Music: Music, Mar. 19, 1945

Homecoming

Red-haired Helen Traubel is the greatest U.S. Wagnerian soprano of her generation. She has come a long way since she was just a St. Louis druggist's daughter with a fine voice. Now, with her heroic proportions (200 lbs.) exhibited to best advantage in sleek costumes by Hollywood's Adrian, her Isolde and Brünnhilde give her every right to queen it over the Metropolitan Opera's distaff contingent.

Last week, on an officially trumpeted "Helen Traubel Day," both St. Louis and its favorite daughter did themselves proud. The 41-year-old prima donna was a joy to photographers. She twittered with the birds in the municipal zoo, was twittered over by excitable St. Louis socialites who did not know her at all in the old days. In Kiel auditorium, she sang 24 songs (only one from Wagner). On Sunday she took her oldtime seat in the loft of the jampacked Pilgrim Congregational Church. Miss Traubel refused to walk down the aisle with the choir, but in excellent voice soloed, O Master, Let Me Walk with Thee.

Another McCormack?

In the musty elegance of Dublin's old Shelbourne Hotel, a knowing audience of Irish socialites, critics and Government officials gathered for a song recital. The most conspicuous guest was a resident of the hotel: rotund Tenor John McCormack, 60, who sat on a horsehair sofa in the corner, listening with closed eyes.

When the deep-chested young singer from County Limerick had finished his arias and folk songs, the room clattered with applause. Even hearty old Tenor (and Papal Count) John McCormack said of 23-year-old Singer Christopher ("Christy") Lynch: "He is the one most likely to succeed me. ... A very beautiful voice ... I have not heard better in a quarter of a century."

This week Count McCormack was busily arranging for curly-haired Christy Lynch's operatic debut with the Dublin Grand Opera Society. "I want especially," said McCormack, "to see him make his first operatic appearance in Dublin . . . singing in The Tales of Hoffmann which I sang myself many years ago many times."

Though he was born at Rathkeale on the banks of the Deel, strapping Christy Lynch is no pure Celt. He is the grandson of a Swiss governess in an aristocratic Irish family. Only three years ago, he was a sportswriter's hope for all-Ireland goalkeeper in Ireland's rough-&-tumble game of hurley. Then he sang from the stage of a Limerick movie theater, and a wealthy family named O'Mara was in the audience. The O'Maras sent their young find to Dublin to study under Dr. Vincent O'Brien, 74-year-old discoverer of McCormack.

Since McCormack heard and approved Christy Lynch, the young tenor has sung 30 recitals. McCormack graciously concedes Lynch a quality which he thinks almost as important as a fine voice: "A finely developed sense of humor—a tenor's saving grace."

Heartfelt Warmth

After victory over the enemy, my violin will sound as if new, and I hope to thank you again . . . with my art in the triumphal days. . . .