Page Thirty-Five THE JEWISH NEWS Friday, March 30, 1945 The Jewish Cinderella How Regina Resnik, 22, Won A Place in Metropolitan BY PAUL GOULD (Copyright, 1945, Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Inc.) Regina Resnik can properly be called "the Yiddish Cinderella who made good at the Metropolitan." It was practically a Cinderella role that the 22-year-old Jewish girl from the Bronx played in catapaulting overnight from obscuri- ty to fame. Today she is acknowledged to be one of the great dramatic sopranos of the distinguished Metropolitan Opera House, a worthy successor to such fig-4 ures as Lily Pons, . Geraldine plause greeted her vocal efforts. Farrar and Galli Curci. Edward Johnson, who had asked Hardly four months after her three other singers to take the debut, the hard-bitten press part before he was forced to broach the matter to the un- known, was highly gratified. So was Mr. Graf. History had in- deed been made at tfie Metro- politan—and by a Jewish star. All in 75 Minutes REGINA RESNIK critics are still raving about her. In their opinion "this is only the beginning" and if there are greater pinnacles to which she can attain, they lie within easy reach of her. It was on Dec. 6,. 1944, that she cast the die. It happened that Zinka Mil- anov, the featured artist in "Trovatore," was suddenly stricken with laryngitis. On 24 hours' notice Regina was sum- moned and asked if she would sing the role of Leonora. It was a part she had never sung on the stage before; she had never witnessed this opera; she had never studied the fourth act. A Met Crisis Regina never hesitated a min- ute. When the brilliant curtains of the Diamond Horseshoe theater were drawn up, she was the only person backstage who was not nervous. Standing in the back of the house, unable to buy tickets because of the 11th-hour selec- tion of this substitute, were her parents, Sam Resnick, manager of the Lido Luggage Company, a leather factory at 26 W. 17th St., and Mrs. Ruth Seidel. Res- nick. With them was their son, Jack, 16 years old. They almost chewed their nails down to the roots. But Regina—whose sole in- clination to artistic temperament seems to be the spelling of her name as Resnik instead of. her parents' Resnick—possessed the calm of fatalism. When she told Herbert Graf, the stage director, that she had never seen "Trova- tore," he almost passed out. It was a crisis in the life of the Met, for this young girl could have marred the impeccable reputation of the opera house by cracking in her unusual debut. But she succeeded as rarely had a newcomer succeeded be- fore. Wave after wave of ap- It was then revealed that Mr. Graf had permitted her only one hour and 15 minutes to go over the part that morning. To take more time was to risk her be- coming tired and spoiling the performance, he said. The meteoric career of Miss Resnik then was unfolded be- fore the mystified music world to whom she was a veritable stranger. As a child she attended Herman Ridder High School in the Bronx and When she was graduated she studied at James Monroe High School. From there she matriculated at Hunt- er College and here it was that she first showed her remarkable talent. Since Hunter has no men students, she sang the male parts in Gilbert and Sullivan operas, parts which were considered more difficult than the female ones. After • graduating from Hunter in 1942, she launched her career with a joint recital with John Herrick, the baritone, at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Herrick was a well-known artist and Miss Resnik learned much from her association with him. The result was that when she made her_ operatic debut that season with the New Opera Company she was already well on her way, though only 20 years old, to becoming a top- flight star. UPA Funds to Aid Veterans Program TEL AVIV (JPS-Palcor) — Monies derived from the United Palestine Appeal in the U. S. will be used by the Jewish National Fund and the Palestine Founda- tion Fund which constitute the UPA in the U. S. for a vast ser- viceman's project, including the purchase of several hundred thousand dunams of land for the purpose of settling 3,000 fam- ilies of Jewish Palestine's ser- vicemen, it was revealed by Joseph Gurion, chief of the Jew- ish Agency's Servicemen's Re- habilitation Committee. He said that 10,000 Jewish Soldiers have registered their in- tentions of settling on the land, including 7,000 who were farm- ers before joining the army and 3,000 who seek to learn farming. The Jewish National Fund has earmarked large areas of land for this purpose, and five JNF land areas, in Galilee and in the Jordan Valley, are already being developed by the. Palestine Foundation Fund for several soldier's settlement groups. One of these settlements will bear the name of Dr. Chaim Weizmann. "Fidelio" with great success there. On the day of her debut in that part she was informed by telegram that she was a final- ist in the 1942-43 Metropolitan Auditions of the Air, and would have to come home at once or forego the opportunity. On March 17 of this year, Miss Resnik again enacted the part of Leonore in "Fidelio", an unusual performance in that it was pre- sented for the first time in English. She was greeted by ac- clamation. Of special interest to De- troiters is the information made available this week that Miss Regina Resnik will appear as soloist with the Jewish Folk Chorus, at the Scottish Rite Cathedral of the Masonic Tem- ple, under the direction of Henri Goldberg, on Sunday evening, May 13. `When Hearts Sing' to be Staged Sunday Night at Masonic Temple "When Hearts Sing," the new musical play which will be brought to Detroit on Sunday evening for a single showing on the stage of the Scottish Rite Cathedral of the Masonic Temple, will feature two of the outstand- ing stars of the Yiddish stage— Samuel Goldenburg and Michal Michalesko. Abraham Littman, who is sponsoring this stage presenta- tion, stated this week that the communities where the play has already been presented speak in glowing terms of its high qual- ities. The large assisting cast in- cludes several very well known names on the Yiddish stage, in- cluding Roseta Bialis, Sylvia Feder, Sarah Gingold, Anna Le- Vine, Mildred Block, Leon Charas, Jacob Zanger, Leon Schechter, Ben Zeidman and others. Tickets for the performance are available at Littman's home, 1927 Pingree, TY. 6-9186; Metro Music House, 10328 Dexter, TO. 8-4114; Atkins Confectionary, 12th and Lee PI., TY. 2-8889 or TY. 2-8884, or at the Masonic Temple, TE. 2-6648, on the day of the performance on Sunday. 'Original Writings' Program Of Kvuizah Saturday Night A Passover program for the presentation of original writings by members will be carried out Saturday evening at :the Rose Sittig Cohen Bldg., by Kvutzah Ivrith. Myer Mathis will be chairman of this evening's program dur- ing which members will read original essays, poems, etc. The public is invited. Admis- sion is free. Passover Greetings Use of Palestine Wines For Passover Urged Here NEW YORK, N. Y.—An ap- peal to the Jews of America to use Palestine wine during Pass- over, was issued by the Palestine Economic Bureau of the Zionist Organization of America. While shipments have been curtailed due to the war, there is still a quantity of this wine available for consumption here. WARD'S TIP TOP BREAD 3600 Toledo -1 000i , VOLNSVOMS,,N,AL'4 000CSVIMSNSIMVI ■ -VOLAMOCIOCIMCSSSOMIL Passover Greetings— French Village—tviaiestIc Building The Park Lunch—Park & Adams Aztec Tower—Union Guardian Bldg. Went to Mexico A month later, on Nov. 29, she was one of the two singers on the Metropolitan Auditions of the Air over WJZ. In singing the Entrance song from Verdi's "Lady Macbeth", said one critic, she proved herself of operatic caliber and the possessor of a good voice. Incidentally, the other singer was William Hargrove, also a new Metropolitan artist. But before she made her de- but at the Met, Miss Resnik found her two years with the New Opera Company and with the New York City Center Opera Company most instruc- tive. One of her trips took her to Mexico City in 1943 where she was featured at the Opera Na- cional, the leading musical house in that city. A treasured memory is as- sociated with Mexico City. She sang the role of Leonore in KEEP THEM BUY BONDS GREETINGS — on the — PASSOVER from Sam Grenadier Custom Tailor 5th Floor United Artists Building A Happy Passover To the Rabbi, Officers and Members of Congregation Bnai David Mr. & Mrs. Jos. A. Block BUY BONDS • • Good Service • • Accuracy • • Dependability 4298 Fullerton THIS COMPANY pioneered title insurance in Michigan, and leads in the number of title policies written each year in this state. Abstract and Title Guaranty Company 200 Lafayette Building Detroit Title Insurance • Abstracts • Escrow Tax Searches Surveys • • 1.8 1A, W. Lawrence, Pontiac 46 S. Gratiot, Mt. Clemens