Love Affair in Dallas

A year ago Chicago Impresario Lawrence V. Kelly undertook the ambitious task of planting grand opera's rococo passions deep in the thorny heart of Texas. His Dallas Civic Opera Company, with Maria Meneghini Callas as its star attraction, was a rousing artistic success but a failure at the box office. Since then Impresario Kelly's operatic transplant has taken firm root in Texas soil: last week the Dallas company rounded out its second season with a chorus of critical bravos and with money pouring into the till.

Remarkably composed despite the storm that was building up (see above), Soprano Callas rehearsed new productions of Traviata and Medea for two weeks with only occasional explosions of temperament. Both performances attracted capacity crowds, and Callas endowed both of them with the kind of artistry, witchery and passion that only she can convey. The Dallas Traviata used an intriguing gimmick by presenting the story as a long flashback, starting with Violetta on her deathbed visualizing the episodes leading up to her final illness. From the first curtain, when a soft light bloomed on the reclining Violetta, to the resignation of Dite alia giovine and the yearning of Parigi, O cara, Callas held her audience in a kind of hushed trance. Her tones were rock firm, aglow with a dozen nuances of passion, from hectic gaiety to quiet sadness. Callas scored an even bigger triumph in Cherubini's Medea. Whirling her heavy cape alternately like a regal robe, a witch's hood or a pair of bat wings, Callas managed a breath-taking range of emotion: she seemed to caress the air when pleading tenderly with Jason, then railed at him with fists clenched and her voice full of relentless fury, again sank to her knees with heart-breaking bell tones of despair. She could rail against Zeus himself with the scorn of a rebellious goddess, then chilled the audience in a sort of death march as she seized a dagger and prepared to kill her sons.

The third opera put on at Dallas was a repeat of Rossini's rarely performed romp, L'ltaliana in Algeri, introducing 23-year-old Spanish Mezzo-Soprano Teresa Berganza. The possessor of a silvery, dulcet voice, she acted the title role (an Italian girl imprisoned by a libidinous bey) with a kind of fresh, provincial charm. A onetime pianist, Mezzo Berganza has toured Europe in recitals but has had little operatic experience. The Dallas News's Critic John Rosenfield noted that L'ltaliana in Algeri had "ended up as a love affair between prima donna and patrons." The whole season ended up as a love affair between Texas and Dallas' own grand opera.

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