[Met Tour] CID:2110



Carmen
Academy of Music, Baltimore, Maryland, Sat, March 1, 1884 Matinee



In Italian



Carmen (8)
Georges Bizet | Henri Meilhac/Ludovic Halévy
Carmen
Zelia Trebelli

Don José
Italo Campanini

Micaela
Alwina Valleria

Escamillo
Giuseppe Del Puente

Frasquita
Ida Corani

Mercédès
Louise Lablache

Remendado
Amadeo Grazzi

Dancaïre
Baldassare Corsini

Zuniga
Achille Augier

Moralès
unknown

Dance
Malvina Cavalazzi


Conductor
Cleofonte Campanini





Giuseppe Del Puente repeated the Toreador Song.
A Baltimore reviewer reported: "...Del Puente sang the fine aria of the Toreador with fine voice and with dramatic fire, and had a great success. He was obliged to repeat it, in response to a hearty recall."

Review 1:

Review from unidentified Baltimore newspaper

"Carmen" was produced at the matinée in most finished and perfect style. It was the most symmetrically good thing of the season, for all the parts were admirably filled. Campanini as Don José was in better voice than he has been for some time; Valleria as Micaela was delicious; Del Puente as the Toreador was excellent, and Trebelli as Carmen was a new revelation of the possibilities of the rôle. Minnie Hauk, whose friends consider her as unapproachable in this part, is by no means equal to Trebelli. The chest tones of this great artist are glorious. They have an intoxicating warmth and beauty. She has the art of acting with her voice, a something beyond singing or declaiming, a something that is more like a vocal gesture - if such a phrase may be permitted - than like a note of music. It conveys an impression of admirable reading superadded to singing. It suits the rôle of Carmen. It opens up all the capacities for uttering coquetry in melody and expressing that mingling of cruelty, waywardness, passion and perfidy which was Carmen. Trebelli had an immense success, and yet Valleria fairly divided the house with her. One of the most spontaneous and impressionable outbursts of enjoyment followed her aria in the third act. The purity and sweetness of her rôle when contrasted with that of Carmen was shown in her voice, so fresh and sympathetic. One may admire Carmen, but one loves Micaela.

Del Puente sang the fine aria of the Toreador with fine voice and with dramatic fire, and had a great success. He was obliged to repeat it, in response to a hearty recall. Campanini as Don José was very fine. As an actor he is far superior to any other tenor now on the stage, and though at times his voice seems to have lost its freshness, it often comes back to him in all its early beauty. He was in good voice yesterday.

It would not be just to this management to fail to mention the orchestra. It is the best that any company has ever brought here. It is composed on a scale of eight first violins, and numbers more than fifty performers. In the music of "Carmen" the excellence of this orchestra thoroughly appeared. The house last night demonstrated the fact that is safe to bring a first-class opera to Baltimore, even in Lent.



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