posted October 8, 2007
I am saddened to see that the Chattanooga Symphony and Opera Company will perform only one opera this season. At its inception, the organizers of The Chattanooga Opera Association approved three performances per season and that was carried out until the last few years, when first, two operas have been presented, and now the decision for this season is to perform only one opera. This is a tremendous letdown for opera lovers and does not offer much opportunity for local singers to gain experience, which was one of the major ideas for establishing an opera company in the beginning.
Opera can be expensive but it can also be done in more economical ways. When I sang the role of Leonora in "Il Trovatore" in 1949, tickets cost $1.80 including tax. There was a cast of 60 and a full orchestra.
The world has been mightily affected by the interest in opera by some of its leaders, such as the monster, Adolph Hitler, who was totally immersed in the operas of Wagner, their myths, and Wagner's ideas and lifestyle. But even though Hitler extracted evil concepts from Wagner's operas, they were not ignored or forbidden by great Jewish musicians who recognized genius and beauty when they saw. Dr. Werner Wolff would have loved to have been able to present one of Wagner's operas here but they required too large an orchestra and casts that required very stringent singing. If anyone had a right to resent the operas of Wagner it would have been Dr. and Madame Wolff, founders of our local company, but as I said, who can deny genius?
Wagner particularly hated the brilliance of the young Jewish composer, Felix
Mendelssohn, and did everything he could to destroy Mendelssohn's career, but he could not. The music of Mendelssohn and Wagner both survive today as products of the masters they both were, and it is possible for everyone to hear and enjoy the great and powerful music of these two opposites in music. As you will recall, Mendelssohn wrote wonderful oratorios based on the gospels of John and Paul, two of the Apostles, and one of the greatest of all oratorios, " Elijah."
So wasn't Chattanooga fortunate to have a couple like Dr. Werner Wolff and his beautiful wife to come to live here and organize a local opera company. I can just hear him moaning and groaning if he could hear about the decision to have only one opera this season.
In 1945, when I graduated Junior College at Tennessee Wesleyan in Athens, Tn., my benefactress, Mrs. Henry Pfeiffer of New York City, was adamant that I be able to continue my studies under the Wolffs and so I was sent to Chattanooga to complete my Bachelor of Music Degree in preparation for a career someday in New York. Meanwhile, wealthy, and some not so wealthy citizens invited the Wolffs to come here to start an opera company along with their teaching duties. They began at once.
At first, local singers sang all of the roles and piano accompaniments were used. Everything they did was so admired and so successful that people continued to come to operas, and support them whole heartedly for many years.
As a child, growing up, I had imagined myself the next Jeanette Macdonald as I picked cotton on the farm and daydreamed about singing. I knew I would never look like Jeanette MacDonald, but I thought I could already sing "Indian Love Call," and the songs she sang, as well as she could. Ha, ha. But in 1949, the Wolffs gave me the chance to sing the role of the Countess in "The Marriage of Figaro." Never has one young ignorant maid from the hills of northwest Georgia learned so much in so short a time while Dr. and Madame Wolff and I worked on the role for at least a year. I had never seen an opera. I have always felt that the wonderful Christian people who fostered my college years and the performances I sang with the Chattanooga Opera Association was proof that someone (and I believe it was God and his people) was looking after me.
Some of the local people who were so supportive and caring in those years were the congregation of the First Presbyterian Church, especially Frank A. Nelson, States Rights Finley, Dr. James L. Fowle, Almeda Schwartzzman, Margaret Thomason, Carl Scheibe, Dr. J. Park McCallie, Dr. Bibb, and many more that I could name. Others who were supportive were the people of Ochs Temple and the Electric Power Board. I also enjoyed kindness and support from the conductor who succeeded Dr. Wolff, Siegfried Landau, and have never gotten over being able to sing "The Ballad of Baby Doe" under his direction. He was an innovator and brought many new operas to our city during his tenure.
I am soon to be 82 years old now and cannot attend too many concerts or operas at the Tivoli, but when I could, I had it all, so I have no regrets, except for the fact that only one opera will be presented this year, and one could guess that if only one is considered important and affordable, there might soon come a time when none will be proffered. Opera is one of the greatest of art forms. I remember Dr. Plettner saying that it was a "bastard form" because it was too eclectic, including so many facets that none could prevail, such as singing, orchestra, acting, sets, dance, recitative, costumes, periods, etc. Excuse me, Dr. Plettner, I loved you and learned lots from you and your wife, Isa McIlwraith, but I think you were wrong about opera, and could it have been that it was because opera was your competition? Dr. Plettner was an early conductor of the Chattanooga Symphony and my main Professor of Music at the University.
So heads up, all of you opera lovers. One opera is better than none, and especially when the opera is the fantastic "Hansel and Gretel" whose composer, Humperdinck, was the teacher of Dr. Werner Wolf.
Another little personal note: during Dr. Wolff's tenure as conductor, I sang in both performances of "Hansel and Gretel" but different parts: I sang first the role of the Witch, and second, the role of the "Mother." Each was thrilling, fun to do, and provided much fun for the hundreds of children who attended and those who played the role of angels in the performance.
Mildred Perry Miller
Millermaj@aol.com
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