In her six years with City Opera, she has established herself as'the compleat company workhorse. Nobody, however, would accuse Johanna Meier (pronounce it Yo‐HANna MY‐er) of being short of energy. That has its dangers, of course, since you can wear yourself out in rehearsal. The rehearsal schedule is much more demanding than at the Metropolitan. is this a typical workday? “Oh, yes,” she says, merrily. Earlier in the day, she had done a runthrough of “Fledermaus,” and there will be another “Hollander” session, in the evening. Rather than sing, she “marks,” using only a fraction of her vocal resource. Miss Meier, sitting on a metal chair in the center of the room, goes through the Ballad. The reason they are in such agreement it turns out, is that both have worked on “Hollander” before, in Louisville, Kentucky -in an early version of the same Darling‐designed production. It is apparent that she bas worked out her conception of the role-one which is shared by “Hollander's” stage director Robert Darling-even though she and Darling have only just gotten together for their first session.
I'll need intensity, and lots of it-but I hope it'll be expressed by contained movement and contained outbursts, rather than by a lot of scenery‐chewing.” That's all very well to internalize, but to make it evident to the audience isn't so easy. One thing I'm trying to emphasize is Senta's withdrawal from the people around her, from the world of reality, the world of comfortable wives sitting at their spinning wheels, and to indicate how she's caught up in this devouring romantic obsession. “How will I play Senta? Well, not with a lot of leaping and lurching-though better that than being phlegmatic. While preparing for it, she has also been performing leading roles in three other works-The Countess in “The Marriage of Figaro,” Roselinda in “Die Fledermaus,” and Eva in “Die Meistersinger.” Yet during a recent interview, in ‘ a City Opera rehearsal room, Miss Meier discusses ‘project “Hollander” without a trace of weariness or strain. The role of Senta is by far the heaviest she's essayed in her six very active years with City Opera. The undertaking has been a challenging one for Miss Meier. On Friday evening, she will be making news again, this time for the right reason, when she sings Senta, the doomed heroine of Wagner's “Der filegende HoMinder,” in a new production by the New York City Opera. Summoning up all her South Dakota true grit, Miss Meier collected herself, hurried on to the theater, and went through with her rehearsal. via one of LineOln Center's underground passageways, a mugger had attacked her, violently.
WHEN, late in August, City Qpera soprano Johanna Meier was the subject of a newspaper story, it was for the wrong reason on her way to a rehearsal.
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