Opera Warhorses

Fifty years ago, the Standard Opera Repertory was narrower than it is today. In the United States, impresarios such as Sir Rudolph Bing at the Metropolitan Opera and the newly empowered Kurt Herbert Adler at the San Francisco Opera set out to increase the number of operas that could be considered standard fare. And they [...]

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On November 3, 1955, the San Francisco Opera performed Gounod’s “Faust” at the Fox Theater in San Diego. The performance was no second-string pick-up cast, but included four of the most important operatic recording artists of the mid-20th century. Licia Albanese and Jan Peerce were international stars, both of whom recorded together [...]

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