The San Francisco Opera, second to Manhattan's Metropolitan in rank, is second to none in discovering and importing good foreign singers.*Last week it pulled a double coup, gave U.S. listeners their first chance to hear famed Bulgarian Basso Boris Christoff and beauteous Turkish Soprano Leyla Gencer. Gencer, loved at first sight, was the modest and moving star of Zandonai's rarely heard Francesco, da Rimini; Christoff, playing his temperament to the hilt, was almost the ruination of Boris Godunov.
With Christoff, the trouble began during the first orchestral rehearsal. The trouble: no Christoff. He was sulking in stubborn silence in his dressing room,...
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