Monday, July 05, 2010

Taking on the World: A Sister Sings Mahler



In 2003, Shirley Verrett published a memoir, I Never Walked Alone, in which she spoke frankly about the racism she encountered as a black person in the American classical music world. When the conductor Leopold Stokowski invited her to sing with the Houston Symphony in the early 1960s, he had to rescind his invitation when the orchestra board refused to accept a black soloist. Stokowski later made amends by giving her a prestigious date with the much better known Philadelphia Orchestra.

In spite of numerous theatrical triumphs, Gustav Mahler's Vienna years were rarely smooth; his battles with singers and the house administration continued on and off for the whole of his tenure. While Mahler's methods improved standards, his histrionic and dictatorial conducting style was resented by orchestra members and singers alike. In December 1903 Mahler faced a revolt by stagehands, whose demands for better conditions he rejected in the belief that extremists were manipulating his staff. The anti-Semitic elements in Viennese society, long opposed to Mahler's appointment, continued to attack him relentlessly, and in 1907 instituted a press campaign designed to drive him out. By that time he was at odds with the opera house's administration over the amount of time he was spending on his own music, and was preparing to leave. Early in 1907 he began discussions with Heinrich Conried  (n
ée Hans Cohn), director of the New York Metropolitan Opera, and in June signed a contract, on very favourable terms, for four seasons' conducting in New York. At the end of the summer he submitted his resignation to the Hofoper, and on 15 October 1907 conducted Fidelio, his 648th and final performance there. In ten years, Mahler had brought new life to the opera house and cleared its debts, but had won few friends—it was said that he treated his musicians in the way a lion tamer treated his animals. His departing message to the company, which he pinned to a notice board, was later torn down and scattered over the floor.  After conducting the Hofoper orchestra in a farewell concert performance of his Second Symphony on 24 November, Mahler left Vienna for New York in early December 1907.

3 comments:

My Daily Struggles said...

On October 12, 2004 a D.C. Police detective said to me: "All these people have said these things about you (that you are potentially violent and homicidal). Some of it must be true."

To which I would say: "All these lawyers (Charles F.C. Ruff, Esq., Jo Anne Robinson, Esq., Charles L. Reischel, Esq., William J. Earl, Esq. and M. Justin Draycott, Esq.) have said that Laurence Hoffman might be a racketeer. Some of it must be true."

My Daily Struggles said...

Note that in the above comment from 2010 I associated the ideas of racism, anti-Semitism and defamation.

My Daily Struggles said...

Incidentally, Cosima Wagner (widow of the composer), joined the campaign against Mahler in Vienna. Cosima Wagner could not stand the fact that a Jew was conducting the Vienna Philharmonic.

There was a two-faced quality about Cosima's behavior. She used to send friendly letters to Mahler importuning him, as conductor of the Vienna State Opera, to perform the (third-rate) operas written by her composer son, Siegfried Wagner.

Compare the behavior of Akin Gump's supervisors. They wrote outstanding performance evaluatons praising my work, all the while conducting a secret campaign to get rid of me.