Recollections Explain Opera Enthusiasm
Memorable experiences at operatic performances have made a number of Toronto women enthusiastic and energetic
workers in the women's committee of the Opera Festival Association.
Under the direction of Miss Vida Peene, their president, the women are already deep in preparation of the program, getting order forms ready for the ticket sale which begins in January in addition to working on the 1,001 details involved in such a big undertaking.
They are confident they will sell the house out for the 13 performances which
open Feb. 11 at the Royal Alexandra Theatre. This year the Royal Conservatory Opera Company, in collaboration with the Opera Festival Association will present Mozart's Cosi Fan Tutte, Puccini's Madame Butterfly
and the contemporary opera by Gian-Carlo Menotti, The Consul.
[...]
Mrs. Richard Morawetz was brought up in Prague, a focal point of Central
European musical and dramatic art. Opera performances were given almost daily and standards were high. Students
substituted musical scores for textbooks and adorned their rooms with portraits of their favorite singers. Mrs. Morawetz
was introduced
to opera at seven when she saw Lohengrin. It was a good choice, she is
convinced, because the fairy
tale atmosphere appealed to her childish romanticism.
"I was especially taken by the final aria of the departing knight," she said. "I altered the text to make it rhyme and sang it over and over again. My abundance of feeling substituted for lack of musical ability. Thus the foundation of my operatic interest was laid in childhood."
[...]
