Music: Gatti’s Plans

In Manhattan last week General Manager Guilio Gatti-Casazza announced plans for the Metropolitan Opera’s coming season, married Rosina Galli, his première danseuse, and sailed for Europe.

Eight new singers have been engaged: Soprano Beatrice Belkin of Lawrence, Kan., member of “Roxy’s Gang” (Manhattan cinema troupe), the St. Louis Municipal and the Philadelphia and Pennsylvania Grand Opera Companies; Soprano Myrna Sharlow of Jamestown, N. Dak. and St. Louis, onetime member of the Chicago Opera Company; Polish Soprano Olga Didur, daughter of Basso Adamo Didur, also a Metropolitan singer; French Coloratura Lily Pons; French Tenor Georges Thill to replace Tenor Antonin Trantoul whose début last winter was undistinguished; Contralto Faina Petrova of the Moscow Grand Opera; Baritone Claudio Frigerio of Paterson, N. J., who has sung in Italian opera houses; Norwegian Basso Ivar Frithjof Andresen, famed throughout Europe for his Wagner.

Four new operas will be added to the repertoire: Deems Taylor’s Peter Ibbetson, based on the novel of George du Maurier, in which will appear Soprano Lucrezia Bori, Tenor Edward Johnson, Baritone Lawrence Tibbett; Franz von Suppé’s Boccaccio, a comic opera in which Soprano Maria Jeritza will appear as a male impersonator; Mussorgsky’s The Fair at Sorochinsk, also a comic opera based on a story by Gogol; Le Preziose Ridicole, based on Molière’s play.