Music: The Devil at La Scala

A few U.S. opera stars get invited to sing at Milan's La Scala, but last week Risë Stevens became the first ever to create a new role in the proud old house.

The production was La Figlia del Diavolo (The Devil's Daughter), an unfamiliar approach to the old story of Salome, in which Composer Virgilio Mortari, 51, lightens Salome's character considerably while blackening still more that of her evil mother Herodias. In the Mortari approach, Herodias is literally the devil incarnate, and the part demands a mezzo-soprano who can sing, act and dance for close to 50 minutes almost without pause, and—not least—look devilishly attractive. Mortari and La Scala thought it over, last November offered the part to Rise.

Soprano Stevens was delighteu. "I wanted to do something new," she says, "and I wanted to do it at La Scala." She found the music modern but not radical; it gave her a chance to move about the stage in the tigerish fashion that has made her the favorite Carmen at the Met. But mounting a world premiere is no picnic, even for the vaunted Scala. The first dress rehearsal was disastrous, and in the five days before opening night opera officials and the stage-wise Stevens staff toiled 20 hours at a stretch, revising everything from scenery to dramatic action.

The performance was a decided improvement, but hardly a smash. The story line was draggy, and the score was short of the big arias Italian audiences love. Most startling of all, perhaps, was the reform and regeneration of daughter Salome, who, in Mortari's version, winds up trying to save her poor victim. John the Baptist, and earning her own salvation.

The audience gave Figlia sufferance while clapping up seven enthusiastic curtain calls for the cast itself. Afterward, exhausted but unfazed by the prospect of mixed reviews, Mezzo Stevens stood up stoutly for the opera. "It has a lot of melody," she said. "I was very excited right from the start. Acting-wise it was wonderful for me. Besides, nobody could compare me with anybody."

In Manhattan, Richard Strauss's tried & true Salome, in which daughter Salome has the central role, packed first-nighters into New York City Opera. Star of the evening was Soprano Phyllis Curtin, devilishly attractive herself, whose beautiful voice soared over the orchestra in the grand style. At the end, to everyone's satisfaction, Salome went unregenerate to her death under the shields of the guards.