Chicago Pleased

Chicago hears more and better French opera than Manhattan,* Manhattan more and better German opera. Recently a German Grand Opera Company arrived in Manhattan and advertised that it would give Wagner's Ring operas uncut, "according to the traditions of Bayreuth." Manhattan's critics were unanimously offended by the inferiority of the productions (TIME, Jan. 28) and the company left town. Last fortnight the same company gave performances in Chicago. After the Rheingold, the first in Chicago for more than a decade, Chicago seemed unanimously pleased. Critic Maurice Rosenfeld of the Chicago Daily News wrote: "The company began its two weeks' season . . . with great artistic success, with fine stage settings and management, and with a roster of Wagner singers which is far above the usual cast."

*Only one of the Metropolitan Opera's artists, Basso Leon Rothier, is a Frenchman.