer Alberto Bimboni, little man, to write the score.

Last week it was presented by the American Grand Opera Company of Portland, Ore. Indian melodies, descriptive of Indian daily life and ceremonies, had been woven subtly into a rich orchestral background, made into a graceful romantic design simple as the story itself. Although it had no special thematic development, critics acknowledged, praised Composer Bimboni for his able conducting, for his score singularly free from monotony.