Withering Paradise?

In Stuttgart, U.S. Mezzo-Soprano Grace Hoffman was asked to sing Amneris in Aida, despite the fact that she had to sing in Italian while the rest of the cast sang in German. She wowed the crowd. In Amsterdam, U.S. Coloratura Soprano Marilyn Tyler accepted a rush call to sing Violetta in La Traviata, although she sang in unpopular German while the rest of the cast sang in Italian. After the first act, a year's contract was offered to her. In Munich, U.S. Tenor Howard Vandenburg arrived unannounced, auditioned and was hired on the spot. All over Europe, and especially in Germany, young American singers are singing for European audiences, hoping to follow in the paths of such Europe-polished Americans as Coloratura Mattiwilda Dobbs, Mezzo-Soprano Rise Stevens, Contralto Jean Madeira and Bass-Baritone George London to the roster of Manhattan's Metropolitan Opera.

Underworked Angels. Last week some 80 Americans were under contract to German opera companies, and others were singing in France, Italy and England. Some of them, such as attractive Soprano Irene Callaway, who is making a success in Italy, arrived in Europe on Fulbright scholarships. Others got there by their own power, gladly took smaller salaries than they might earn at home for the satisfaction of treading the boards. "In the States," says Stuttgart's Mezzo Hoffman, "you can sing like an angel, but unless you get a break you can't find any place to sing. It's like being a bird and not being allowed to fly. Even at the Met, I'd sing two or three times a year. Here I sing two or three times a week."

The big influx began about three years ago because of complementary conditions in the U.S. and Germany. The U.S., unbombed and eating well, produced bumper postwar harvests of singers, but had few opera houses in which to employ them, while Germany had rebuilt its 80 opera houses faster than it could replace their depleted ranks of singers. Americans flocked in, were often hired over Germans of comparable ability simply because of their healthy good-looks. German audiences, with their insatiable hunger for opera (Munich alone puts on more performances in a year than all major U.S. companies combined), showed no resentment.

Stars-to-Be. But now the operatic paradise may be about to turn cold for Americans. Last week the German stage-artists union published an editorial demanding that opera hire German artists, at least when they are as good as the invaders. Echoed Bonn's General-Anzeiger: "After all, the foreign ladies do not stay here long. And we are not really a conservatory for the stars-to-be of the U.S.A."

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