Metropolitan Opera Archives

Brooklyn's society in all its splendor and Brooklyn's music lovers with all their enthusiasm thronged the Academy of Music last night. Bizet's "Carmen," with Caruso as Don José and Maria Gay as the one classic factory girl of all times, was the magnet and since our operagoers have grown used to Democratic election weather they didn't mind the wet underfoot, or the lowering, leaking skies above.

It was a brilliant performance which the Metropolitan Opera Company presented to the audience. Maria Gay came to this country with the fame of being Europe's best Carmen since the days of Lucca. For once the enthusiasts on the other side of the Atlantic will have the satisfaction of being in agreement with their American brethren. In personal appearance, facial expression and temperament, this singer is the Carmen as one pictures her, but as one rarely sees her on the stage. True, her voice, while rich and clear and free of tremolo, is not as melodious as might be wished, and in other roles, perhaps, this shortcoming may act as a disturbing factor, but in Carmen it adds to the charm. Nothing more characteristic of her wonderful fitness for the part can be said than that she appeared absolutely without make-up. Her rendition of the opera's star song, "L'Amour Est un Enfant Boheme," was superb and the singer's devil-may-care manner, combined with the stirring strains of the aria, literally made the audience sit up.

It's like carrying coals to Newcastle to add to the praise which has been bestowed on other occasions upon Caruso's Don José. In his case it is not the acting that establishes the success, but the voice alone. The ease with which it flows from his lips, the power of its full volume, the tears that well up and the passion that cries out through it, are no longer things to be marveled at, because they are no longer new. In the duet in the second act Caruso rose to vocal heights, which, while probably not in the score, revealed to the full his marvelous gift and made out of a scene which usually belongs to the female star the very center of his personal triumph. M. Note, the new French baritone, sang the Escamillo with much dash and distinction. His Trocadero song earned him much applause.

Brooklynites were particularly pleased with the Micaela of Mme. Rappold. This gifted soprano is a Brooklyn woman whose voice always gave promise of fine development, hut even her greatest admirers never expected her to rise to the artistic perfection which she showed last night. Her solo in the third act, a difficult piece of music, was rendered in brilliant style, and her acting lifted her part far above the usual conception of the part.

Signor Toscanini conducted. He read no score,

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