WEBVTT 1 00:00:08.900 --> 00:00:09.260 I'm sorry, I'm not sure if I can help you. 2 00:00:09.260 --> 00:00:09.260 3 00:00:09.260 --> 00:00:09.360 I'm sorry, I'm not sure if I can help you. 4 00:00:09.360 --> 00:00:11.980 I'm sorry, I'm not sure if I can help you. 5 00:00:14.520 --> 00:00:15.000 I'm sorry, I'm not sure if I can help you. 6 00:00:18.120 --> 00:00:18.860 I'm sorry, I'm not sure if I can help you. 7 00:00:18.880 --> 00:00:19.320 I'm sorry, I'm not sure if I can help you. 8 00:00:23.680 --> 00:00:25.180 I'm sorry, I'm not sure if I can help you. 9 00:00:25.180 --> 00:00:25.180 10 00:00:28.020 --> 00:00:29.420 I'm sorry, I'm not sure if I can help you. 11 00:00:31.320 --> 00:00:31.340 I'm sorry, I'm not sure if I can help you. 12 00:00:32.620 --> 00:00:34.020 I'm sorry, I'm not sure if I can help you. 13 00:00:35.840 --> 00:00:37.240 I'm sorry, I'm not sure if I can help you. 14 00:00:37.240 --> 00:00:37.640 I'm sorry, I'm not sure if I can help you. 15 00:00:37.640 --> 00:00:39.320 I'm sorry, I'm not sure if I can help you. 16 00:00:39.320 --> 00:00:42.080 I'm sorry, I'm not sure if I can help you. 17 00:00:52.880 --> 00:00:54.280 I'm sorry, I'm not sure if I can help you. 18 00:00:59.560 --> 00:01:04.160 I don't know, I..... 19 00:01:06.300 --> 00:01:10.720 I don't think it adds. 20 00:01:11.120 --> 00:01:13.660 No, I don't think it does either. I'm just telling you. 21 00:01:15.040 --> 00:01:17.780 I mean, if she wants to talk about Carol Fox, that's okay. 22 00:01:17.980 --> 00:01:19.600 She won't, and she doesn't. 23 00:01:20.320 --> 00:01:25.560 One of the problems that I'm having in putting this together is because of Ruth's personality and style. 24 00:01:26.120 --> 00:01:30.480 This is not, I don't think I've told to any other interviewee, and I've probably interviewed 35 people. 25 00:01:30.480 --> 00:01:36.220 That she always seemed, just as you described, together and in control and all of that. 26 00:01:36.280 --> 00:01:45.560 And then you have some diaries and business letters from her husband, Tom, where you know that she was struggling and working, and it really wasn't easy. 27 00:01:45.580 --> 00:01:45.580 28 00:01:46.000 --> 00:01:48.060 She struggled too. She really did. 29 00:01:48.180 --> 00:01:49.860 I mean, he took the brunt of it for her. 30 00:01:50.320 --> 00:01:55.760 Yes and no. You know, she was, she, all those conversations with Carol Fox, she was having. 31 00:01:55.760 --> 00:02:06.100 And it's difficult, I think, for people to sympathize with someone who accomplishes things and appears not to have overcome, not to have struggled to get there. 32 00:02:06.200 --> 00:02:08.760 You know, she's just indomitable is the way she is. 33 00:02:08.760 --> 00:02:11.680 So I keep asking people for instances of that. 34 00:02:11.780 --> 00:02:17.120 So when you said, I'm not sure that it adds, it adds depth to know that she has gone through something. 35 00:02:17.460 --> 00:02:22.380 I don't think it adds depth to say that there were arguments or difficulties with someone else. 36 00:02:22.380 --> 00:02:26.180 I don't remember any. Those are the things I've repressed, my dear. 37 00:02:26.380 --> 00:02:28.020 Well, I imagine you have a good memory of them. 38 00:02:28.040 --> 00:02:28.920 You betcha. 39 00:02:29.140 --> 00:02:30.640 We all know that. 40 00:02:33.200 --> 00:02:36.200 Ruth was very involved in the early days of the lyric. 41 00:02:37.060 --> 00:02:50.080 What would you say were her contributions, her work, and what way did her work contribute to the really enormous success and growth of the lyric? 42 00:02:50.080 --> 00:02:56.360 I made a count of the ballets that Ruth did for us in the years that she was with us. 43 00:02:56.360 --> 00:03:05.000 She did 41 different opera ballets or, like the Revanche and the Mary Widow, her own ballets. 44 00:03:07.640 --> 00:03:21.200 I think that the two most important contributions she made over and above the fact that she was a stable, solid, classy ballet company for the opera company 45 00:03:21.200 --> 00:03:25.740 and the fact that she brought Rudolf Noreyev here in 1963, 46 00:03:25.740 --> 00:03:36.080 I think one of the things that she did that established her really artistic excellence and made a big splash for the company artistically was Carmina Burana, 47 00:03:37.040 --> 00:03:44.740 which was one of the most thrilling evenings here because of the ballet and because of her choreography. 48 00:03:45.440 --> 00:03:49.780 She brought Harold Kreutzberg here. Is that his name? 49 00:03:49.900 --> 00:03:50.320 Yes. 50 00:03:50.320 --> 00:03:56.360 He was the first artist to dance Death, and he was by then 65 years old. 51 00:03:56.680 --> 00:04:01.280 It was the most stunning evening of ballet and song. 52 00:04:01.400 --> 00:04:05.720 It was a real melding, and it was Ruth who just held the whole thing together. 53 00:04:06.660 --> 00:04:14.200 In general, do you think that her work helped to set the very high standards that have become the very high standards of the lyric? 54 00:04:14.500 --> 00:04:15.220 I mean, in what way? 55 00:04:15.220 --> 00:04:21.840 Lyric Opera has always stood for the highest standard in the art form. 56 00:04:22.600 --> 00:04:30.660 Carol Fox founded the company with the idea that it was going to be a first-class international company, and it always was. 57 00:04:31.220 --> 00:04:38.900 And I figure that Carol hired Ruth because she saw her as a first-class international ballet person, 58 00:04:39.240 --> 00:04:43.380 who would add to the stature of the company, and Ruth always did that. 59 00:04:43.380 --> 00:04:44.240 Great. 60 00:04:48.540 --> 00:04:51.380 I'm just checking to see if there's... 61 00:04:52.080 --> 00:04:54.600 Did you know Tom Fisher? 62 00:04:56.740 --> 00:05:02.060 Tom Fisher, Ruth's husband, was one of the most remarkable men. 63 00:05:02.620 --> 00:05:04.660 I was always in awe of him. 64 00:05:05.800 --> 00:05:08.900 When I was first at Lyric Opera and I first knew Ruth and Tom, 65 00:05:09.400 --> 00:05:12.380 they had the most beautiful apartment on Lakeshore Drive, 66 00:05:12.380 --> 00:05:21.980 and he was one of those sort of storybook characters who was a lawyer who loved Ruth and took care of her 67 00:05:21.980 --> 00:05:26.100 and helped her in many, many ways. 68 00:05:26.600 --> 00:05:30.900 I thought he was quite a remarkable man, and they were a wonderful couple. 69 00:05:31.660 --> 00:05:41.340 And I am always saddened when the end of a person's career is marred and marked with unhappiness 70 00:05:41.340 --> 00:05:43.040 and sadness. 71 00:05:43.500 --> 00:05:46.760 That's one of the things about Ruth, that no matter what the problems were, 72 00:05:47.020 --> 00:05:51.400 one of the things she always wanted to dance, ballet at Lyric Opera, have a ballet night, 73 00:05:51.680 --> 00:05:56.580 and she really never got her wish because we never had enough money, and Carol always had to turn her down. 74 00:05:57.360 --> 00:06:01.880 But Ruth, in the problems of the opera and the problems of her personal life, 75 00:06:02.160 --> 00:06:08.180 always rose above everything in a way that you never knew what she was going through. 76 00:06:08.780 --> 00:06:13.460 And that, I think, is such a great strength of, and she was such a great lady. 77 00:06:14.260 --> 00:06:18.500 And Tom, her husband who loved her and doted on her, 78 00:06:18.620 --> 00:06:22.620 was someone that she always referred to in the most loving terms 79 00:06:22.620 --> 00:06:28.180 and supported him in the most wonderful and warm and womanly and wifely way 80 00:06:29.120 --> 00:06:31.540 throughout his entire career until his death. 81 00:06:32.000 --> 00:06:34.800 It was really quite remarkable, and I always admired that about Ruth, 82 00:06:34.800 --> 00:06:43.000 and I always admired Tom and was a little scared of him and a little in awe of him in those days. 83 00:06:43.760 --> 00:06:48.280 Did you go to his funeral, the party that Ruth had after he died? 84 00:06:48.560 --> 00:06:49.220 No, I didn't. 85 00:06:49.220 --> 00:06:49.560 You didn't? 86 00:06:49.560 --> 00:06:51.080 I didn't go to Tom's funeral. 87 00:06:51.520 --> 00:06:54.320 Okay, because in fact she gave a party. There was no funeral. 88 00:06:54.920 --> 00:06:58.020 She gave a big party. I'm sure you were probably invited, 89 00:06:58.240 --> 00:07:04.360 and it was the way she decided would be the right way to celebrate his life 90 00:07:04.360 --> 00:07:05.520 rather than mourn his death. 91 00:07:05.900 --> 00:07:10.540 Exactly. Celebrating someone's life and the wonderful things they did is what you should do. 92 00:07:10.560 --> 00:07:11.880 It's what we did for Tito Gobi. 93 00:07:12.300 --> 00:07:16.200 I said, I'm not going to do a memorial service for Tito Gobi. I refuse to do that. 94 00:07:16.540 --> 00:07:23.580 So we did a celebration of his art with WFMT, a two-hour radio show that just his wife who came for it said, 95 00:07:23.760 --> 00:07:29.620 this is the most wonderful tribute or memorial to Tito that has been done in the world. 96 00:07:30.180 --> 00:07:32.200 And that's probably what Ruth did with Tom. 97 00:07:32.200 --> 00:07:37.080 Listen, talk about people to whom this opera company owes a debt. 98 00:07:37.280 --> 00:07:39.900 I mean, Tito Gobi was wonderful. 99 00:07:41.380 --> 00:07:44.900 Year after year after year I would come and see him, and he would sing, and he would direct. 100 00:07:46.240 --> 00:07:47.140 It was a lot. 101 00:07:49.000 --> 00:07:50.320 Loretta, do you have a question that you want to ask? 102 00:07:50.780 --> 00:07:55.000 Just a short one. When you were first working with Ruth on the clerical side of it, 103 00:07:55.080 --> 00:07:57.840 and you were doing contracts, trying to get the dances and stuff, 104 00:07:57.840 --> 00:08:03.940 were there any incidents that you remember in trying to work out contracts and difficulties 105 00:08:03.940 --> 00:08:06.220 and working with Ruth at that time? 106 00:08:07.200 --> 00:08:08.120 The answer, Thea. 107 00:08:08.440 --> 00:08:08.900 Yeah, answer me. 108 00:08:12.500 --> 00:08:17.020 I never had any difficulties working with Ruth that I can remember. 109 00:08:17.940 --> 00:08:23.560 But I mean, in terms of trying to get dancers or anyone to work on a ballet, 110 00:08:24.120 --> 00:08:26.420 because you were working with contracts, right? 111 00:08:27.100 --> 00:08:27.900 No, Thea. 112 00:08:27.960 --> 00:08:28.600 They would be small. 113 00:08:29.780 --> 00:08:33.560 Okay, I just have one last question, and it's my standard last question, 114 00:08:34.480 --> 00:08:38.040 which is, is there anything that I haven't asked you about 115 00:08:38.040 --> 00:08:40.800 that you would like to talk about in relation to this? 116 00:08:41.640 --> 00:08:44.580 No, I think that you have covered the... 117 00:08:45.000 --> 00:08:47.860 It's going to be a no, yeah, because we caught a sneeze. Go ahead. 118 00:08:47.940 --> 00:08:49.540 And so it's no, you think I've covered it. 119 00:08:49.540 --> 00:08:56.140 I think that you have really covered the waterfront in your questions about Ruth. 120 00:08:57.080 --> 00:08:58.820 You obviously know her very well, 121 00:08:59.320 --> 00:09:03.540 and I really can't think of anything that I have missed saying about her. 122 00:09:04.560 --> 00:09:05.000 Okay. 123 00:09:05.660 --> 00:09:13.660 You know, since Ruth left the company, I've obviously been in contact with her constantly 124 00:09:13.660 --> 00:09:20.420 and over a long period of time, but not as closely as in the old days 125 00:09:20.420 --> 00:09:22.300 when we were working on a daily basis. 126 00:09:23.640 --> 00:09:27.800 But she's always exactly the same and tender and warm and kind. 127 00:09:29.800 --> 00:09:30.620 She's a great lady. 128 00:09:31.020 --> 00:09:37.460 Yeah, I miss not being with her more, and I regret it, 129 00:09:37.480 --> 00:09:40.000 but that's what happens when your lives part, 130 00:09:40.000 --> 00:09:41.480 you both go different directions, 131 00:09:41.480 --> 00:09:44.260 and you have to pay attention to the direction you're going. 132 00:09:45.720 --> 00:09:48.400 Okay, thank you. That's it. 133 00:09:48.800 --> 00:09:51.480 Is there anything that you think I should have said that I didn't? 134 00:09:51.520 --> 00:09:52.360 No, I would have prompted you.