[Met Tour] CID:63260



Martha
Auditorium, Atlanta, Georgia, Fri, April 28, 1916


In Italian



Martha (49)
Friedrich von Flotow | Friedrich Wilhelm Riese
Lady Harriet
Maria Barrientos

Lionel
Enrico Caruso

Nancy
Flora Perini

Plunkett
Giuseppe De Luca

Sir Tristram
Pompilio Malatesta

Sheriff
Riccardo Tegani

Maid
Frieda Martin [Last performance]

Maid
Nazzarena Malaspina

Maid
Emma Borniggia

Servant
Vincenzo Reschiglian


Conductor
Gaetano Bavagnoli [Last performance]





Maria Barrientos repeated "The Last Rose of Summer"

Review 1:

Review in Atlanta Constitution:

IMMENSE AUDIENCE SWAYED BY MUSIC OF OPERA MARTHA

Great Crowd Jams Auditorium to Hear the Tuneful Opera, Hundreds Being Unable to Secure Seats

The largest audience since the [first] season of grand opera in Atlanta seven years ago saw Martha last night. It was exceeded in numbers by but one previous audience in the history of annual grand opera. That was the one which attended the production of Aida the first year that the entire Metropolitan Opera company visited Atlanta for an entire week. In last night's audience there were approximately 6,800 sold admissions. For Aida seven years ago there were 7,300 sold admissions.

HUNDREDS TURNED AWAY

Early Friday afternoon every seat in the Auditorium was sold. Before noon the dollar seats, beyond the sight lines of the balconies, were sold out. Last night standing room was at premium, and hundreds thronged the entrance, aisles and steps. Other hundreds were turned away.

Never has there been such an attendance from out-of-town. All the hotels were taxed to their capacities. Last night any sort of hotel accommodations were taken gladly. People from out-of-town who had failed to make their seat reservation for Martha were willing to pay double for seats when obtainable, and, in instances, such prices were paid.

Everybody seemed to have realized what a tremendous crush there would be at the Auditorium, and the crowds began to arrive as early as 7 o'clock, although the curtain did not go up until 8 o'clock. The highest praise is due the traffic squad and the doormen for the wonderful manner in which they handled the multitude of people that surged through the streets and the doors of the Auditorium last night.

WONDERFUL PRODUCTION

As for the opera itself--If you heard Caruso's voice surging upward above the chorus, if you heard that last lilting note of Barrientos' soaring-it seemed an octave over orchestra and all-just as the final curtain fell, you grasp the significance of punctuation in the foregoing sentence. If not, description is futile.

The opera itself was all and more than was promised. During the New York season, "Martha" has been the favorite with the opera-going public of all the operas which the Metropolitan has presented. Many Atlantans who were in New York went to see "Martha" there, and brought back glowing accounts. New York's verdict was approved by Boston just before the Metropolitan company came to Atlanta, and last night Atlanta found that the half had not been told of the charm of this presentation.

To the attractiveness of the opera itself was added the tremendous attraction which Enrico Caruso has always held for Atlanta, and the charm which Maria Barrientos has exerted over southern opera lovers since her first appearance here this year. The great tenor and the beautiful Spanish coloratura were given great ovations, and had to respond to innumerable curtain calls.

RESPONDS TO ENCORE

Mme. Barrientos' voice is remarkably adapted to the high tilting notes of "The Last Rose of Summer" aria, and her singing was so pleasing that she was compelled to respond to an encore. The audience also gave Caruso, in the third act at the end of his solo, one of the greatest ovations in the history of his annual visits to Atlanta, and twice stopped the orchestra in their applause and desire to hear him respond to an encore. Caruso, however, after many bows of appreciation of the tremendous compliment, declined to respond to an encore, for the evident reason that it was necessary for him immediately to sing another solo and that the remainder of the opera was such as to make extreme demands upon his voice. Giuseppe De Luca, who is a newcomer to Atlanta this year, was also highly pleasing in the role of Plunkett.



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