The Persistent One

Sarah Caldwell was neglecting herself again. Her hair was stringy and matted, her clothes unbelievably shabby. She was keeping alive on a daily ration of one dozen hamburgers, with suitable amounts of coffee and Cokes. On nights when she worked till dawn, she would wrap herself up in her overcoat, ease her 300 Ibs. down into one of the aisles of her theater, and sleep. Her friends would find her there in the morning, vaguely punchy but ready for work.

To needle everyone into proper trim for her production of Bellini's 1 Puritani, Caldwell was working 20 hours a day with the cast and crew of her Boston Opera Group. She had read armloads of 17th century histories. She had studied the score and plugged herself into her nocturnal-education tape recorder so often that I Puritani had seeped down into her subconscious and kept drifting out all day in soft, idle humming. In pursuit of her ideal of "vital musical theater," she had directed acting, lighting, costuming, singing and playing through weeks of strenuous rehearsal.

Predictably, when the curtain fell last week in the converted moviehouse that is her winter lair, she could claim one of the best 1 Puritani productions ever.

Artful Cajolery. With a dismal, cramped theater, a small orchestra bor rowed from the Boston Symphony, no resident chorus, and a budget that might be mistaken for lunch money at the Met, Sarah Caldwell, 38, is gaining a professional reputation as the best opera director in the U.S. Her company can give only one performance each of five productions this season, but her ardor and talent are so deep that everything she does is memorable. Her Lulu last month was a musical triumph for Bos ton, but / Puritani may have been the chef-d'oeuvre of her career.

Whatever she wants, she seemingly gets, and the very persistence of the Caldwell approach was so intriguing that Joan Sutherland gladly gave up two weeks in the heart of the concert season to prepare for her U.S. stage debut in the role. Through artful cajolery and the promise of a creative hand in the production, Caldwell had both Sutherland and her husband, Richard Bonynge, working at double time. The results showed it: though normally a phlegmatic actress, Sutherland made Bellini's gloriously mad Elvira anguished and giddy, impish and frenzied, wild-eyed and playful. Showing a new command of her coloratura range, Sutherland moved against shifting configurations of chorus and cast until the audience erupted in gasps and bursts of applause.

Singing Syndromes. There are no prompters in a Caldwell production, and singers are forbidden to take cues from the conductor, thus freeing opera from one of its prime embarrassments: the I'm-singing-to-her-but-I'm-looking-at-him syndrome. She strives for drama as well as spectacle; when her spear carriers enter, it is with a flash of steel and a purpose. She knows all the languages of opera, knows music so well that she often conducts. She pursues authenticity and realism to the point of demanding old chains instead of new rope on an obscure drawbridge, and the sum of her interests gives even a bizarre tale such as 1 Puritani the dignity of at least passing plausibility.

Her knack for opera extends as far as fund raising. Knowing well what town she is in, Caldwell has retained a certain John Godfrey Lowell Cabot as her moneyman, and Boston has the proper impression that it owes her something. This year $115,500 of her $210,000 budget came from donations, but even at that, Boston will have to go some to meet her real ambition: a professional resident company with a 25-week performance schedule. "If you can sell green toothpaste in this country, you can also sell opera," she says coolly.

Born in Missouri, Sarah Caldwell has cut a wide swath in Boston for 20 years. She arrived as a violin student at the New England Conservatory, then gave up the fiddle in 1947 after she discovered opera. She spent ten years on the Boston University music faculty and increased the curriculum so radically that opera students were signed up for compulsory courses that lasted until 10 p.m. She founded the Opera Group six seasons ago, and in the years since, she has given no thought to anything else--least of all herself.

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