Looking for a Bluebird: Joseph Wechsberg; BBC Enterprises, Ltd., 1990; audiobook, read by Peter Jones; cassette.

The Cuisine of Hungary: George Lang; Joseph Wechsberg (preface), Atheneum, 1971; & New York, 1990; hardcover; & Penguin Books Ltd.; 1993; paperback.

           

The Murderers Among Us (The Simon Wiesenthal Memoirs): Simon Wiesenthal; Joseph Wechsberg (Ed.), 1967; McGraw-Hill Book Company, hardcover.

          
The Murderers Among Us (Simon Wiesenthal): Simon Wiesenthal; Joseph Wechsberg (Ed.), 1968; Pan Books Ltd., paperback.

II. OPERA IN EUROPE [excerpt from 1st edition]
The Vienna Opera Festival Joseph Wechsberg . . . . . . p. 82
“FESTIVAL” is becoming a much misused word. A festival should be made up of festive performances, carried in a festive spirit. It is not sufficient to lure visitors by promises of great things to come and then offer them sub-standard repertory. Perhaps we in Vienna were spoiled by the Festwochen in 1952 and 1953, when the Staatsoper im Theater an der Wien gave a brilliant galaxy of fine opera performances during the annual June Festival. This year, the Festwochen opened and closed with spectacular events; in between were stretches of arid mediocrity. There seemed to be a general lack of organization. It is bad luck when a number of first-rate singers are suddenly getting indisposed; it is poor management when a Festival is organized without adequate replacements. On two successive evenings the performances had to be changed at the last minute. On other nights, there was appalling improvisation. The old era Hilbert is finished and the new era Bohm (who takes over as director in September) had not yet started. During the interregnum no one seemed to care what happened. The present director, Franz Salmhofer, was overheard saying that ‘improvisation is everything.’ Visitors from abroad, who had travelled to Vienna expecting to hear great things, sat in dismay, bored by voiceless singing, superannuated acting, sloppy orchestra playing and a virtual lack of musical direction. No opera-house is better than its conductors and some of the State Opera’s present conductors just do not belong there.

There were two outstanding performances in twenty-two days. Both were conducted by Dr. Karl Bohm. This is no accident. Things being what they are now in Vienna only the future director, who can hire and fire, seems able to extract that extra effort from the performers which makes the difference between a mediocre performance and a great one.

The two outstanding performances were Meistersinger and Elektra. Paul Schoeffler sang a Hans Sachs of great poetic beauty, with the necessary humorous and robust undertones. Rarely have veteran Meistersinger fans, to whom I belong, heard the tragic of the ageing man (Mein Kind, von Tristan und Isolde kenn ich ein traurig Lied) with such eloquent understanding. The liedermonolog and the scene with Eva (Irmgard Seefried) were magnificent, and so was the entire Schusterstube. The quintet reminded me of the great days of Lotte Lehmann, Leo Slezak and Emil Schipper. Kunz was the Beckmesser (he refrained from exaggeration) and Murray Dickie and Rosette Anday were their reliable selves. The Mastersingers could be heard, the Prugelszme was a cabinet piece of exactness, and the Festzviese was impressive. What an evening that was!

Elektra is the single greatest performance in Vienna, and the one during the Festival was even more gripping and moving than usualy. Bohm kept the large orchestra down to chamber-musical lucidity and there were minutes of unbroken lyrical beauty, such as Elektra’s meeting with Orest and the final duet of the two sisters. In the title part Christel Goltz made it clear once again that she is the finest Elektra of our day; one would wish though she would not sing this taxing part so much, for there were signs of fatigue, particularly her around B and B flat; her Cs are magnificent. The rest of the cast, Elisabeth Hoengen as Klytemnestra, Hilde Zadek as Chrysothemis, Schoeffler as Orest and Max Lorenz as Aegisth, were equally spectacular. The orchestra, under Bohm, was marvellous.

There were also a few good evenings. A Don Giovanni with George London, vocally and in appearance superb, though in his characterization sometimes conventional, and with a trio of beautiful women, Zadek as Donna Anna, Lisa della Casa as Elvira, Hilde Gueden as Zerlina. Ludwig Weber as the Commandator sang the cemetery scene with impressive resonance. There was also an exciting Tristan with the great Martha Modi and Max Lorenz. Both performances (as well as a fine Ariadne) were conducted by Rudolf Moralt, the State Opera’s always-reliable maestro, a fine technician and a man of sound musical intelligence. There are rumours that he may not stay on in Vienna. It is to be hoped that Bohm will not repeat the mistake of some of Ms predecessors who surrounded themselves with a string of second-rate conductors so they would shine themselves. This may be quite effective for the Herr Direktor who conducts all outstanding performances, but it is not the right way to keep a high-class establishment.

In Ariadne, Seefried demonstrated again that her Komponist is perhaps the finest of her parts, and the long legato phrases are so-to-speak tailor-made for Zadek’s beautiful, warm voice. Richard Strauss’s ninetieth birthday was celebrated with a good performance of Daphne (with Maria Reining). As Boris Godunov, George London, singing beautifully, was surrounded by a hopeless cast and hardly helped by a sloppy orchestra.

By way of contributing to the new Handel Renaissance, the State Opera produced Julius Caesar. No expense was saved. Impressive baroque scenery and costumes were designed by Caspar Neher. A selected orchestra (two first desk concertmasters, Boskowsky and Sedlak) was under Bohm. And there was a first-class cast (Shoeffler, Seefried, Hoengen, Dermota, Frick). The performance was very good, in spite of several indispositions. It was repeated just once, and it will not be given again before next year. A very fine contribution to kultura but one wonders whether the work couldn’t have been given as oratorio in the concert hall last year, Die Frau ohne Schatten was performed there while the money could have been spent to bolster the repertory, say, to buy new sets for the such much-performed productions as Carmen, or Hoffman’s Erzdhlungen, which need badly a new make-up. Very little Mozart was given this year. The State Opera travels with its de-luxe Coslfan tutte, but at home they never play it. And Alban Berg’s Wozzeck, an opera in the repertory, was not performed during the Festival which was said to be devoted partly to Berg.