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[Met Performance] CID:41400
Lucia di Lammermoor
Metropolitan Opera House, Sat, March 21, 1908
Debut : Ellen Beach Yaw
Lucia di Lammermoor (72)
Gaetano Donizetti | Salvadore Cammarano
Lucia di Lammermoor received one performance this season.
Review 1:
Unsigned review in unidentified newspaper
Opera Revived for the First Time This Season for American Girl’s Debut
Donizetti’s “Lucia” received its first presentation of the season at the Metropolitan Opera House last night. This opera, which has been Mme. Tetrazzini’s greatest magnet with the public [Manhattan Opera House] and was once announced at the Metropolitan early in the Fall, but abandoned on account of the indisposition of Mme. Sembrich, owes its present revival to the sudden appearance on the list of sopranos at the Metropolitan of Ellen Beach Yaw.
Miss Yaw is an American girl, who has undertaken several concert tours of the country, but who principal claim to fame hitherto has been the possession of certain high notes, which have been described as “phenomenal.” She has appeared in opera on a few of the Italian cities and in Nice, but last night was her great chance to sing opera in America.
She was decidedly nervous, but it must be said that she made a good impression not only upon the audience as a whole, which applauded her singing vociferously, but upon the more critical persons who were present. Her middle voice is of sweet quality, and she knows how to use it. Her coloratura passages were managed with brilliancy, and with style. Her staccato was especially good. Unfortunately, howe3ver, she sang a large part of the second act with false intonation.
Her high notes, which have been so much heralded, were disappointing. They were always thin, and not of sufficient carrying power. She transposed the final G on “quando rapito in Estasi” an octave higher than the score, but without much effect. The sudden leap up the scale was not musical, and the tone was so thin that it was not brilliant. The high C’s in the sextet were likewise disappointing. The voice is not a large one in any of the registers, but the high tones are especially small.
The mad scene of course, is the climax of any singer’s work in “Lucia,” and this air Miss Yaw sang well, at time almost dazzlingly. The duet with the flute provoked so much applause that she repeated the coloratura phrases before finishing the act. And after the curtain fell she was recalled many times.
Search by season: 1907-08
Search by title: Lucia di Lammermoor,
Met careers
Lucia di Lammermoor
Metropolitan Opera House, Sat, March 21, 1908
Debut : Ellen Beach Yaw
Lucia di Lammermoor (72)
Gaetano Donizetti | Salvadore Cammarano
- Lucia
- Ellen Beach Yaw [Debut] [Debut and Only performance]
- Edgardo
- Alessandro Bonci
- Enrico
- Riccardo Stracciari
- Raimondo
- Vittorio Navarini
- Normanno
- Giuseppe Tecchi
- Alisa
- Marie Mattfeld
- Arturo
- George Lucas
- Conductor
- Rodolfo Ferrari
- Director
- Eugène Dufriche
Lucia di Lammermoor received one performance this season.
Review 1:
Unsigned review in unidentified newspaper
Opera Revived for the First Time This Season for American Girl’s Debut
Donizetti’s “Lucia” received its first presentation of the season at the Metropolitan Opera House last night. This opera, which has been Mme. Tetrazzini’s greatest magnet with the public [Manhattan Opera House] and was once announced at the Metropolitan early in the Fall, but abandoned on account of the indisposition of Mme. Sembrich, owes its present revival to the sudden appearance on the list of sopranos at the Metropolitan of Ellen Beach Yaw.
Miss Yaw is an American girl, who has undertaken several concert tours of the country, but who principal claim to fame hitherto has been the possession of certain high notes, which have been described as “phenomenal.” She has appeared in opera on a few of the Italian cities and in Nice, but last night was her great chance to sing opera in America.
She was decidedly nervous, but it must be said that she made a good impression not only upon the audience as a whole, which applauded her singing vociferously, but upon the more critical persons who were present. Her middle voice is of sweet quality, and she knows how to use it. Her coloratura passages were managed with brilliancy, and with style. Her staccato was especially good. Unfortunately, howe3ver, she sang a large part of the second act with false intonation.
Her high notes, which have been so much heralded, were disappointing. They were always thin, and not of sufficient carrying power. She transposed the final G on “quando rapito in Estasi” an octave higher than the score, but without much effect. The sudden leap up the scale was not musical, and the tone was so thin that it was not brilliant. The high C’s in the sextet were likewise disappointing. The voice is not a large one in any of the registers, but the high tones are especially small.
The mad scene of course, is the climax of any singer’s work in “Lucia,” and this air Miss Yaw sang well, at time almost dazzlingly. The duet with the flute provoked so much applause that she repeated the coloratura phrases before finishing the act. And after the curtain fell she was recalled many times.
Search by season: 1907-08
Search by title: Lucia di Lammermoor,
Met careers