FOR
IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Loretta
Ramos
lramos@mtr.org
To Screen the Rarely
Seen
NBC Opera Theatre Production of
Salome
Opening Screening Scheduled for the 50th Anniversary of the
Original Broadcast to be Followed by a
Discussion With Soprano Elaine Malbin and Kirk Browning
New York, NY—The Museum of Television & Radio will celebrate the
fiftieth anniversary of the acclaimed NBC
Opera Theatre production of Salome
with a screening of a rare copy of the ninety-minute 1954 program, fifty years
to the day and time of its initial telecast.
In addition to this special anniversary screening on Saturday, May 8, at
3:00 p.m., the Museum will also screen Salome
from May 9 to May 23, Tuesdays to Sundays at 1:00 p.m.
This television adaptation of the Richard
Strauss masterpiece, which Howard Taubman of the New York Times praised as NBC Opera Theatre's "most daring
venture," featured Elaine Malbin in the title
role, Andrew McKinley as Herod, Lorna Sydney as Herodias,
and Davis Cunningham as Narraboth. In an especially effective
bit of dual casting—and an effort to bring dramatic intensity to the production—the
role of Jochanaan (John the Baptist) was acted by
John Cassavetes and sung off-camera by Norman Atkins,
and the role of the Page was acted by the young Sal Mineo
and sung by Carol Jones. The orchestra was conducted by NBC Opera Theatre artistic director Peter Herman Adler.
The special anniversary screening on
Between
1950 and 1964 more than fifty operas were telecast on the landmark series NBC Opera Theatre (in 1957 renamed the NBC Opera Company). The Museum has
thirty-five of these historic telecasts—which have never been released commercially—in
its permanent collection, including the 1951 world premiere of Amahl and the Night Visitors, Scenes from "Billy Budd" with Theodor Uppman (1952), Tosca with Leontyne
Price in her television debut (1955), and Boris
Godunov with Giorgio Tozzi
(1961).
This event is cosponsored by Opera Index and the New York
Singing Teachers' Association.
Tickets to the May 8 screening and Q&A, as well as the additional screenings, are included with suggested Museum
admission: Members free; $10.00 for adults;
$8.00 for senior citizens and students; and $5.00 for children under thirteen. Tickets are available on a first-come,
first-served basis on the day of the event.
The Museum of
Television & Radio, with locations in
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The Museum of Television & Radio in New York,
located at 25 West 52 Street in Manhattan, is open Tuesdays through Sundays
from noon to 6:00 p.m. and until 8:00 p.m. on Thursdays. The Museum of
Television & Radio in
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