Box-Office Voice

New York's Lewisohn Stadium, built in 1915, is inaccessibly situated on Manhattan's upper West Side, its concrete steps are uncomfortable, and the acoustics are generally poor and sometimes challenged by a passing plane. It is a rare summer's night when more than 8,000 New Yorkers feel like making their way there, but for some artists, the crowds fill Lewisohn to its brim. Last week Australian Soprano Joan Sutherland made her stadium debut--and, despite the fact that the concert had to be postponed one night, she sang to the season's record house.

Some 20,000 people turned out to hear her, as she performed the role that has made her famous--the Mad Scene from Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor. The attendance made Soprano Sutherland one of the most popular female performers ever to appear at the Stadium (one who topped her: Marian Anderson, who drew 23,000 in 1940). Sutherland's crowd was a notch above last year's high (19,500 for Pianist Van Cliburn) and not far behind Trumpeter Louis Armstrong's (21,000 in 1957). But she was still an octave or two behind Lewisohn's champion crowd pullers: Harry Belafonte (over 25,000 in 1956) and Ezio (South Pacific) Pinza, whose virile basso cantante and brawny frame also drew over 25,000 fans in 1951.

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