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TWO News-Bits of Reading-Berks historical interest.... ============================================== 1- Abandoned Evangelical Church at Eckville pictured 30 years ago 2- Berks County-born tenor Ken Riegel has new web-site on Google ============================================== 1- Following our very recent report that the former Evangelical church near Eckville, in Albany Twp. (most often referred to as "Bolich's") is in rapid decline, we received a considerable number of emails asking for a picture of the structure. A check of the files yielded three taken nearly 30 years ago, at which time the frame building was still in fair condition with windows and roof intact and the front door secured from intruders. Here then are those photos: ============================================= 2- Berks County has had two tenors of great talent who became world operatic celebrities that appeared on the stage of the Metropolitan Opera House in New York. Reading's Paul Althouse was one....and Kenneth Riegel of Womelsdorf is the other. One of our email patrons informed us this morning that Google < http://www.google.com > has a web-site devolted to Riegel's career and that some readers might find it of some interest. I checked it immediately as many moons ago Mr. Riegel and I used to meet every Friday evening at the Wyomissing Institute of Fine Arts for vocal study with operatic tenor Fritz Kruger. Grace Barbey-Snyder was our accompanist. My lesson came first. As Kenneth usually came considerably ahead of his appointed time, he would sit in the back of the room and monitor my lesson, the thought of which, in retrospect, makes me wince! For starters, he's a sample of Mr. Riegel's vocal art...the great tenor aria "Cujus animam" from Rossini's opera-like oratorio Stabat Mater. [FYI: Paul Althouse recorded this same selection around 1917--for the Pathe record company.] KENNETH RIEGEL, tenor, born and reared in Berks County Kenneth Riegel was born in West Hamburg,PA, lived in Richland, and graduated from Womelsdorf's Conrad Weiser High School--and first came to the attention of the international music world with his performance in the New York premiere of Henze's "The Young Lord." Since then, he has sung at the Metropolitan Opera, the San Francisco Opera, the Lyric Opera of Chicago, the Vienna State Opera, the Salzbug Festival, La Scala, the Rome Opera, the Teatro Communale in Florence, thevTeatro Communale in Bologna, the Royal OperavHouse (Covent Garden) in London, the Deutsche Oper Berlin, the Hamburg State Opera, the Bavarian State Opera in Munich, the Bonn Opera, the Geneva Opera and the Brussels Opera. A frequent guest of the Paris Opera, Mr. Riegel was the first American tenor to portray the title roles of Faust and The Tales of Hoffmann there. Also at the Paris Opera he created the role of Alwa in the world premiere of Berg's complete three-act version of Lulu, a role he later repeated at the Met for a live nation-wide telecast. In 1983, again at the Paris Opera, Mr. Riegel created the role of the Leper in the world-premiere of Messiaen's only opera St. Francois d'Assise. In the cinema, Kenneth Riegel has appeared as Don Ottavio in Joseph Losey's film of Don Giovanni (sound track on Columbia Records) and as Prince Shuisky in the movie-version of Boris Godunov, directed by Andrzej Zulawski (sound track on Erato Records). Mr. Riegel can also be heard on numerous other records, among them: the Grammy award-winning record of Orff's Carmina Burana with Michael Tilson Thomas conducting the Cleveland Orchestra; Liszt's Faust Symphony on Deutsche Grammophon with Leonard Bernstein and the Boston Symphony, which won the Grand Prix du Disque of 1978; the Paris production of Lulu conducted by Pierre Boulez on Deutsche Grammophon. Also, Mahler's Symphony #8 on Deutsche Grammophon with Leonard Bernstein and the Vienna Philharmonic; on Philips records with Seiji Ozawa and the Boston Symphony andon Denon records with Eliahu Inbal and the Frankfurt Radio Orchestra; Damnation de Faust on Decca Records with Sir Georg Solti conducting the Chicago Orchestra, which won the Grand Prix du Disque of 1982 as well as the Grammy; the first recording of Zemlinsky's Der Geburtstag der Infantin on Schwann-Koch Records with Gerd Albrecht conducting the Berlin Radio Symphony, which won the Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik. Also, the first recording of Arthur Lourie's song-cycle The Little Gidding with the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie on Deutsche Grammophon; Salome with Christoph von Dohnanyi conducting the Vienna Philharmonic on Decca Records; and most recently Gurrelieder with Giuseppe Sinopoli conducting the Dresden Staatskapelle on Teldec. His current and future engagements include a new production of Wozzeck at the Florence May Festival under Zubin Mehta; a revival of Salome at the Santa Fe Festival under John Crosby; concert performances of Salome at the Teatro del Liceu in Barcelona under Peter Schneider; a new production of Elektra at the Teatro Real in Madrid under Garcia Navarro; concert performances of Salome with the Philharmonia Orchestra of London at the Megaron in Athens under Michael Schoenwand; revivals of Elektra and of Wozzeck at the Metropolitan Opera both under James Levine. Also, a new production of Henze's The Bassarides at the Teatro Real in Madrid under Arturo Tamayo; a concert performance of Wozzeck at the Aspen Festival under James Conlon; a new production of Wozzeck at the San Francisco Opera under Michael Boder; and concerts of Schoenberg's Gurrelieder with the Spanish National Orchestra in Madrid. Mr. Riegel is available for master classes and private teaching. When still living in Womelsdorf, he joined the Music Club of Reading-Berks and appeared with Reading Civic Opera. In more recent years he has appeared locally with the Reading Symphony Orchestra.

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