Page Six

DETROIT JEWISH CHRONICLE and The Legel Chronicle

Jews in Music

By
PAUL GOULD
Though it is not probable, it
is within the realm of possibil-
ity that one might before a glit-
tering audience at the historic
Metropolitan Opera House in
New York a cast made up pre-
dominantly of featured Jewish
stars will thrill the Diamond
Horseshoe in Halevy's "La
Juive."
For, st the rate that Jewish
artists have been distinguishing
themselves at the Met, it may
not be long before the season is
marked by nightly appearances
of these singers. At one time
only the brief mention of
"List" comprised the sum and
total of Jewish operatic genius
in America. Today it has swelled
to a notable crescendo with such
eminent figures as Leonard War-
ren, Jan Peerce, Frederick Lech-
ner, Alexander Kipnis, Richard
Tucker, Regina Resnik, Mimi
Benzell, Jennie Tourel, Thelma
Altman and Martha Lipton. There
are others, too, among the gal-
axy but they are secondary fig-
ures in this fabulous world of
musical make-believe.
At least two of the men are
to strangers to the Jewish com-
munity in New York. For Rubin
Tucker, now Richard Tucker
and Lechner are still enchanting
congregations as cantors.
Tucker, the most recent Jew-
ish singer to be acclaimed at the
Met, is the cantor at the Brook-
lyn Jewish Center, while Lech-
ner sings at the Central Syna-
gogue in Manhattan. Tucker's
tenor career is closely linked to
that of Peerce in more ways
than one. Not only did Peerce,
too, have a distinct Jewish flavor
to his early career — he played
for Alexander Olshanetsky's band
on the East Side—but the two
are brother-in-laws and it was
Peerce who urged Tucker to be-
come a cantor when the latter
was courting Miss Sara Perl-
muth, his sister.
How
Rose to Fame
And it was a sardonic twist
of fate that catapulted List to
operatic fame. Austrian born and
a singer in Germany for many
years, List was at the Hippo-
drome when Europe's first World
War broke out in 1914 and he
was literally booed off the stage.
Bewildered and without friends,
he was championed by Roxy and
Hugo Risenfeld and soon he was
at the Capitol Theatre again en-
chanting audiences with his rich
bass voice. So from vaudeville he
soared to fame on Broadway and
thence to the Met, and it is a
rich source of satisfaction to him
that several years ago he was
able to turn over 27 medals,
most of them given him by Ger-
man municipalities, to the metal
salvage campaign.
That was a comparative ges-
ture ; List began too, to devote
his energy to helping refugees
and many of them he set up in
business. Today he can be found
dividing his time equally between
the Met and an unrationcd wom-
en's sports shoe enterprise he
set up for some of the refugees.
But while List has been at the
Met since 1933, many new Jew-
ish voices have become heard for
the first time in the last year or
two. Besides Tucker and Lech-
ner, Regina Resnik, Mimi Ben-
zell, Thelma Altman and Martha
Lipton are also newcomers.
Resnik and Benzell, native New
Yorkers, created a great stir
when they were discovered. A

He

Friday, September 7, 194'

DESERT PIONEERS IN THE JEWISH HOMELAND

dramatic soprano, Regina Resnik
I graduated from Hunter College
only three years ago and after
brief training was awarded a
$1,000 prize at the Met radio
.auditions and signed as a star.
Her debut in the historic Ope-
ra House was a story-book tale.
On 24 hours' notice she was
-ailed upon to fill the role of
Leonora in "Il Trovatore" when
Zinka Milanov came down sud-
denly with laryngitis. Unshaken,
calm, utterly devoid of trepida-
tion though she had never pub-
rely sung the part before, Res-
nik performed like a veteran
trouper. The acclaim she received
"made" her.
Young Cinderella
Where Regina is a dramatic
'oprano, Benzell is classed as a
lyric coloratura and at 21 is one
of the youngest of the Cinderel-
las who have made good. Like
Resnik a Hunter College student.
only recently did she become in-
terested in singing and it was at
summer theatre in the Cat-
caroling everything from
classics to boogie-woogie, that
she fully realized her own capa-
bilities. Her father died and the
family finances became depleted;
working in a department store
lidn't help much, so she began
to sing professionally and soon
was engaged at the Rainbow
Room.
Then followed a Broadway run
of "Rosalinde," and the Met,
anxious to encourage native tal-
ent, came to hear. It wasn't long
before she, too, was emblazoned
in the lights on Broadway and
39th St.
Like Resnik, Warren found
himself thrust into fame and for-
tune in 1943. Lawrence Tibbett
became ill one day and Warren
replaced him on short notice, as
the baritone in "Rigoletto." His
performance was sparkling and
he, too, rose overnight from an
understudy to a full-fledged star.
His career had begun after he
had graduated from Columbid
night school when he won the
radio audition in 1938. He took
up with the Met directly after
that.
Probably the most publicized
career of all is Peerce's. Born
Joshua Pincus Perlmuth, he didn't
know until 12 years ago that he
could sing. For many years he
had played the violin for bands
while his mother wailed that he
should study to be a doctor. It
was at the Golden Anniversary
celebration for Weber and Fields
that Roxy—who had befriended
List in 1914—heard him sing and
immediately signed him as lead-
ing tenor on the opening bill at
the Radio City Music Hall.
Poverty had dogged the Perl-
muth family throughout Jan's
early life and his mother had to
scrape pennies together to have

With the aid of the United Palestine Appeal,
these hardy young settlers are paving the way
for the development of vast areas of uncultivated
land in the Jewish National Home, thereby in-
creasing the capacity oldie country to absorb
large numbers of immigrants from war-ravaged
Europe. Above left, a young woman brings in
the tomato crop frOm the truck garden created
through irrigation of the once-barren soil of
Beth Ha'arava, at the. edge of the Dead Sea,
more than 1,300 feet below sea level. This settle-

him learn the "fiddle." He worked
his way through school by or-
ganizing a band but when the
fateful moment came to him, he
said falteringly to Roxy :
"Mr. Rothaf el, I'm too short
to go on a stage. I'm too funny-
looking."
Roxy banged his fist on his
desk and shouted, "You're the
tallest man in the world! You're
the handsomest man in the world!
All you have to do is believe
that and it's so."
Wants Him to Be Doctor
But his mother, who still clings
'to the East Side, wants him to
become a doctor. She can't under- 1
stand all this singing, all this
foreign opera business.
Tucker's career was a meteric
as that of his brother-in-law.
Once a runner in Wall Street,
(Continued on Page 13)

$ 0

I

ment, established with' the help of the U. P. A..
represents a triumph of the most rigorous type
of pioneering. The young man at the right, car•
rying part of an irrigation pipeline, is one of
the founders of the settlement of Beth Eshel, in
the southern Legion of Palestine known as the
Negev. Funds to assist in the reclamation of tin
soil of the Negev—which would double the lam)
available for settlement in Palestine—are pro
vided by the United Palestine Appeal, which i
a partner in the United Jewish Appeal.

!mg ob Nom mlibm mom g Rom iklimw

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