Opera Films

Wagner-worshiping Germans have long insisted that if and when the operas of their great Richard Wagner are "canned" in talking cinemas, it must be done under State supervision. There must be due respect, no garbled versions, no duplication. To prevent such contingencies an agreement was reached last week in Vienna between the combined German State theatres of Prussia, Bavaria and Saxony, and the Vienna State Opera. Most important clause is that on non-duplication. To German film companies goes the exclusive right to produce Wagnerian opera; to Viennese, the rights to lighter productions, non-Wagnerian, such as Richard Strauss, Mozart, Rossini.

The move was prompted by two events: 1) the Prussian State Theatre's purchase, in co-operation with famed Producer Max Reinhardt, of a large block of stock in German Tonfilm Co.; 2) negotiations between the Vienna State Opera and the Austrian Selenophon Co. for the production of opera films. Since the audible cinema cannot be destroyed, Austrians and Germans alike believe it must be controlled to the greater glory of the great dead.

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