"A Bowl Full of Memories" (by Kristine McKenna, June 30) states that the Los Angeles Philharmonic officially opened the first Hollywood Bowl season on July 11, 1922. Semantically, that is correct, but the official opening of the Bowl itself took place three days earlier, on July 8, with a gala performance of "Carmen" starring the renowned Belgian diva Marguerite Sylva. Tenor Edward Johnson, later to become general manager of the Metropolitan Opera, co-starred.
This gala performance paid for 10,000 new seats in the Bowl, and the press headlined the event as having been witnessed by 40,000 people--the largest audience the Bowl has ever held. (No gates had yet been constructed to inhibit gate-crashers.)
