Capital Culture

It was the kind of disaster-and-triumph series that makes opera legends. Rehearsing the part of Anne Trulove in Washington's Opera Society production of Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress, the soprano was felled by a virus; she left the role to Baltimore's Phyllis Frankel, a singer who studied for an operatic career with famed Soprano Rosa Ponselle, has appeared with New York City Opera. Then the title-role tenor came down with laryngitis during dress rehearsal, was replaced by Mallory Walker, a 23-year-old soldier from Fort Myer, Va., where he is singing in the U.S. Army Chorus. Walker had never sung the Rake role before but had learned it as understudy, hopes to become a professional singer after he gets out of the Army. Finally, Tenor Hugues Cuenod lost his voice, responded enough to frantic, last-minute medication to carry off his role.

Despite the crises, audience and critics last week applauded. Said the Washington Daily News's Milton Berliner: "A top-notch performance.''

Cultural Backwater. Much of the credit for Rake's success goes to its director, tiny (5 ft. 2 in.) Paul Callaway, 49, organist and choirmaster at Washington Cathedral (Protestant Episcopal), who organized the Opera Society in 1956. In a city that has long been known as a cultural backwater, the company was financed by contributions averaging $100, plus some sizable gifts from Washington society's "cave dwellers," including Mrs. Herbert May (formerly Mrs. Merriweather Post), Mrs. Robert Low Bacon, Mr. and Mrs. Robert Woods Bliss.

Deciding from the start to limit the repertory to rarely heard operas performed in their original language. Director Callaway set such a high standard with last year's staging of Richard Strauss's Ariadne auf Naxos that one critic feared listeners would expect a triumph every time. In fact there have been many triumphs, including standout productions of Mozart's Cosi fan Tutte and Monteverdi's Orfeo. Audience response matched the performances: paid season subscriptions rose from 322 in 1957 to nearly 2,000 this season.

Promising Boom. Last week's production of the eight-year-old Rake's Progress brought out as rare an operagoer as Walter Lippmann, also the Secretaries of Commerce and the Air Force, a sprinkling of ambassadors--all of whom seemed to glow at Washington's cultural boom. The opera company is not alone. Washington also has a promising ballet company and the fine National Symphony, whose reputation has grown steadily, today is not far from the top echelon of U.S. orchestras. This season the orchestra hopes to repeat last year's feat of landing in the black. Propelled by Conductor Howard Mitchell, the symphony this summer goes on a ten-week Latin American tour, also gives some 30 concerts a year for visiting teen-age tourists.

Last week the National Park Service prepared to add a final touch to capital culture. By 1965, it hopes to restore Ford's Theater, which failed after Lincoln's assassination, was long used as a museum. Needed for the project: $1,750,000.

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