Metropolitan Opera Archives

Wagner's + "Tannhäuser" was performed at the Metropolitan Opera House last evening for the first time this season. The audience, as is to be expected on Wagner nights, was a large one, and when Herr Seidl entered the orchestra, recovered from his severe sickness, the temper of the assembly was shown by the warm welcome given to him.

The performance, as a whole, was an interesting one, having many admirable features and some serious defects. The most notable shortcoming was Herr Heinrich Vogl's lack of voice. His acting of the title rôle was far better than his singing. His voice is very badly worn, and its real condition is much more apparent now than at his first appearance. On the other hand, he declaims with excellent dramatic significance and acts with great intelligence. In the duet with Elizabeth, in the second act, he sang much better than in the great scene with Venus, in Act I.

As heretofore, the finest vocal and dramatic work of the evening was Lilli Lehmann's Venus. She was at her best last evening, and in the tremendous [first] scene she fairly electrified the house with her magnificent display of power and intensity. Herr Reichmann was the Wolfram, and was commendable, though it is only fair to say that the role was acted with more dignity and a greater aspect of sincerity by Herr Robinson in his best days. Still Herr Reichmann sang excellently, though with a tendency occasionally to overelaboration.

Fräulein Wiesner was the Elizabeth, and was, on the whole, more satisfactory than she was in Elsa. She sang less frequently out of tune, though she forced her voice a great deal and allowed her extensive tremolo free play. Herr Behrens was a remarkably wooden and unsympathetic Landgrave, and once or twice during the evening he sang fearfully and wonderfully out of tune.

The smaller parts were very badly sung by such persons as Herren Josef Arden and Albert Mittellhauser. The chorus sang at times with poor quality of tone, and not infrequently much off the key. The orchestra, though its weakness in the string department was often painfully apparent, did its work excellently, and Herr Seidl's baton was a constant source of inspiration to the forces under his command. This afternoon "Die Barber von Bagdad" and the ballet "Die Puppenfée" will be given.

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