Columbus Sails Again

Dimitri Mitropoulos, the strong-minded conductor of the New York Philharmonic-Symphony, has become the hero of Manhattan's modernists and the bane of its musical conservatives. In four years, he has introduced new symphonic works by such radicals as Schoenberg, Schnabel and Sessions, and such theater works (in concert form) as Busoni's Arlecchino and Berg's Wozzeck. Last week he was at it again: he conducted the first U.S. performance of Darius Milhaud's opera Christopher Columbus.

Mitropoulos arranged a chorus of 60--some in red gowns, some in black--on a high platform across the back of the stage, had it stand or sit in well-drilled movement sections at crucial moments. Baritone Mack Harrell, as Columbus, stood beside the conductor, and Basso Norman Scott, as Columbus' inner nature and conscience, stood slightly behind him. Soprano Dorothy Dow, as Queen Isabella, entered through the orchestra whenever she had a solo. Met Baritone John Brownlee, as the Narrator, stood on a high platform at the left, and various Officers, Creditors and Wise Men sang from steps on the right.

The performers spent more than two hours in French Poet Paul Claudel's leapfrogging account, translated into English, of the Discoverer's life. Sang Columbus:

My first name is Christ-bearer and my second name is all that is light!

All that is spirit, light and spirit and wings.

Chanted the chorus:

We are posterity! We are the judgment of men . . . Come to a higher region where a throne awaits thee.

The soloists sang over--sometimes under--a heavy orchestral ground swell and the crash of choral surf. The music was sometimes tuneful, sometimes noisy; there were promising moments of dreamlike vagueness that all too often led to the commonplace. It was soon clear that Christopher Columbus needed operatic action to hold an audience.

Most Manhattanites applauded; a large minority, as usual too polite in the face of Art and Conductor Mitropoulos to jeer or whistle, simply picked up hats & coats and sifted out at the intermission.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.