SAO PAULO'S TEATRO CULTURA ARTISTICA IS REDUCED TO ASHES IN TRAGIC FIRE JUST HOURS BEFORE SUPERSTAR MEZZO-SOPRANO SUSAN GRAHAM WAS TO PERFORM THERE When mezzo-soprano Susan Graham arrived in Sao Paulo to begin her South American tour with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Liège, she received startling news. "Susan, I have some bad news," said tour promoter Maria Rita Stumph. "The Teatro Cultura Artistica burned down last night. To the ground." "I didn't even get a chance to see the hall," lamented Ms. Graham, whose concerts with the Belgian Orchestre Philharmonique de Liège and Maestro Pascal Rophé on August 18 and 19 had to take place at another venue at very short notice - in Sao Paulo's Teatro Municipal. The fire was reported in the early hours of Sunday, August 17 by a security guard at the theater. Gerald Perret, Director of the Sociedade de Cultura Artistica which manages the hall, has already rallied the city's mayor and local philanthropists to begin plans to rebuild. "The most important task now is to find jobs for the 50 employees of the Teatro Cultura Artística, and to present tonight's concert with Susan Graham and the Orchestre Philharmonique de Liège, which will be at the Sala Sao Paulo," remarked Perret earlier this afternoon. "We will reconstruct the theater. There is an enormous circle of people already offering help." The Teatro Cultura Artistica was completed in 1950 and was designed by architects Rino Levi, Roberto Cerqueira César and Fa Pestalozzi. The opening season featured performances by such luminaries as Heitor Villa-Lobos and Camargo Guarnieri, with the Sao Paulo Symphony Orchestra. The famed façade by Brazilian painter Emilio Augusto Di Cavalcante (1897-1976) was one of the only parts of the building to survive the fire. Plans to rebuild the concert hall have not yet been announced, but Brazil's former capital, Sao Paulo, continues to enjoy a rich cultural life, with performances by local artists and visitors from all over the world. Susan Graham, who considers herself fortunate to have been able to sing the two planned concerts in Sao Paulo, and is looking forward to performing in Montevideo and Buenos Aires in a few days' time, opens her US season on September 27 at the Metropolitan Opera, singing the role of Donna Elvira in Mozart's Don Giovanni for the first time with the company. On November 7 at the Met, in the company's first staging of Berlioz's Damnation de Faust, Graham portrays Marguérite - a role she has sung many times elsewhere. Also in New York, but at Carnegie Hall, Susan Graham participates in the Leonard Bernstein Festival performance of Arias and Barcarolles on December 13, with Jeremy Denk and conductor Robert Spano at the piano and baritone Rod Gilfry at her side.