Inside Sandzen Winter 08

INSIDE SANDZÉN
This feature, highlighting a discovery relating to Sandzén from the archives, will be periodically updated on the website and is planned for each issue of Gallery Notes.

In memory of the outstanding opera star Beverly Sills (d. July 2, 2007), her husband Peter B. Greenough (d. September 6, 2006), and Peter's cousin Pelham Greenough (d. January 18, 1983), son-in-law of Birger Sandzén, the complete "Inside Sandzén" in the Winter 2008 Gallery Notes is devoted to selections from the Beverly Sills-Peter Greenough files in the Sandzén Archives.

Filed materials include many clippings, photographs, and 24 letters dating from 1967 through 1985. Among the selections in Gallery Notes a note and a letter from Beverly Sills are reproduced as originally written and typed. For this more restricted space, details in the first letter in the files represent the whole collection as well.

This letter from Peter Greenough, dated April 1, 1967, responds to one written by Pelham and apparently inspired by a 1967 clipping from the Christian Science Monitor ("Beverly Sills to Sing in Vienna") sent to him by a friend or relative.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

A Pleasant, and thoughtful, voice is yours out of the past. I have thought of you often. . . . I had no idea you were living in Lindsborg, Kansas [since 1942], or about your long association with Bethany College . . . .

As of now, as you gathered from the Monitor piece, Bev's career has absolutely taken off. In addition to the Vienna Staatsoper debut this spring (we leave Monday for Salzburg first), she will also be singing at Teatro de Colon, Buenos Aires, and literally all over the world. Mr. Bing at the Met asked her twice within the last week to sing there, and she had the considerable pleasure of turning him down flat [because earlier he had not extended an invitation because he was skeptical of American singers]. Nice to get to that spot finally.

If you are serious about having her sing sometime out there, I'd suggest you contact her manager--Ludwig Lustig, 111 W. 57th st., New York. However, I should warn you in advance that today her minimum fee runs $2,500 per performance. You have to grab it while you can in this ephemeral singing biz. [Whether any action to follow up on this suggestion was ever taken is unknown.]

Incidentally, Bev is my second wife. . . . Beverly brought up our three daughters [from an earlier marriage] from the time they were tiny, and we've had a little girl and a son of our own . . . . We travel all the time, work because we like it and not because we have to, and life is most exciting. I suspect shortly we'll have to move to NYC because of Bev's skyrocketing career, but life her goes swimmingly. . . .

In closing, you might be interested to know that Beverly is the first American singer to be asked to perform at the Vienna Festwoch--Queen of the Night [in The Magic Flute], Donna Anna [in Don Giovanni] and [Verdi's La] Traviata. The Austrians are awfully fussy about who sings their Mozart, so it is a great honor for Beverly to be so chosen. . . .

{He then gives their home address and phone numbers.}

Why the two phones? I tall you man, when you've got four daughters you need 10 telephones, not two. . . .

All the best to you both--Pete