Next to Salome's, the most popular of operatic strip teases is that of Massenet's sin-shunning Thais. Because dramatic sopranos with decently strippable figures are rare, and because Massenet's music and drama are otherwise soupy and dull, Thais is nowadays seldom performed. Greatest of all Thais strippers was famed Diva Mary Garden, who introduced the part to the U. S. in 1907; last at Manhattan's Metropolitan was tempestuous Maria Jeritza, 13 years ago. Last week the Metropolitan revived Thais, in one of the most lavishly costumed productions of its recent years. This time the...
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