Debut and Homecoming

One of the mysteries of the Metropolitan Opera Company has been its failure to engage Baritone John Charles Thomas, to reintroduce Tenor Paul Althouse. Last week Manager Giulio Gatti-Casazza endeavored to make up for lost time. Baritone Thomas was ordered to get himself into tail coat and top hat and enact the worried parent in Traviata. Plump Tenor Althouse, who sang at the Met twelve years ago, was told to slip on a bearskin for Siegmund in Die Walkure.

John Charles Thomas, a Pennsylvania Methodist minister's son, made his name in musical comedy (Maytime, Apple Blossoms). He went to Brussels for operatic experience and he has sung briefly in opera in Chicago, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, San Francisco. But it was his concerts that made New York realize he had the warmest, smoothest baritone voice in the country. Concerts have earned him enough money to keep a home in Easton, Maryland, another in Palm Beach where he often goes sailfishing with his wife.

In Traviata the role of the elder Germont is no test for an actor. But Thomas sang "Di Provenza," the one big aria, in model fashion, moved about the stage surely, easily, appeared properly sympathetic with the emotional frenzies of the consumptive Violetta.

Tenor Paul Althouse, a Pennsylvanian like Thomas, looked better in a bearskin than Tenor Lauritz Melchior who usually sings Siegmund. And he sang the taxing music every bit as well. Twelve years ago critics used to find fault with Althouse's bleating but now, at 44, his voice is perfectly controlled, rich with color. Thoroughly exciting was the scene where he pulls Wotan's sword out of the ash tree. He jumped up on the table, grasped the hilt firmly, steadied himself and gave a mighty jerk that was felt throughout the audience.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.