[Met Performance] CID:86470



Lohengrin
Metropolitan Opera House, Wed, February 20, 1924




Lohengrin (332)
Richard Wagner | Richard Wagner
Lohengrin
Curt Taucher

Elsa
Elisabeth Rethberg

Ortrud
Karin Branzell

Telramund
Clarence Whitehill

King Heinrich
Michael Bohnen

Herald
Carl Schlegel

Page
Minnie Egener

Page
Laura Robertson

Page
Charlotte Ryan

Page
Henriette Wakefield


Conductor
Artur Bodanzky







Review 1:

Review of W. J. Henderson in the Herald

"Lohengrin Again"

The repetition of "Lohengrin" at the Metropolitan last evening acquired some interest because Miss Rethberg replaced the departed Mme. Jeritza as Elsa, and Mr. Whitehill impersonated Telramund, appearing for the last time this season. The admired American barytone effected his "Auf wiedersehn" with a display of that mature and well considered art which has brought him to his present important position in the world of music drama. His versatility long ago promised to make him widely useful as a member of the company. There is a valuable lesson in this for young singers who may fail to see that Mr. Whitehill's supremacy is not due solely to his tones and his more than six feet of manhood.

Mr. Whitehill's versatility is, to a large extent, due to his command of languages. He not only understands them and delivers them distinctly, but he has a keen sense of their character and the influence of that character on the construction of the music to which they are set. Such a perception makes a man a master of style, and it is this mastery which does so much toward enabling Mr. Whitehill to portray a Mephistopheles, a Telramund, an Escamillo and a Wotan. He has consistently made his Telramund a comprehensible person, which is something not always accomplished and never by a merely sonorous delivery of his well rounded phrases.

Miss Rethberg sang Elsa with the beautiful voice which nature generously gave her and with some rather uncertain efforts at delineating the emotions smothered under the voluminous robes. Her efforts were not always successful, nor always indicative of the courtly training of a Duchess of Brabant, who would certainly not turn her back on her King when he asked her a question and she answered it. Mme. Branzell repeated her impressive impersonation of Ortrud, and aroused some of the real enthusiasm of the evening.

Mr. Bohnen was again the paternal monarch, who had such a kindly interest in the fair defendant in the "cause célèbre" in Brabant. He sang the music well. Mr. Taucher as Lohengrin and Mr. Schlegel as the Herald completed the cast, and Mr. Bodanzky as usual wielded the baton. Once again the combat was a tame affair. Mr. Taucher's final blow on Mr. Whitehill's shield could not even have hurt his feelings.



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