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Fretich Jennie Tnurel—One of the best "Carmens"
Our
Contributions
to Opera
To the world's great musical treasurers,
omnibused as "Opera." Jetrish artists and
patrons have given much. Especially has the
Metropolitan Opera Company in this country
benefited from sttch Talent as Bruno Walter,
Melchior. Jan Pearce and a host of newcomers
brought here by the happenstances in Europe
lately.
by E. Brand
Even in the very early days of their existence as a people,
the musical art among Jews held a prominent place. It
developed and passed as a treasured heritage from genera
tion to generation. Unfortunately, space does not permit
the description of the role music and especially song, played
among Jews at all times and in all countries. Our task now
has but one defined aim. to survey the contribution of Jews
to the development of Opera and particularly their place in
American Opera today.
As far as we know, there are at present about thirty
Jewish artists in the Metropolitan Opera alone. More,
many more, artists are affiliated with other companies or
find expression for their art at concerts and in various op
eratic theaters. In recent years, w*e have had a consider
able number of Opera singers of all sorts. This may appear
odd to some. It may also serve as an Anti-Semitic protest
that "Jews monopolize the Opera.” But to Jews, and non-
Jews. familiar with Jewish contributions to music and song,
this will come as no great surprise.
Jewish artists were among the first to show great interest
in the Opera, as early as 100 years ago. And even a little
less than 300 years ago. when renowned musicians, Italians
and others, met in the home of Giovanni Bardi in Florence
to experiment with the production of opera, Jew's had al
ready shown deep interest in this form of art. Many Jewish
artists transplanted the religious choral music of their people
into opera and in this alone their contribution is significant.
From the very beginning, Jewish singing maestros often
filled the most important roles in the Opera.
But Jewish contributions to the development and colossal
success of the Opera were not confined only to supplying
talented singers. They also gave the Opera immortal com
posers. We need only mention the name of Mendelssohn.
Meyerbeer. Bizet. Halevy, Rubinstein and Bloch, whose
great musical w’orks were presented successfully for many
years on the Opera Stages of all civilized people, many of
which are revived from time to time. Jews also lent finan
cial support to Opera in all countries, just as they did to
other musical enterprises. Even the “Aryan” Richard Wag
ner. who became Hitler’s god. because of his repudiation, in
his later years, of Jewish contributions to W'orld music, w r as
supported generously by Taussig, a Jew, when he first began
to organize his renowned annual musical Beyrouth festivals.
Taussig gave the tremendous sum of $350,000 towards this
endeavor. Wagner charged the Jews with "bringing their
Jewishness into music." Thus he sought to place Jewish
work in displeasure among other German “Aryans,” even
though his own great success was attained by the composi
tions for which such Jews as Meyerbeer and Hugo von
Hofmansthal had written the libretto and lyrics. His dis
ciple, Hitler, went much further. He completely "nullified"
Jewish music simply because it was "Jewish." Both Wag
ner and Hitler were right as to the "Jewishness" of the
music. Jewish composers for generations have, to a consid
erable degree, poured Jewish sentiment into their great
works. This to some extent, is also true of Jewish singers,
who have transposed a certain spark of the Jewish sigh,
Jewish sorrow and tragedy into Opera. Verily, herein lies
their greatness and their success. Artists of other nations
did the same thing and as a result music in general and song
in particular have become international, richer and beautiful.
Among the thirty prominent Jewish artists in the Metro-
xilitan Opera Company, there are (Please see next page)
(H)
The Southern Israelite