The 1949-50 Metropolitan Opera season marked the final year of Edward Johnson’s reign as its general manager before Rudolph Bing succeeded him for the next 22 years. One would assume that this season would have been a bust concerning casts and productions, since he was at the end of his tenure. Instead, there were a number of new productions mounted, such as Der Rosenkavalier and Manon Lescaut as well as the premiere of Mussorgsky’s Khovantchina, for example. There were a number of debuts, most notably, Erna Berger, Eugene Conley and Paul Schoeffler; final performances at the house included those from Stella Roman and Lauritz Melchior. As a result, that final broadcast season contained some very great and sometimes “interesting” performances. Unfortunately, prior to the Bing era which followed, there was no meticulous preservation of any of the Johnson era broadcasts. This presentation will be from two (of several) recently discovered performances that were preserved on instantaneous discs recorded by the ABC Radio Network at the time. What you will hear are excerpts from the December 10, 1949 performance of Manon Lescaut with Kirsten, Björling and Valdengo, conducted by Antonicelli, as well as the December 31, 1949 presentation of Faust with Kirsten, di Stefano, Tajo and Warren, conducted by Pelletier. Neither of these broadcasts have ever existed in decent sound until now. Oh yes, we may also play a short excerpt from one of the intermissions from the December 10th broadcast; we’ll keep it a surprise….

Please join us for an ear opening evening of recently discovered recordings of these two historic events. You’ll have to attend in order for you to find out how these performances were recently discovered and preserved; it’s an intriguing tale!

Jeffrey F. Lipton has been a member of the VRCS since 2008, having joined at the invitation of Seth Winner. His exposure to classical music and opera started at an early age; his father was an avid collector and a member of the Arturo Toscanini Society starting in 1969. The first vocal recordings to make a lasting impression were the Malcolm Sargent EMI Mikado, the classic COLH issues of great singers from the HMV/EMI family, as well as the reissues of Caruso and the like on RCA. His musical pursuits were not limited to listening, but also to performing; he started studying piano at age 9 and has never stopped. Although an avid amateur choral singer in the past, he admits to a complete lack of vocal training and perhaps to an even greater deficiency of vocal talent! He's happy to be sharing his first presentation at the VRCS with Seth Winner.

Seth B. Winner has been the president of Seth B. Winner Sound Studios since April 1990. His clients include SONY, BMG, The New York Philharmonic, The Metropolitan Opera & Guild, The Minnesota Orchestra, Pavilion Records, The Warner Brothers Vitaphone Project, and many independent labels. His work has garnered an Honorable Mention and three nominations from the NARAS/Grammy Foundation. In 1987, Mr. Winner became a sound preservation engineer at the New York Public Library, a position he held until his retirement in 2020; he had preserved numerous collections that are housed in the Rodgers and Hammerstein Archives of Recorded Sound. He did the initial preservation on magnetic tape of the Toscanini Legacy which contained several hundred hours of concerts and rehearsals by the legendary conductor. - Well, that’s all very nice but we at the VRCS, of which he has been a member for over 40 years, know him as the superb sound engineer for all our programs and on our Annual VRCS CDs, a curmudgeonly-but-lovable fellow (well, that may be pushing it…WATCH IT, PEARCE!) without whom we simply could not operate. He is also the Mystic Mainspring of the currently inactive New York Chapter of The Association for Recorded Sound Collections (ARSC) and the former primary support of, sadly, the only deli within a radius of 50 miles that is worthy of mention. (Ask him in person, and he MAY tell you which one is the best.) He is too much (sometimes literally…AGAIN, PEARCE?!), but we would be lost without him (THANK YOU, PEARCE). His association with important classical radio broadcasts and recordings is on the legendary side, so do join us in March for his latest venture into the MOTT (Met Opera Treasure Trove). And we don’t mean applesauce either; unless it’s on a latke…

DATE: FRIDAY, MARCH 6, 2026 | TIME: 7:30PM SHARP
PLACE: CHRIST CHURCH THIRD FLOOR MEETING ROOM, 60TH ST. & PARK AVE., N.Y.C.