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Among the singers who will appear are Sopranos Rosa Ponselle and Lucrezia Bori, Tenors Beniamino Gigli and Giovanni Martinelli, Baritones Lawrence Tibbett and Giuseppe De Luca, Basso Ezio Pinza. Since no German operas are to be given on the road, German members of the company were left free to sail for Europe at the end of the home season. Proudest of those sailing this year should be Conductor Artur Bodanzky whose uncut performances of the Wagner Ring operas were the outstanding individual achievement of the season.
Eclipse
For six years one of the most enterprising of the smaller U. S. musical organizations was the Philadelphia Civic Opera Company. It had able Alexander Smallens for musical director. It presented only the best of operas and those most creditably. It was with regret last week that its admirers read a disbandment announcement by its president, Mrs. Henry M. Tracy. The reasons given were customary: excessive costs of production; lack of financial support. Onlookers wondered if perhaps the Civic Company had not been eclipsed by the increased activities of the Philadelphia Grand Opera Company, which has profited since last autumn by affiliation with the Curtis Institute of Music, the millions of Mrs. Mary Louise Curtis Bok.
*The first Bayreuth appearance of Conductor Toscanini, perhaps his farewell to opera.