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7 George Szell and rudolf Bing (1953–54) In 1948, a year after the Glyndebourne fiasco, Bing sounded Szell out about the possibility of his and the Cleveland orchestra’s participation in the edinburgh festival. It did not work out, but no hard feelings arose. So it was not entirely surprising that a few years later, Bing invited Szell to conduct at the Metropolitan opera, of which Bing had become general manager in 1950. Szell was not Bing’s first choice for the Met, but Bing found himself in a bind. He had tried unsuccessfully to engage other leading conductors for his fourth Met season , 1953–54, including erich Kleiber, Hans Knappertsbusch, and Guido Cantelli. Wilhelm furtwängler, though available, was politically unsuitable and therefore ruled out. With the imminent departure of fritz reiner to take over the Chicago Symphony in 1953, and with Bing’s own contract due to expire, he had to produce positive results. He signed Pierre Monteux for three french operas and George Szell for a new production of Tannhäuser. these distinguished additions to the Met roster helped assure Bing’s immediate future at the house.1 Monteux, at seventy-eight, had retired the previous year from a seventeen-year tenure with the San francisco Symphony. Max rudolf, the Met’s staff conductor and artistic administrator, brought Monteux to Bing’s attention.2 Although Monteux had extensive opera experience—he had conducted at the Met in 1917–19—Bing initially felt reluctant to consider him. rudolf also recommended Szell. Szell would stay in New york for four weeks during his annual Philharmonic guest appearances. the Philharmonic engaged him for twelve performances, from December 3 through January 10. At the Met, he would conduct five performances of a new production of Tannhäuser between December 26 and January 17, and one or two additional dates between January 18 and April 17. Szell now commanded the Met’s top fee at that time—$1,000 per performance—a considerable improve- 142 . chapter 7 ment over his first Met contract, which paid $400 a week for his first ten weeks.3 there would be several Met performances on tour, including one in Cleveland in April. Because of a tight schedule, Szell tentatively accepted a tour performance in Boston on the condition he would be “in perfect physical condition and flying weather . . . favorable.”4 the stage director of the new Tannhäuser production was Herbert Graf, who had collaborated with Szell at the Met in the 1940s. In the spring and early fall of 1953, their discussions about set design, casting, and schedules went through rudolf. Szell expressed various concerns about the production, especially the shape of the set of Act 2, in the Hall of Song. He had reluctantly accepted cast changes during the run of the opera, negotiating replacements with rudolf.5 Graf, believing Szell’s criticism of the Act 2 plan was for acoustic reasons, wrote to rudolf: “the traditional ground plan of this act (Vienna or Bayreuth) is by far less favorable for the vocal sonority than the plan we are proposing. the ‘Halle’ in those productions was by far deeper. . . . our present plan is really a very favorable angle . . . and is extremely shallow.” on that basis, Graf felt certain that Szell would ultimately “be very happy with the acoustics of this act.” Szell’s misgivings, however, were not acoustical: he was concerned that the triangular shape of the stage would give the impression of a “square box which has been cut in half diagonally.” At the bottom of the letter, he sketched two plans, labeling them “good” and “not so good”—the “not so good” was the design for the Met with two equal sides, the “good” showed one side longer than the other.6 Whether Szell’s objection was addressed is not known, but the rehearsals went on without outward signs of trouble. Tannhäuser opened on December 26, 1953, to considerable acclaim. ramon Vinay in the title role headed the strong cast, with Jerome Hines, Margaret Harshaw, and Astrid Varnay. Virgil thomson called it “a distinguished piece of work, even brilliant ,” and credited Szell: “Saturday night’s audience held him responsible . . . and gave him a real ovation for his achievement.”7 two more performances followed on December 29 and January 9, the latter attended by Percy and Helen Brown. In the third performance, a technical breakdown backstage during a scene change delayed the performance. Szell later deplored this lapse, but said nothing...

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