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Of an even score of musical events over the weekend there was easily the most virtue in a matinee performance of "Meistersinger" at the opera house on Saturday in which Polyna Stoska sang Eva for the first time. Considering how recently Miss Stoska was singing nightly in a Broadway show, her accomplishment was little less than remarkable.

She was appealing in the first act, a little tentative in the second, but triumphant in the third, where she delivered the workshop scene with Sachs more meaningfully than any Eva since Lotte Lehmann. The voice has ring and impact, also lyric suavity; some facts which Miss Stoska might well accept without further concern in the future. Since her Eva is a heart-breaker from her first appearance, and Miss Stoska adds intelligent action to her natural endowment, she should be the standard at the house for quite a while to come.

The cast was otherwise as it was previously, though almost every one sang better: beginning with Herbert Janssen, whose Sachs was vocally magnificent; John Garris, a choice David; Margaret Harshaw, an able Magdalene; and Deszo Ernster, a constantly improving Pogner. Gerhard Pechner's Beckmesser is also first class. Wolfgang Martin conducted unobtrusively, which is no virtue in this score.

Search by season: 1947-48

Search by title: Die Meistersinger von N?rnberg,

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