Summer Opera
Ravinia. Last week, a time-table was printed in the Chicago daily press. It listed the trains which would be running for the next while between Chicago and a place called Ravinia, 21 miles north. Why anyone should want to be going to Ravinia puzzled a number of dolts, until they read that rich, artistic Louis Eckstein was again presenting operas there. Those who obeyed the timetable, found themselves in a park roofed by tall trees. Some dined sumptuously at a restaurant and danced to jazz; others stocked up at the hot-dog stand, or picnicked at rustic tables in the woods; others arrived in evening frocks and white flannels, from dinner parties at Lake Forest or Winnetka. Two thousand spectators sat under a high wooden canopy. (It keeps the rain out and keeps the music within.) Many others sat on the grassy slopes counting stars, spellbound, one night last week, by strains of Puccini.
Lucrezia Bori sang the title role of Manon Lescaut, and Giovanni Martinelli that of Des Grieux. Gennaro Papi conducted the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.
Operas performed or scheduled this summer at Ravinia: Madame Butterfly, Romeo and Juliette, Rigoletto, Faust, Martha, Aida, and The King's Henchman, a new opera (TIME, June 7) by Deems Taylor (score) and Edna St. Vincent Millay (libretto).
St. Louis. Though Chicago has enjoyed Summer opera for 15 years and St. Louis for only 8, the St. Louis Municipal Opera gave every sign last week that it has nestled down again for a twelve week season both profitably* and enthusiastically attended.
The All-St. Louis Home-Trained Chorus (96) will attempt "grand opera" only once (Il Trovatore), will warble Iolanthe, The Red Mill, The Chocolate Soldier. . . .
Atlanta. Louise Hunter, now established as the favorite prima donna of Atlanta, again forms the professional nucleus of numerous southern amateur stars.
At Atlanta the repertoire consists exclusively of light opera: The Chocolate Soldier, The Pirates of Penzance, Katinka,. . . .
*Only once (1919) has a deficit been recorded ($11,000).