[Met Tour] CID:354811

Stadium Performance

Siegfried
The Coliseum, Indianapolis, Indiana, Sat, June 17, 1916




Siegfried (116)

Siegfried
Johannes Sembach

Br?nnhilde
Melanie Kurt

Wanderer
Carl Braun

Mime
Albert Reiss

Alberich
Otto Goritz

Fafner
Clarence Whitehill

Forest Bird
Frieda Hempel


Conductor
Artur Bodanzky







Review 1:

Account in the Indianapolis Star
Interest Wide in "Siegfried"


Requests Come From Three States About Opera to Be Given at Coliseum on June 17.


Requests have come from all parts of Indiana and Illinois and parts of Kentucky for information regarding the production of Richard Wagner's musical drama,"Siegfried" which will be given at the Coliseum on Saturday night. June 17, by an all-star cast from the Metropolitan Opera Company. The demand for seats has been heavy and all those desiring the advantage of the subscription price for seats should mail in their orders to Ona B. Talbot, who is the local managing director for the engagement.


With a father who was very musical, with a grandfather a violinist, with cousins all of whom mastered one Instrument or another, music was so imbued in Melanie Kurt that her development as a great singer might easily be attributed to hereditary genius. Mme. Kurt, at the time when other children were being Montessoried and kindergartened by fond mothers, played, the piano, sang little odd pieces of Viennese folk songs, and even attempted the singing of operatic airs, so, at least, she is told. When she was but 5 years old she started to study the piano with Prof. Rauch of the Vienna Conservatory. It was rather unusual for one so young to take up the study of piano, but they did not seem to regard it so in her ease, for at the age of 7 she already came up for entrance into the Vienna Conservatory. How she continued the study of piano under the direction Leschetiszky, the great master, and then deserted this field for singing and became an opera star in a small German city, studied with Lilli Lehmann, and then made her debut in the Royal Opera, Berlin, as one of the greatest Wagnerian prima donnas of the day, is the interesting story of Mme. Kurt.


Mme. Kurt makes her debut on the concert stage this year. After having sung the leading roles at the Berlin Royal Opera for six years and at the Metropolitan Opera House for two years, she has been re-engaged by the opera company and will sing the leading Wagnerian roles next season as in the past. Mme. Kurt has been called the legitimate successor of the great line of Wagnerian dramatic sopranos. She is now spending her time in preparation for singing the leading role in "Siegfried." On last Sunday the prima donna motored to the Yale Bowl, where the great Wagnerian music drama is to be staged, and spent some time looking over the great stadium where she will sing. The great size of the New Haven stadium did not disturb Mme. Kurt in the least, in spite of its seating capacity of nearly 100,000. She is quite accustomed to singing in the great open air festivals of Germany, and in other stadia of Europe. As a matter of fact, the acoustics of the Yale Bowl are sufficiently good for spoken drama, and should be ideal for classic opera of the Wagnerian type. All lighting, scenery and costumes for the Indianapolis production will come directly from the Metropolitan Opera.

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