[Met Performance] CID:70070



Tosca
Metropolitan Opera House, Mon, November 18, 1918




Tosca (135)
Giacomo Puccini | Luigi Illica/Giuseppe Giacosa
Tosca
Geraldine Farrar

Cavaradossi
Giulio Crimi

Scarpia
Antonio Scotti

Sacristan
Pompilio Malatesta

Spoletta
Giordano Paltrinieri

Angelotti
Giulio Rossi

Sciarrone
Louis D'Angelo

Shepherd
Cecil Arden

Jailer
Mario Laurenti


Conductor
Roberto Moranzoni


Director
Richard Ordynski

Set Designer
Mario Sala





Tosca received seven performances this season.

Review 1:

Review in the Brooklyn Standard Union

'TOSCA" WITH A NEW TENOR

"Tosca" came to the Metropolitan Opera House last evening for the first time this season, with the incomparable Scotti as Scarpia, with Mme. Farrar as effective and colorful as ever, and with a new Mario in Giulio Crimi who, in excellence of voice and dignity of bearing, despite his youth, created a most favorable impression. Yet, with all these admirable principals, there seemed a lack in the grand finale of the first act, the ecclesiastic processional proving thin and weak as compared to previous performances, though the chorus and Scotti did their best in the foreground to make up for the dimmed splendor in the rear. While the attendance was not exactly small, the audience proved in harmony with the stage parade; and, although the blight of more stirring events made itself felt - for the first time "Tosca" seemed a bit threadbare. Can it be that opera, as a whole, is suffering from hatred of a certain phase of its art not less than of a certain people? So often too vivid emotions prove a boomerang. However, that sterling conductor, Moranzoni, did his best and, in the exquisite mood picture of the third act, artistic worth, bridged by the skill of Scotti in the space between the work, seemed to come into its own. "Butterfly," so painful as a play, is richer in orchestration than "Tosca." But its brilliant tapestry of harmonious sound fails to make up for the sheer human power of its predecessor's score - perhaps, because the little Japanese story is not a transcript from life. No Japanese maiden ever loved an alien so; they are not built that way, any more than we are the other way about. "Tosca" as a play is melodramatic, machine made, like all of Sardou, yet its people are such an appeal to us, and we are thrilled by and understand their emotions.



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