[Met Performance] CID:6200



La Juive
Metropolitan Opera House, Wed, December 7, 1887


In German



La Juive (10)
J. F. F. Halévy | Eugène Scribe
Rachel
Lilli Lehmann

Eléazar
Albert Niemann

Princess Eudoxie
Biro De Marion

Prince Léopold
Max Alvary

Cardinal de Brogni
Emil Fischer

Ruggiero
Rudolph Von Milde

Albert
Jean Doré

Dance
Theodora De Gillert


Conductor
Walter Damrosch


Director
Theodore Habelmann





Translation by unknown
La Juive received three performances this season.

Review 1:

Review in The New York Times:

METROPOLITAN OPERA HOUSE

Halévy's "La Juive" was produced in its German form at the Metropolitan Opera House last evening in the presence of one of the largest audiences of the season. The fullness of the house was probably owing in a large measure to the fact that the opera has not been performed here in three years. The opera in itself has not so wide popularity as last evening's audience seemed to indicate. The story upon which the work is founded is not attractive, and the demands of the music on the singers are rarely met. Halévy's music is at times passionate, and its scope calls for large vocal resources, it is hardly necessary to say that Herr Niemann, who was the Eleazar last evening, was not an ideal representative of that emotional personage. Obliged to rise from his own emotional gloom to stormy vehemence, Herr Niemann cast himself about the stage in a manner suggestive of physical discomfort, rather than of mental anguish. In singing the German tenor was painfully unequal to the requirements of the part. Much of the music requires more force and volume or tone than he now has at his command, while in other passages the notes were too high for him, and he was obliged to let Fräulein Lehmann's charitable voice cover a multitude of his deficiencies. It must be noted, however, that Herr Niemann's acting had the merit of sincerity. As Recha Fräulein Lehmann achieved another decided success. She was a most agreeable-looking Jewess, and her singing was always excellent and frequently nothing short of superb. In the great scene of the second act she rose to heights of uncommon power, and some of her declamatory passages were splendid exhibitions of vocal power and fervor. Her treatment of the rôle as a whole was symmetrical, intelligent, and earnest. Herr Alvary was the Prince Leopold, a personage whom for some reason he made physically displeasing. In other words, Herr Alvary's "makeup" was extremely bad, though correct in spirit. He atoned for this defect by the force or his acting and the general excellence of his singing. In the more emotional scenes of the opera he sang with fine spirit and excellent voice, and earned a goodly share of the evening's honors. Fräulein Biro de Marion was the Eudora. It goes without saying that she was wholly inadequate to the requirements of the score. Her worn voice and laborious delivery were painful. Herr Fischer sang the music of the Cardinal in a manner that left nothing to he desired. His rendering of the solo in the first act was admirable. Herr von Milde was satisfactory as Ruggiero. The chorus and orchestra under the baton of Walter Damrosch, who conducted with firmness, were efficient. Mlle. Theodora de Gillert was the principal dancer of the ballet, and her work was, as usual, graceful. The pageantry of the opera was carried forward with the care that marks such work at the Metropolitan.



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