Great Erda

Goddess of the Earth and of Wisdom is Erda in Richard Wagner's Ring of the Nibelungs. Greatest of Erdas in her heyday was Contralto Ernestine Schumann-Heink. That the heyday has endured even unto her sixty-eighth year was proved last week when she sang the role again at the Metropolitan Opera House, Manhattan. Up she came out of the earth in Rheingold, sang her warning to the gods with an untarnished skill and dignity that made her few minutes on stage the outstanding moment of the afternoon. Next day she issued a statement that "after this year it would be time for an old lady to retire." Already she has given a season of Golden Jubilee concerts, two seasons of "farewells." Next year, she says, she will devote to teaching and to aiding World War veterans.