Max de Schauensee
Max de Schauensee was born in Rome, Italy in 1900 and died in Philadelphia, PA on July 24th, 1982. As far as we know, de Schauensee was the solo music critic for the Philadelphia Evening Bulletin newspaper during the 1950s, 60s and 70s. It was during that last decade that he was given the title, Music Critic Emeritus. Because of his long tenure at the paper, we have the pleasure of reading about multiple performances of the same opera with world-renown singers from those decades, a feat which would be hardly duplicated today.
During the 1940s, de Schauensee wrote a column for the Bulletin simply called MUSIC in which he covered orchestral concerts, piano recitals and sundry musical events during those years. Of particular interest is a column he wrote on April 20th, 1947 about the vocal talents of four black singers who were prominent at that time- Marian Anderson, Roland Hayes, Dorothy Maynor and Paul Robeson. De Schauensee’s musical insight into these four giants of classical music is remarkable for its succinct prose and in-depth analysis of their vocal techniques.
De Schauensee’s articles and other opera reviews from the above mentioned decades are now posted on livingattheopera.com on the right column under Highlighted Articles.
Nick del Vecchio, Director, livingattheopera.com
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