Music: Detroit’s Formula

While Clevelanders headed by Senator Robert Johns Bulkley were paying high prices to import Manhattan’s Metropolitan Opera Company, Detroit last week followed up an experiment. Detroit four years ago had no local opera. The idea of one originated with Thaddeus Wronski (Ziembinski), a Polish basso who had studied with famed Edouard De Reszke. He came to the U. S. to sing with the Boston Opera Company in 1911, and ended by giving vocal lessons in Detroit.

Basso Wronski’s operatic scheme ignores the star system. The singers are capable but neither their experience nor their names permit their asking big fees. Orchestra and chorus are made up of local musicians, a fact which contributes considerably to local pride. The largest subscriber pays $1,000 on a four-year basis, some 300 people subscribe.

Detroit has presented routine operas so successfully that Pittsburgh, Columbus, Buffalo, Dayton and New Orleans have become interested in its formula. Committees from each of these cities were scheduled to meet in Detroit at the end of the two-week season, to discuss the plan of a National Civic Opera Company. Principals and scenery could be passed on from place to place, each city providing its own orchestra and enthusiastic amateur chorus.