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“MR. METROPOLITAN OPERA”: FRANCIS ROBINSON AND THE FRANCIS ROBINSON COLLECTION OF THEATRE, MUSIC, AND DANCE

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 October 2010

Nena Couch
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Extract

Francis Robinson (1910–80; Figure 1) fell in love with opera the day that a lady wearing a tailored suit, pince-nez, and a bird hat came from the Victor Company to his school to demonstrate the Victrola. That was the day he first heard Enrico Caruso sing. Later, still a schoolboy and never having heard the tenor in person, Robinson mourned Caruso's death. The beauty and magnificence of opera entranced him, and the celebrity of opera personalities intrigued him. He found his dream home in the Metropolitan Opera. The correspondence, photographs, clippings, programs, memorabilia, and other materials that he received, wrote, and collected during his many decades with the Met reside at Vanderbilt University Special Collections and provide a rich resource for opera scholars.

Type
Re: Sources: Edited by Nena Couch
Information
Theatre Survey , Volume 51 , Special Issue 2: Operatic Intersections , November 2010 , pp. 281 - 289
Copyright
Copyright © American Society for Theatre Research 2010

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References

Endnotes

1. Robinson, Francis, Caruso: His Life in Pictures (New York: Studio Publications, 1957), 9–10Google Scholar.

2. Nashville Public Library, “Naff Collection,” catalog record, available at http://nplencore.library.nashville.org/iii/encore/record/C%7CRb1652876%7CSlula+naff%7CP0%2C1%7COrightresults%7CX3?lang=eng&suite=def (accessed 23 February 2010).

3. Couch, Nena, ed., The Francis Robinson Collection of Theatre, Music, and Dance (Nashville: Vanderbilt University, 1986), 131Google Scholar. This extensive catalog of the collection is available online s.v. “Music” at www.library.vanderbilt.edu/speccol/subjectguide.shtml#M.

4. Ryman Auditorium, “History,” available at www.ryman.com/ (accessed 23 February 2010).

5. Geraldine Farrar to Francis Robinson, 30 December 1936, C5547; Farrar to Robinson, 5 January 1938, C5548, Francis Robinson Collection of Theatre, Music, and Dance, Special Collections and University Archives, Jean and Alexander Heard Library, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN [hereafter Robinson Collection].

6. Farrar to Robinson, n.d., C5571, Robinson Collection.

7. Farrar to Robinson, 15 September 1949, C5573, Robinson Collection.

8. Farrar to Robinson, 16 May 1958, C5606; and Farrar to Robinson, 24 April 1959, C5615, both in Robinson Collection.

9. “Metropolitan Opera Was Francis Robinson's Life,” Acorn/Chronicle, Summer 2005, 4–5, at 4, available at www.vanderbilt.edu/magazines/acorn-chronicle/previous-issues/ (accessed 23 February 2010).

10. Robinson, Francis, Celebration: The Metropolitan Opera (Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Co., 1979), 229Google Scholar.

11. Rudolf Bing, 5000 Nights at the Opera: The Memoirs of Sir Rudolf Bing (Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Co., 1972), 235.

12. Tuck, Lon, “Trouble for the Met Tour: Casting Crisis in the Traveling Opera,” Washington Post, 18 April 1982, H1Google Scholar.

13. Bing, Rudolf, A Knight at the Opera (New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1981), 40Google Scholar.

14. Ibid., 222.

15. Ibid., 40.

16. Metropolitan Opera contract letter from Bing to Robinson, 25 March 1954, FR C-1-15, Robinson Collection.

17. Giulio Gatti-Casazza folder, Box 162, “Met Managers and Assistant Managers,” Robinson Collection.

18. Goldberg, Arthur J., “Labor-Management Relations a High Priority: 1961–62,” in “Reflections of eight former Secretaries,” Monthly Labor Review 111.2 (February 1988): 37–9Google Scholar, at 28; available via www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/archive.htm#1988 (accessed 22 June 2010).

19. It was at such a fraught time that I met Francis Robinson. Whenever operagoers went from Nashville to New York, the first thing they did was call Robinson, and that is what my mother and I did. We had tickets to the opening Met performance of Aida with Leontyne Price in the title role in 1969, but it was delayed due to a strike. When the opening finally took place on 29 December 1969, we arrived and called Robinson, as Nashvillians typically did. It never occurred to us what public relations issues Robinson must have been handling at the time. However, he was charming and welcoming and took time on that day to personally give us a tour of the Metropolitan Opera House.

20. Robinson to Beulah Catherine Cox Robinson, 3 March 1960, FR-FC-2-6, Francis Robinson Collection.

21. Broadcast script, 10 December 1960, Francis Robinson Collection.

22. Rudolf Bing to Robinson, 4 October 1956, FR-C-1-16, Francis Robinson Collection.

23. Dunlap, David W., “Death at the Opera, and the Confusing Fog of Memory,” New York Times, 23 September 2004, B1: 6Google Scholar.

24. Robinson to Beulah Catherine Cox Robinson, 11 March 1960, FR-FC-2-6, Francis Robinson Collection.

25. Vanderbilt University, “Special Collections and University Archives: Research Guides: Performing Arts Source Material,” at www.library.vanderbilt.edu/speccol/research/guides/performingarts.shtml (accessed 23 February 2010).