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Thomas-Opera elitism dying
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by Carolyn Hull
Rain and friends greeting him, Jess
Thomas, featured artist in Tuesday's
Performing Artist Series, said he is glad to be
back in the Midwest and that his home base.
California, has been soggy all winter, so he
feels right at home.
Thomas, a South Dakota native and UNL
alumni, considered singing a hobby, an
attitude he attributed to "the practical turn
of mind Midwesterners have." In his spare
time, while working on Ph.D. studies at
Stanford University, Thomas sang in the
college glee club.
'There my voice teacher asked me what I
was doing in psychology and convinced me
to try a professional singing career," he said.
"I though I'd give it a year and see what
happened. After that year, my voice teacher
said with two more years of study I'd be
ready," Thomas said.
Thomas won the San Francisco Opera
auditions in 1957, sang there, learned
enough German to go through auditions in
Europe and received an engagement at the
Baden State Theatre in Kanlsruhe, Germany.
He now alternates performing at the San
Francisco Opera, the New York
Metropolitan Opera and various European
stages.
"A performing artist lives with
unbelieveable nerve strain. I was told once
that performing is a combination of 10 per
cent talent, 10 per cent hard work, 10 per
cent luck and 70 per cent good nerves.
Stepping onstage places a performing artist
only one step away from sports or the
circus, there is a lot of competition and the
performer is only as good as his last ball
game," Thomas said.
"A friend once she wed me through a
laryngoscope, what my vocal cords looked
like. It was a little frightening to see that my
whole existence depended on two things
that looked like rubber bands and were
expected to project a sound that could be
heard over a whole orchestra," Thomas said.
The two rubber bands have taken Thomas
around the world to the extent "that the
mere word 'travel' throws me into fits. I like
to travel but not to the extent that I do
now."
Traveling brings Thomas into contact
with a variety of people-from fans familiar
with his work to others only just becoming
acquainted with opera and the fine arts, he
said.
Despite financial threats, Thomas is
optimistic about the future of opera and
theatre in general, feeling that the strong
European opera tradition is spreading in the
United States.
"In America there is an unbelievable core
of young opera fanatics and when you
consider the cost of attending with tickets,
transportation, dressing up, dinner and
babysitting costs for a young couple, it's
quite a committment for them" Thomas
said.
"Opera tradition in Europe isn't elitist
and shouldn't be here. Once while doing
opera in Europe, I had a 4 p.m. curtain time
which I found was to enable the midnight
shift of coal workers to change clothes and
still be on time to work," he said.
"The awe of performing, singing Wagner's
works for example, means an artist stretches
in every direction possible, calling on every
one of his resources in his committment and
if he does that, the performance will speak
to someone who may have no background in
opera, giving him something to appreciate,"
Thomas said.
Thomas' career has become identified
with Richard Wagner's operas. Tuesday
night's program will include songs by Wagner
and other composers of the period, some
who influenced Wagner and others that
Wagner influenced.
"It's an unabashed romantic program, the
stress point being a cycle of songs by Wagner
that his grandson, Wieland Wagner, suggested
I do," Thomas said.
"Franz Liszt is also included in the
program. Liszt helped Wagner stage some of
his operas. Thomas also plans songs by
composers Wolf and Marx who were strongly
influenced by Wagner.
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Jess Thomas
(blurbs
Fellini's Juliet of the Spirits
is this week's foreign film at 7
and 9 p.m. Tuesday at the
Stuart Theater.
Tenor Jess Thomas, will give
the next concert in the
Performing Artist Series at
Kimball Recital Hall at 8 p.m.
Tuesday.
Lincoln moviegoers will find
four new theaters Thursday
The Air
Force 1OTC
3 things to offer
College Program has
that other college programs don't.
1. 6,500 scholarships.
2. $100 monthly allowance.
3. Free flying lessons.
Enro
' '"'"' ' , '' jj
ROTC.
11 in Air
Force
Contact
At
Military & Naval Science
432-8163
Find Yourself A Future In Air Force ROTC.
when the new CooperPlaza
opens its doors.
Rod Stewart and Faces,
with backup group Jo Jo
Gunne, will be at Pershing
Auditorium Saturday.
Concerts within hitching or
driving distance: Monday finds
It's A Beautiful Day and
Bloodrock in St. Paul. Les
McCann will be at Marvelous
Marv's in Denver through
Saturday.
The heavy rockclassical
New York Rock Ensemble will
be at Tulagi's in Boulder
Tuesday through Sunday. Also
on Tuesday, It's A Beautiful
Day and the Doobie Brothers
will be in Des Moines and Yes
at Kiel Auditorium in St.
Louis.
Wednesday the J. Geils
Band will be at the War
Memorial Auditorium in
Kansas City, Kan. and Eric
Justin Kaz will be at the Quiet
Knight in Chicago through
Sunday.
The Steve Miller Band will
be at the Kinetic Playground in
Chicago Saturday. Sunday
finds the Spinners at Kiel
Auditorium in St. Louis. King
Crimson will be at the
Cowtown Ballroom in Kansas
City, Mo. and the New Cactus
Band will be at the Royal
Terrace Ballroom in Omaha.
r MM
monday, april 16, 1973
daily nebrasken
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