Zoo Opera

Occasionally a lion roared; silver-haired Tenor Giovanni Martinelli roared louder. The summer opera season in Cincinnati's Zoo (with Ponchielli's 66-year-old La Gioconda) was on. Except for four operatic finds, it was much like other seasons. The four finds (chosen from 3,000 operatic aspirants recruited through nationwide radio auditions): Nan Merriman, a dimpled, 22-year-old brunette from California, who made her debut disguised in the stage wrinkles of old La Cieca in La Gioconda; Dorothy Ann Short, a 19-year-old University of Washington coed; Max Condon, a six-foot-two tenor; Baritone Mac Morgan, a former Eastman School student.

The Gioconda audience approved Singer Merriman's dark-hued voice, her confident air on the stage. Smiled Veteran Martinelli, foreman of the jury that picked her, "We don't want to be too encouraging to young singers, you know -but I am not sorry I gave her my first vote."

Cincinnati's Zoo offers the only summer season of first-rate opera in the U.S. As first presented 20 years ago, scraps of opera vied with an ice show, merry-go-round, two dance floors. Gradually full-length opera muscled in. The inevitable deficits were met by the inevitable angels, Mrs. Charles Phelps Taft, wife of the half brother of William Howard Taft, and Mrs. Mary Emery, whose father-in-law made one of Cincinnati's first big real-estate fortunes. In 1934 the musicians themselves took over.

But last May the opera nearly folded for good. The Association made a familiar, sad announcement: Cincinnati had failed to raise enough funds, Zoo opera would have to be abandoned. About 90 youngsters banded together, telephoned, rang doorbells, collected enough money to put the Zoo opera back on its feet.

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