Louis Roney: Where is it better?

When I was singing in Germany, I got used to hearing, “in Germany all things are better.” And indeed I would expect people of one country or another say that their country is “best.” However, as a guest in eleven European countries where I was singing leading roles in “their” opera houses, I had to remember that I was the guest, earning money in their country, and that I was an American. My job was to sing, be modest, and in no way make myself an “ugly American!”

Indeed, I found each country had its good and bad sides. An interesting piece of information given to me by European singers early in my career was that during the war military supplies going back and forth from Germany to Italy were taxed 10 percent whenever they traversed Switzerland.

This was, of course, at the time that Hitler and Mussolini were still “buddies”! Friends of mine who lived through this era said that the Swiss government taxed anything and everything that was sent through their country. Living in Switzerland, I found that the people there were somehow strangely indifferent as to how the war was fought and how it turned out. Switzerland is still known as the banking capital of the world. The Swiss people are very conservative and self-restrained.

Swiss opera houses worked well, and the stage workers were fastidious in doing exactly as they said they would – making life on stage pleasant for the singers. Belgium and Holland were much the same.

When I worked abroad, I lived most of the time in the beautiful city of Heidelberg – a wonderful place to be – and convenient to other countries, France in particular, where I also spent much time singing.

The food in France was always delicious, but French restaurants in New York and New Orleans can usually match them plate for plate.

Italian food is tops almost everywhere!

German food is actually quite good, but most people rarely hunt it down.

Italian cars are especially gorgeous, but when I was in Europe I always enjoyed driving my German Porsche Carrera. Driving late at night after the opera on mountain roads, or the Autobahn, I found this wonderful-to-handle car a perfect solution – and having just one extra seat usually worked exactly right! When I returned from Europe and still had a Porsche with me, I soon sold it as not practical, and expensive to maintain in the US.

Women! Ah women! Many say French women are the most beautiful. Some say Italians, especially when they are young and slender are “it.” However, I have found sitting along the sidewalk of a German city, one sees more gorgeous women than anywhere else – even in Paris! Of course, America being the melting pot of the world, one can find the best of the best all over our country! – and not just in Europe!

Who were the best colleagues? Well, even though Italy has given us great composers of opera, when working there, one never knows if the opera you were hired to sing will actually be performed. If the government, whose stipends to the opera houses are “iffy” at best, could not or did not deliver the requisite lira, the opera would be a goner.

In France, the opera houses were casual in style. Sometimes, if a singer couldn’t or didn’t want to attend a certain rehearsal, he might send a substitute! How can one plan a successful performance when one doesn’t know who’s going to show up? Time was also a bit “loose.” If a rehearsal was to begin at 9 a.m., and it got going by 9:30 or 9:45 a.m., one was indeed gratified.

In the German opera theater – meaning Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Belgium, Denmark, Holland etc. – theaters run like clockwork. You have your job, as does everyone else, and all is predictable and reliably excellent.

Life was challenging for me in Europe. I had to speak the language of the opera house wherever I was and it was never English. And I performed in three languages. But I chose to do it, and I loved every minute of it. I am glad for being blessed with an artist’s life and for a great career – a time to be remembered with much pleasure and pride.