Trial Songs at the Met

Under the Metropolitan Opera's harsh proscenium lights, the interior of St. Katherine's Church looked sadly tattered. The backdrop sagged, and the huge carved chair from which Walther von Stolzing sings his trial song in the first act of Die Meistersinger was pushed to one side. But out in the cavernous auditorium sat a crowd of invited guests, waiting for another kind of trial song. The occasion: the Met's first public talent audition.

In past years the winners of the Met's annual regional auditions got a chance to sing on the radio. This year, with the Metropolitan auditions radio program off the air, they were brought to New York by the Met's National Council to compete on the great stage before judges and an audience. Each of the 15 contestants had a preliminary hearing before General Manager Rudolf Bing and his panel to decide what they should sing in the finals, then rehearsed under Conductor Kurt Adler. With that preparation, they walked onto the Meistersinger set (already in place for an evening performance) to compete for the big prize: a contract with the Met.

For two hours, seven sopranos, two mezzos, four baritones, a tenor and a bass worked their way through arias from Mozart, Massenet, Verdi, Wagner. Then, while audience and contestants stepped up to Sherry's Bar for a breather, Bing retired to his office with the other judges, half an hour later came out with the names of the winners. The Met decided to award two contracts--to Tacoma's 30-year-old Baritone Roald Reitan and 20-year-old, Toronto-born Soprano Teresa Stratas. Baritone Reitan, who was turned down by a Met scout four years ago when he auditioned on his wedding day, took the news fairly calmly, but tiny (5 ft.) Soprano Stratas, a senior at the University of Toronto, promptly burst into tears. She kissed Conductor Kurt Adler and everyone else in sight, announced: "I can't wait. I want so much, I want to do things." Met staffers, struck by her facial and temperamental resemblance to another emotional soprano with a Greek name, have already pinned a nickname on Winner Stratas: "Little Callas."

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