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PEOPLE & ARTSWednesday 10 January 2018
Film depicts birth of New York’s Lincoln Center
By MIKE SILVERMAN
Associated Press
NEW YORK (AP) — Resplen-
dent in a plaid turban,
green cowl-neck muffler,
pearl necklace and silver-
ridged earrings, an icon of
opera sits in a straight-back emke that blends operatic
chair and reminisces about
her career.
Leontyne Price (who turned
90 after this interview was
conducted) is astonishing-
ly precise in her memory as
she discusses opening the
new Metropolitan Opera
House at Lincoln Center in
1966 and making a historic
debut at the old Met five
years before that.Price is
the unquestioned star of a
documentary by Susan Fro-
and architectural lore with
an overview of New York’s
social and political history
in the 1950s and ‘60s.
“The Opera House,” a two-
hour film with a soundtrack
from the Met’s own ar-
In this 2017 photo, legendary soprano Leontyne Price talks
during an interview about the Metropolitan Opera’s move to
Lincoln Center in 1966, in New York. of space,” Froemke said.
chives, will be broadcast to
movie theaters worldwide
Saturday as part of its “Live
in HD” series.
Froemke said she didn’t
know what to expect when
she went to the Baltimore
area where Price now lives
for the interview early last
year. “Nobody knew what
her memory would be like,”
Froemke recalled. “But the
moment she walked in the
door, she was just on fire. It
would have made a great
opening because she
went right over to the mir-
ror and began to perfect
her makeup.”
Once settled into her chair,
Price chatted for 2½ hours.
“She has an ironclad mem-
ory,” Froemke said. “I mean
every one of the stories she
tells, she remembers the
nuanced details of every-
thing that happened to
her related to the opening,
or her debut.
“The hardest part was not
laughing because she’s so
humorous,” she said. “She
grew up in Mississippi and
so she’s got this oral tradi-
tion of being a great story-
teller and her wit is just kill- —Cold War rivalry with
ing.”
Price, whose debut in Ver-
di’s “Il Trovatore” in 1961
launched her as one of
the first African-American
budgetaruba@setarnet.aw
stood for more than capi-
talist materialism. Froemke
said the bankers and soci-
ety moguls who made up
the Met’s board “wanted
to make New York the cul-
tural capital of the world
and they saw this as their
opportunity. Berlin was de-
stroyed, Paris was having a
very difficult time, London
had been pretty much de-
stroyed.”
—Wallace Harrison. The
new Met’s chief architect
wanted to build a dar-
ingly modernist house, “al-
most like something out
But “his dream didn’t get
Associated Press achieved,” she said, be-
cause of opposition from
singers to become a lead- a cost-conscious and tra-
ing artist at the Met, is also ditionalist Met board and
heard singing in the film. from the architects as-
There’s a snippet from her signed to other buildings at
farewell performance in Lincoln Center who didn’t
Verdi’s “Aida” in 1985, and want the Met to over-
a passage from Verdi’s whelm their designs. In par-
“Requiem” to accompany ticular, Froemke said, Philip
stills of the demolition of Johnson, architect for the
the old Met at 39th Street New York State Theater,
and Broadway. And she’s “was so incredibly jealous
heard in brief excerpts of Harrison’s reputation
from Samuel Barber’s “Ant- and his connections to so-
ony and Cleopatra,” the ill- ciety that he fought him all
fated world premiere that the way.”
opened the new house. —Rudolf Bing. The Met’s
But there’s far more to the imperious general manag-
film than Price. Among the er is captured in all his dap-
other topics and person- per elegance thanks to ar-
alities: —Razing an entire chival footage shot by cin-
neighborhood. Several ema verite pioneer Robert
blocks of tenements that Drew for the Bell Telephone
were home to thousands Hour. (Froemke’s team also
of people were bulldozed obtained historical photos
to make room for Lincoln and video from The Associ-
Center at the behest of ated Press and other news
Robert Moses, the city’s organizations.) Drew’s film
development czar. Fro- takes the viewer inside the
emke sees it as “the be- house during rehearsals for
ginning of his downfall. ... “Antony and Cleopatra,”
People began to realize where we see the Met’s
that when you annihilate new turntable break down
an entire community in the under the weight of direc-
name of progress, that’s a tor Franco Zeffirelli’s gran-
pretty big price to pay.” diose staging and then
watch Price get trapped
the Soviets. The creation inside a giant pyramid dur-
of a new performing arts ing the dress rehearsal.q
center became a propa-
ganda weapon — a way
of showing that America