Curtain Going Up

In the regime of Rudolf Bing, Metropolitan Opera fans have come to take handsome new productions for granted. Last week, determined not to disappoint, Bing & Co. were putting the last loving touches to one of their most ambitious projects yet: a completely restyled version of Verdi's 90-year-old La Forza del Destino (The Force of Destiny).

Forza had not been sung at the Met in eight years, and there were good reasons. Even among Italian operas, the plot is a wildly improbable one, and the whole opera runs for 3 1/2 hours. Yet it has one of Verdi's fieriest scores, some of his most memorable arias, e.g., the soprano's Pace, Pace and the old Caruso-De Luca specialty, Solenne in Quest' Ora (Swear in This Hour). Director Bing, who has already restyled Verdi's Don Carlo, Aida and Rigoletto--and who wants "very much to have in this house a complete Verdi cycle" --settled on Forza for his 1952 opener.

Scissors & Sets. Conductor Fritz Stie-dry and Stage Director Herbert Graf took scissors to the libretto and score, and one whole scene and parts of another (totaling about half an hour of music) finally rested on the cutting-room floor. But the essential story remained. Don Alvaro, poor fellow, still accidentally kills his sweetheart's father, Leonora still takes refuge in a monastery, and "the force of destiny" still brings Don Alvaro, Leonora and her avenging brother together for a bloody but musically magnificent finale.

Bing's next step was to call in Painter Eugene Berman, who went to work on a notable array of sets and costumes (see ART). Then Bing was ready for a cast. He chose a starry one: Soprano Zinka Milanov, Tenor Richard Tucker, Baritone Leonard Warren and Basso Cesare Siepi. Said Bing: "The finest vocal ensemble you can hear anywhere in the world." With those singers, and Verdi's music, Rudolf Bing sat back and hoped for another success. Last week, more than 72 hours before the curtain would rise on Forza, the standing-room queue was already beginning to form outside the Met.

Assets & Liabilities. The Met needs queues: new productions cost money. In addition to Forza this season, Bing is restyling Puccini's La Boheme, to be sung in two versions--Italian and English--and staging the U.S. premiere of Stravinsky's new opera, The Rake's Progress, also in English (TIME, Sept. 24, 1951). These will bring to twelve the number of new productions Bing has staged in his first three seasons at the Met. Almost all of them have been cheered by the critics (exceptions: 1951's Cavalleria Rusticana and Pagliacci). But even after forgiveness of federal taxes on Met admissions last year, the company ended the season with nearly a half-million-dollar deficit.

The bright side: most of Bing's new productions will count as capital assets for seasons to come.

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