[Met Performance] CID:25720



Mefistofele
Metropolitan Opera House, Mon, January 14, 1901

Debut : Marguerite MacIntyre




Mefistofele (12)
Arrigo Boito | Arrigo Boito
Mefistofele
Pol Plançon

Faust
Giuseppe Cremonini

Margherita/Elena
Marguerite MacIntyre [Debut]

Wagner/Nerèo
Aristide Masiero

Marta/Pantalis
Louise Homer


Conductor
Luigi Mancinelli


Director
William Parry





Mefistofele received three performances this season.

Review 1:

Review in the Brooklyn Eagle

Metropolitan Opera House

The Metropolitan Opera House was filled last night, on the occasion of the revival of "Mefistofele," with Margaret Macintyre in the role of Elena, the Marguerite of this version, and with Plançon in the part which gives title to the production. The Faust was Cremonini, a tenor who does not rise to greatness or fall below acceptability. The production is a florid Italian dream, with its basis in Goethe and its superstructure in Elysium. But before the structural work is revealed the scheme of the process is suggested by the prologue as occurring in heaven, a scenic sight of which, from the top of an apparently revolving globe, domed with stars and clouds, is afforded, with amplitude of luxuriance and with marvelous beauty by the management. Under the soothing or stirring orchestration, in a perfectly darkened theater, with songs of angelic jubilation, on the one hand, undertoned by choruses from inferno on the other, the esthetic effect of this was marked. This prologue is offset by the epilogue, which is a spectacular and philosophical union in harmony and color of a picture not unknown in the high art ends of hostelries as Faust's dream. Between prologue and epilogue are the four acts of the two parts of the opera, which traverses or reverses, with lyrical license, the comedy of life that resulted from the measurement of the German genius by the Italian composer. It is a good opera for once, and a doubtful one for more than twice. Miss Macintyre has a capacious voice, a method in need of training, but a temperament indicative of intelligence and sympathy. Plançon was a dignified union of king and fiend, of whom the manners were magnificent, the costumes splendid, the voice grand and the postures pre-eminently pontifical. Miss Macintyre was repeatedly recalled and so was Plançon while the other artists adequately filled their merely minor parts. The scenery was a success of art and of splendor, the orchestration a realization of accuracy and of enthusiasm, and the occasion uniformly sustained the rank of a success of esteem, the satisfaction of a difficult revival and the assurance of a pleasant memory. As a whole the effect was rather oppressive, but it was relieved at times by the uplifting power of finely effective passages.



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