Absolute beginners.(Viewpoint)(Cover Story)

In 1938, when the Metropolitan Opera Guild was just three years old (and OPERA NEWS was even younger), we published Opera Cavalcade: The Story of the Metropolitan--a book that, according to its foreword, was designed for "not only ... musicians and opera goers, but for the curious who perhaps for the first time will penetrate the veil of awe which has always surrounded the subject ... of grand opera." Prepared under the supervision of the formidable Mrs. John DeWitt Peltz, the Guild's then director of publications and OPERA NEWS's first editor, Opera Cavalcade offered an insider's guide to the Met of 1938, with articles on the company's history, its radio broadcasts and national tours, its chorus, ballet and orchestra members, its comprimarios, its principals and its audience.

For me, the most eye-opening chapter is the one titled "Genesis of a Metropolitan Career," which lays out a precis of the issues that opera neophytes needed to address in 1938: the selection of a good teacher, the need for "dramatic lessons," the protection and development of the voice, the importance of realistic financial plans. (Widest eye-opener in Cavalcade's proposed three-year budget for a beginner: living expenses of $30 per week, including rent!)

The U.S. opera landscape in 1938 was defined by the Metropolitan and the fifteen-year-old San Francisco Opera. The opera community is now enriched by dozens of other American opera companies and festivals, increasing the demand for talent a hundredfold. Today's talented tyros certainly have more opportunities for opera-house ...