Ravinia

The summer capital of U. S. opera, rustic Ravinia Park just north of Chicago, opened for business last week. The Ravinia season lasts ten and one-half weeks, until Labor Day. Conductors this year will be Louis Hasselmans, Gennaro Papi, Eric DeLamarter. The Chicago Symphony Orchestra will be in the pit for every performance. Onetime Actor Edwin Strawbridge will head the ballet.

Ten and one-half weeks is long enough to make it worth while for Ravinia's visiting artists to rent summer houses. North Shore residents were last week accustoming themselves to exciting new neighbors:

P: Well in advance, Lucrezia Bori scanned the countryside, found a house to fit her artistic requirements in fashionable Lake Forest. Bori operas: La Rondine, L'Amore del Tre Re, Mignon, La Vida Breve, The Secret of Suzanne.

P: Elisabeth Rethberg must grow flowers and swim twice a day. Her house and garden are in Winnetka, near the lake shore. Mme. Rethberg and Giovanni Martinelli will play again La Compana Sommersa (Respighi), which had its Metropolitan premiere last season.

P: Lawn-mowing in Winnetka is a regular Martinelli summer occupation. It is good for the girth. Among the regular Martinelli outpourings will be Manon Lescaut, Samsonn et Dalila, Aida. Curly-haired Tenor Martinelli returned, not long ago, from his first-in-16-years visit to Italy. Near him in Winnetka will be versatile Tenor Edward Johnson.

P: Guiseppe Danise and Leon Rothier will be summer residents of Glencoe.

P: Mario Chamlee, mechanically inclined, examined garages as well as houses, found what he wanted in Highland Park. Friends heard he was going to build himself an airplane. Marouf will be repeated at Ravinia for Tenor Chamlee who recently scored a successful Paris debut in that opera. Another Highland Parker is Mme. Yvonne Gall, fresh from Paris. She will be seen and heard in Paul Dukas' Ariane et Barbe-Bhie.