Setting Stars?

With a smile on his face, some new scores in his trunk and a number of signed contracts in his pocket, Manager Edward Johnson of the Metropolitan Opera returned to Manhattan last fortnight from a two-month jaunt around Europe. Briskly he began to tell of plans for this winter's 14-week season in the nation's last remaining permanent opera company. There will be no reduction in box-office prices ($8 top). There will be fewer star performers singing at the Metropolitan.

New Singers. Receiving newshawks last week in his office. Manager Johnson came out warmly against the "star system." Said he: "I can't accomplish all this in a year. We must have something like a five-year plan. I hope that we will be able to make the public more conscious of performances and less of performers; more of the composers and less of the interpreters."

Since the Metropolitan's public has always been notably conscious of performers rather than performances, Mr. Johnson's hope was safely backlogged by the fact that he has managed to re-engage the following "stars": Lawrence Tibbett, Gladys Swarthout, Lily Pons, Lotte Lehmann, Rosa Ponselle, Kirsten Flagstad, Lauritz Melchior. The roster of singers hired up to last week totalled 62, of whom 30 are U. S.-born.

Of the new singers signed up by Manager Johnson, the only tenor and the most notable acquisition is 32-year-old Charles Kullman. A Yale graduate born in New Haven, Kullman abandoned medicine to study at Manhattan's Juilliard School of Music and at Fontainebleau. Currently he is singing at the packjammed Salzburg music festival.

New Ballet. For years the Metropolitan ballet has been slipshod. Ballet mistress was Rosina Galli, second wife of retired Manager Giulio Gatti-Casazza. Not since 1927 has an independent ballet (Casella's La Giara) been given at the Metropolitan. Last week Manager Johnson made ready to cash in on the current popularity of ballet. He announced the engagement of the American Ballet, the lively organization founded by Edward M. M. Warburg and Lincoln Kirstein, with Russian George Balanchine as director (TIME, Dec. 17). From the present Metropolitan ballet, Balanchine will add to his group of 27 dancers, according to Manager Johnson, "the best dancers, the best-looking ones, and those with the best extremities."

New Director. When the Metropolitan Opera was organized 52 years ago, William Astor got himself Box No. 7 on the left wing of the Golden Horseshoe. Son John Jacob and Grandson Vincent successively inherited it. Last week handsome Mrs. Vincent Astor, who has done good work as a money-raiser for the Philharmonic-Symphony, was elected a Metropolitan director, the third woman on the board.* Manager Johnson: "We have won a great victory."

New Operas? As announced last May the winter's repertory at the Metropolitan is decidedly conservative. Whether any of the five new scores which Manager Johnson brought from Europe will be produced depends upon money and the artistic opinion of the Metropolitan's staff.

Last week President Karleton Hackett of the Chicago City Opera Company announced a five-week season to begin in November in the Civic Opera House. Top price: $3. President Hackett said negotiations had been opened with Bori, Lehmann, Pons, Maria Jeritza, Claudia Muzio, Rosa Raisa, Tito Schipa, Ezio Pinza, John Charles Thomas. The repertory will include the U. S. premiere of Respighi's La Fiamma, Puccini's La Rondine, Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier.

* Others: Mrs. August Belmont, Lucrezia Bori.

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