Music: Puccini & Fizz

Grand opera can learn a lot from show business—as the Metropolitan's Rudolf Bing has proved. In his three-year regime he has often drawn on Broadway and Hollywood talent (e.g., Alfred Lunt, Margaret Webster, Garson Kanin) to inject some extra fizz. Last week he tried a double injection on La Boheme, and proved that fizz does not necessarily improve good red wine.

Words & Action. For his stage director, Bing picked Hollywood Director Joseph L. Mankiewicz (Letter to Three Wives, All About Eve). Mankiewicz bubbled with ideas for bringing out the Bohemianism of Puccini's Bohemians. "Take the end of Act I," said...

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