My first weekend in November, 1967 began with Gunther Schuller’s “The Visitation” on Friday evening, and Gounod’s “Faust” (with Alfredo Kraus and Nicolai Ghiaurov) the next night [See Historical Review: Gounod’s “Faust” Starring Kraus, Ghiaurov, Saunders and Wixell – San Francisco Opera, November 4 and November 12, 1967].
The next day’s Sunday matinee was the occasion for the fourth and final performance of a new production of Wagner’s “Tristan und Isolde” starring South Dakota tenor Jess Thomas and California mezzo-soprano Irene Dalis.
Jess Thomas’ Tristan
Two American opera companies – the San Francisco and Santa Fe Operas – had both, ten years earlier, established new initiatives aimed at promoting operatic careers for American artists. Those initiatives – San Francisco Opera Merola Program and Santa Fe Opera Apprentice Program – were beginning to produce the desired results, a generation of young American artists with broad experience in operatic performance.
South Dakota tenor Jess Thomas’ career, to date, included his enrollment in San Francisco Opera’s newly established young artists’ program and several small roles in the company’s 1957 season. Thomas’ repertory expanded through experiences at German opera houses. and his mid-decade San Francisco appearances performing lead roles in operas of Wagner, Puccini and Richard Strauss.
[Photo: Jess Thomas as Tristan; edited image, based on a Dennis Galloway photograph, courtesy of the San Francisco Opera.]
Few experiences are more important to a singer, whose reputation to date has included Wagnerian roles of the first rank, than his debut in the role of Tristan. Jess Thomas’ ascending importance as a Wagnerian ‘heldentenor’ was important not only to the San Francisco Opera, but also to Wagner’s Bayreuth Festival, whose director, Wieland Wagner, was the grandson of composer Richard Wagner, and the great-grandson of composer Franz Liszt.
The performance I attended at San Francisco Opera’s War Memorial Opera House was an extraordinary performance in itself. It was also a celebration of Jess Thomas as representative of the earliest days of a major movement in operatic performance.
For reviews of Jess Thomas performaces during the 1965 and 1966 San Francisco:Opera seasons, see: Historical Performances: Jess Thomas’ Victorious “Die Meistersinger” – San Francisco Opera, September 11, 1965 for his Walther; Historical Performances: “Tosca” with Marie Collier, Jess Thomas and Ramon Vinay – San Francisco Opera, October 21, 1965 for his Mario Cavaradossi; Historical Performances: “Ariadne auf Naxos” with Hillebrecht, Thomas, Grist, Vanni – San Francisco Opera, October 23, 1965 for his Bacchus; and Historical Performances: Jess Thomas’ “Tannhäuser” with Régine Crespin, Janis Martin and Thomas Stewart – San Francisco Opera, October 22, 1966 for his Tannhäuser.
Irene Dalis’ Isolde
[Photo: Irene Dalis as Isolde; edited image of a Margaret Norton photograph, courtesy of the San Francisco Opera.]
General Director Adler’s conversations with Wieland Wagner had included an expression of interest on Wagner’s part in the possibility of California mezzo-soprano Irene Dalis assaying the soprano role of Isolde (there being successful examples of mezzo-soprano Isoldes in the opera’s performance history). When the decision was made to mount a new San Francisco Opera production of the opera, Dalis was persuaded to add the role to her repertory.
I first saw Dalis perform as the Empress’ Nurse [Historical Performances: The Woman Without an Equal: Leonie Rysanek in “Frau ohne Schatten”: San Francisco Opera, September 24, 1960], a role she repeated four years later [Historical Performances: Ella Lee, Dalis, Kuchta, Waechter, Martell in “Frau ohne Schatten” – San Francisco Opera, September 26, 1964.]
My earliest Dalis Wagnerian performance was her Ortrud [Historical Performances: Sandor Konya, Irene Dalis in “Lohengrin” – San Francisco Opera, October 27, 1960]. The other Wagnerian role I saw her perform was Kundry [Historical Performances: Konya, Dalis, Waechter, Tozzi in “Parsifal” – San Francisco Opera, September 12, 1964].
In addition, I saw her perform Marina Mnishek in a “Boris” performance sung in English [Historical Performances: An American “Boris Godunov” Starring Tozzi and Dalis – San Francisco Opera, September 21, 1961] and Princess Eboli [Historical Performances: Konya, Tozzi, Dalis, Thomas Stewart in “Don Carlo” at San Francisco Opera – September 22, 1962].
Attending the fourth and final performance, I found Dalis’ performance to be vocally sound and dramatically persuasive, but Dalis decided against retaining the role in her repertory, so the performance I attended was the last Isolde of her career.
Mignon Dunn’s Brangäne
[Photo: Mezzo-soprano Mignon Dunn; edited image of a publicity photograph.]
Tennessee-born mezzo-soprano Mignon Dunn had made her San Francisco Opera debut as Brangäne just over two weeks prior to the performance I attended.
Dunn would perform two other roles later in the month, both of which exhibited the power in her lower register. She was Ulrica in four performances of Verdi’s “Un Ballo in Maschera”, revived for soprano Leontyne Price.
Subsequently, she joined Jess Thomas and Irene Dalis in a new production of Wagner’s “Das Rheingold”, peforming the role of Erda.
Dunn would return to the San Francisco Opera once more in Spring 1982, just after the retirement of General Director Adler, to sing the role of Baba the Turk in the John Cox production of Stravinsky’s “The Rake’s Progress”, whose sets were designed by the famous English artist David Hockney.
Josef Greindl’s King Marke, Chester Ludgin’s Kurwenal and Other Cast Members
German bass Josef Greindl, who performed Baron Ochs the previous month [Historical Reviews: Régine Crespin, Sylvia Anderson, Reri Grist and Josef Greindl Shine in Elegant “Der Rosenkavalier” – San Francisco Opera, October 15, 1967], proved an unsteady King Marke. He would sing Fafner in “Das Rheingold” later in the month. All his San Francisco Opera performances were limited to the Fall 1967 season.
This was the final performance of the season for New York baritone Chester Ludgin, culminating an impressive series of principal roles in San Francisco Opera’s 1964 through 1967 seasons that included the title role of Verdi’s “Macbeth” a few weeks earlier [“Historical Performances”: Chester Ludgin, Grace Bumbry in Verdi’s “Macbeth” – San Francisco Opera, October 6, 1967]. Ludgin would be absent from the San Francisco Opera ro the next nine years, returning in 1976 for the world premiere of Imbrie’s “Angle of Repose”, the first of several appearances occurring over the next decade.
Others in the cast included Welsh baritone Stuart Burrows as a Sailor’s Voice; Pennsylvania tenor Rod McWherter (in his most significant role to date) as Melot; Canadian tenor (and former hockey player) Roy Glover as a Shepherd and Australian bass Clifford Grand as a Steersman.
Maestro Horst Stein and the San Francisco Opera Orchestra and Chorus
[Photo: German Maestro Horst Stein; edited image of a publicity photograph.]
Maestro Horst Stein had important assignments at San Francisco Opera’s War Memorial Opera House during the 1965 through 1968 seasons. His debut took place in the opening weekend of the Fall 1965 season with Johann Strauss’ “Die Fledermaus” [Historical Performances: “Die Fledermaus” with Mary Costa, Richard Lewis, Reri Grist – San Francisco Opera, September 18, 1965].
Stein was associated with important new productions of “Elektra”[Historical Performances – Deep Casting, Siercke’s Set Design, Result in A Brilliant “Elektra”, San Francisco Opera, September 24, 1966] and “The Magic Flute” [Historical Performances: Geraint Evans, Stuart Burrows, Jane Marsh Welcome “The Magic Flute” into the San Francisco Opera repertory – September 23, 1967 and October 8, 1967.]
Over the next four seasons Stein would conduct Jess Thomas’ San Francisco Opera role debuts as Lohengrin, Bacchus and Tannhäuser, in addition to his Tristan.
Director Paul Hager’s Production
In the mid-1960s, San Francisco Opera’s General Director Kurt Herbert Adler was engaged in discussions with Wieland Wagner, Richard Wagner’s grandson and Director of Germany’s Wagner-centered Bayreuth Festival, to create a new production of “Tristan und Isolde”, starring Jess Thomas, for the San Francisco Opera..
Wieland Wagner had supported the idea of encouraging mezzo-soprano Irene Dalis to assay the role of Isolde. His death in October, 1966 resulted in Adler’s decision to commission a new Paul Hager “Tristan” production for Thomas and Dalis, with sets by Leni Bauer-Ecsy.
[Photo: Leni Bauer-Ecsy’s 1967 sets for “Tristan und Isolde”; edited image, based on a photograph by an unknown photographer, courtesy of the San Francisco Opera.]
Bauer-Ecsy’s “Tristan” sets would return again in the 1970 season, when the opera was revived for soprano Birgit Nilsson, who performed to the Tristan of Wolfgang Windgassen.
Four years later in the 1974 season, Jess Thomas would perform Tristan to Nilsson’s Isolde in a Dietrich Haugk production, conducted by Maestro Kurt Herbert Adler.
Final Thoughts
In my first dozen years (1955-1967) of experiencing live opera performances (all San Francisco Opera performances at the War Memorial Opera House or on the company’s Southern California tour), tenor Jess Thomas was a dominant presence in my introductions to the German repertory.
Thomas was my first Walther in “Die Meistersinger”, my first Tannhäuser and my first Tristan. In a few days he would be my first Loge in “Das Rheingold” and over the next few seasons my first Siegfried in both “Siegfried” and “Götterdämmerung”.
He would, in 1973, also be my first introduction to the operas of Benjamin Britten, as my first Peter Grimes.