Val Rosing Musical Genius

Val was a Russian tenor who had escaped the Russian Revolution only to then revolutionize the rest of the world. He had given a record-breaking 100 concerts in London, and since then, he's been trying to influence opera as well. Val thought opera singers should learn to act, streamline their figures, and sing in English. George Bernard Shaw had agreed with him, and they collaborated in a season of Intimate Opera in London. Less than two years later, he sold George Eastman on the idea of an American Opera Company. It was a tremendous success, but had to be abandoned during the Depression, and Val returned to England. Then during World War II he came back to become Entertainment director at Camp Roberts, California, And if that wasn't enough, Val had given New York City Opera its two greatest hit - in 1949, Prokofiev's Love for Three Oranges, and that spring, Puccini's Turandot. He was directing musical musical sequences for an MGM film, and would direct for the Chicago Lyric Opera. The Los Angeles Times on July 8, 1950, greeted Faust stages at the Hollywood Bowl with the headline 10,000 Cheer Ingenious Bowl Production at Gala Opening.