[Met Performance] CID:54649



Tosca
Metropolitan Opera House, Mon, March 10, 1913




Tosca (92)
Giacomo Puccini | Luigi Illica/Giuseppe Giacosa
Tosca
Olive Fremstad

Cavaradossi
Enrico Caruso

Scarpia
Antonio Scotti

Sacristan
Antonio Pini-Corsi

Spoletta
Angelo Badà

Angelotti
Giulio Rossi

Sciarrone
Bernard Bégué

Shepherd
Jeanne Maubourg

Jailer
Paolo Ananian


Conductor
Arturo Toscanini







Review 1:

Review of W. J. Henderson in the Sun

CARUSO AND SCOTTI SING With Toscanini as Conductor

The Opera Is Given With General Excellence.

Giacomo Puccini continues to occupy a place in the forefront of the Metropolitan Opera House repertory. His list of operas, as music lovers well know, is not long, but the repetitions of his few works are frequent. Last evening the eighteenth week of the season was ushered in with a performance of "Tosca." The Metropolitan is well supplied with impersonators of Sardou's Roman singer as made into an operatic heroine, and the repetitions of the work acquire added interest through the changes in the cast. Last evening Olive Fremstad sang the title role for the first time this season.

It will have to be conceded, however, that the public was not wholly absorbed in the heroine, for Mr. Caruso was the

representative of the painter Mario Cavaradossi. This is one of the roles in which operagoers seem most to admire him. Mr. Scotti was, as usual, the Baron Scarpia, and Mr. Toscanini wielded the conductor's baton. This quartet of stars formed a most excellent Monday evening combination.

Mme. Fremstad was not a very important Tosca when she first essayed the role, but she never rests contented with any impersonation. She is always at work on her parts, thinking, studying, working out details. This discloses the spirit of the true artist. If there is a highly sensitive musical organization that part of it which the casual observer carelessly calls temperament can be left to itself. This thing which is rather the response of feeling to the demands of the moment comes spontaneously and puts the communicative warmth into utterances which have been planned in the solitary hours of study.

It is therefore in the treatment of the musical phrase, in the management of tones and in the distribution of color that Mme. Fremstad's Tosca shows a beautiful growth. It is safe to say, however, that the ideals of the artist lie yet beyond her achievements and that her Tosca will be more finely spun in the future than it is now. The performance of the opera as a whole last evening was admirable, for both Mr. Caruso and Mr. Scotti contributed elements of high value and the orchestra played well.



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