[Met Tour] CID:12710



Carmen
The Auditorium, Chicago, Illinois, Mon, March 26, 1894




Carmen (41)
Georges Bizet | Henri Meilhac/Ludovic Halévy
Carmen
Emma Calvé

Don José
Jean de Reszke

Micaela
Emma Eames

Escamillo
Jean Lassalle

Frasquita
Mathilde Bauermeister

Mercédès
Anita Ibles

Remendado
Antonio Rinaldini

Dancaïre
Agostino Carbone

Zuniga
Lodovico Viviani

Moralès
Victor De Gromzeski

Dance
Miss Santori


Conductor
Enrico Bevignani







Review 1:

Review in the Chicago Daily Tribune

CALVE PRESENTS A NEW CARMEN.

In Her Third Appearance in the Character She Reveals a Fresh Interpretation.

"Carmen," given last evening for the third time during the current season, presented again Mlle. Calvé in the title role, with which she has become indissolubly connected. Again it was a different Carmen. This time deeper, more tragic. fewer in moments of lightness, and less given to gaiety of mood than the previous portrayals of the part by Mlle. Calvé, each differing in turn from the other.

A creature of the moment, impressed by surroundings and chance circumstance, Mlle. Calvé seemed wrought upon by the Don José of Jean do Reszke and by the touch of the ideal that he imparted to the devotion of the soldier lover. In the card scene Mlle. Calvé attained to the greatest power she has yet displayed in this, with her, always powerful scene. Death seemed for a moment to impress her more terribly with the force of its presentment and to make more difficult the unalterable destiny that she was called upon to face. In the moments with Don José, and supported by the passion of his acting, new ideas and fancies were developed and, while the high lights were fewer, the sharp directness of the picture gained in a somber impressiveness. Applause was more seldom, but attention was more closely fixed. It became, with both the central figures, a thing of realness. Casting aside the romance of tradition, Jean de Reszke assumed the deeper, the more direct romance of reality. In the scenes sustained with Carmen his voice, imbued with the force of the situation, obtained a depth of color in consonance. To sustain a position so difficult as that resulting from such splendid realism as that afforded by Mlle. Calvé is a task not easy in accomplishment. At the outset there was on the part of M. de Reszke evidence of nervousness and lack of concentration. This vanished with the progress of the scene, to be followed by a fervor apparently irresistible and of the moment.

A picturesque Escamillo was that of Jean Lassalle, an Escamillo of many adventures, a trifle blasé, but succumbing gracefully. His reception was of that warmth of which he is always deserving and always accorded. Mme. Emma Eames fulfilled the part of Micaela for the first time during the present season, delivering the numbers assigned her with great beauty of phrasing, though at moments a little prone to faulty intonation. The cigarette girls seemed, as usual, strangely opposed to the time in which Bizet had written their chorus, a fact which the audience was led more deeply to regret than the singers. The usual excellent setting distinguished the production and the orchestra, led by Sig. Bevignani, responded with spirit.

The unusual demand for admissions has led to the announcement on the part of the management of an extra performance of "Carmen" Saturday evening next, when the same cast appearing at the production last evening will again sustain the principal rôles.



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