Manhattan's Metropolitan Opera last week ended its season with a performance of Wagner's Die Götterdämmerung, in which even Brünnhilde's horse joined in the singing, with off-pitch whinnies. For Manhattan can take grand opera for only 16 weeks at a time.
Genial, hard-working Manager Edward Johnson runs the Met with one eye on the box office, the other on the well-heeled, artistically conservative ladiesnotably Mrs. August Belmontwho sit on the board of directors. Of the 35 operas performed this season, a good many were routine productions. Facts of the season:
> Wagnerian operas like Tristan und Isolde and Die Walküre got the most performances...
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