Fritz Reiner, Maestro and Martinet

5. A Guest Conductor in the 1930s

5. a guest conductor in the 1930s Reiner’s teaching position at the Curtis Institute was a useful vantage point for guest appearances conducting operas and symphonic music in the Quaker City and for keeping in touch with musical developments on the East Coast. It also gave him time to pursue other musical activities on a freelance basis. By the 1930s, Philadelphia already had a long tradition of presenting opera. The Academy of Music, when completed in 1857, was the finest opera house in North America. Later the home of the Philadelphia Civic Opera Company (1924–30) and the Philadelphia Grand Opera Company (1926–43), it was also the venue for the annual season presented by New York’s Metropolitan Opera in most years between the 1880s and 1968.1 This abundance of operatic activity did not lead, however, to the foundation of a permanent opera company along the lines of the Met: the offerings, rather, were piecemeal and occupied only part of the winter season of music making. Reiner wanted to conduct opera in Philadelphia while he worked there. At that time it was unusual for a first-rate conductor in America to be willing to commit time and energy to the preparation and performance of opera, as the obstacles to be surmounted were formidable: casts often changed completely from one performance to the next; rehearsal time was frequently inadequate; and fees for conducting orchestral concerts—to say nothing of appearances on radio—were always higher. The costs of producing opera could be financially prohibitive, and there were few permanent opera companies. These problems deterred major conductors from conducting opera. Arturo Toscanini avoided conducting opera on the American stage after leaving the Met in 1915. Otto Klemperer never conducted opera in the United States after his dazzling spell at the Kroll Opera House in Berlin. Artur Rodzinski and Dimitri Mitropou05 .ch5.84-105/Morgan 7/12/05 10:38 AM Page 84 los, both dramatic conductors of opera, largely confined their operatic conducting in America to concerts.2 But the difficulties of performing opera did not deter Reiner. Between leaving his post in Cincinnati and becoming music director of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, his most significant conducting achievements were in opera, with the Philadelphia Orchestra, the San Francisco Opera, and at Covent Garden. During the 1931–32 season Reiner conducted several operas with the Philadelphia Grand Opera Company, which generally presented between twelve and fifteen productions per season at the Academy of Music.3 Leopold Stokowski invited Reiner to conduct seven performances of six operas—Wagner’s Lohengrin and Tannhäuser, Richard Strauss’s Elektra, Verdi’s Aida, Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov, and Bizet’s Carmen. These were Reiner’s first opera performances in the United States. The works were performed in their original languages under the stage direction of Wilhelm von Wymetal Jr.4 Curtis Institute singers appeared in the casts along with seasoned operatic soloists, a result of the affiliation between the institute and the Philadelphia Grand Opera Company that commenced in 1929; orchestral musicians were drawn from the Curtis Institute and the Philadelphia Orchestra.5 The work of the company was excellent , with a chorus and stage management that compared favorably with those of the Met.6 The cast for Tannhäuser included Gotthelf Pistor in the title role, John Charles Thomas as Wolfram, and Anne Roselle as Elisabeth. Reiner’s conducting of the opera was admired; it allowed the singers to be clearly heard and “aided rather than antagonized the people on stage, without slighting the orchestral part or dimming the instrumental splendor of the score.”7 Another highlight of the season was Boris Godunov, with Ivan Steschenko in the title role, Nina Koshetz as Marina, Dimitry Onofrei as the False Dmitry, and Irra Petina as Fyodor. The performance was praised for an able and individual interpretation of Boris, “the superbly authoritative and intensely vital conducting of Fritz Reiner,” and the fine, forceful work of the chorus, which has a prominent role in the opera.8 Elektra contained the most striking individual performance of the season. Reiner thought that Strauss’s blood-curdling opera would not be too modern for a musical public attuned to the music of Stravinsky and Schoenberg and that there would not be the sense of shock that was felt at Elektra’s Philadelphia premiere (in French) in 1909. Presenting the opera in German for the first time in the United States, Reiner assembled an enlarged orchestra of ninetysix musicians for...