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[Met Performance] CID:86600

Metropolitan Opera Premiere, New Production

Le Roi de Lahore
Metropolitan Opera House, Fri, February 29, 1924

Debut : Dorothy Wagner, Frances Weller, Leonora Nickerson, Marion Klebora, Yvonne Bailey, Marie Anderson







ACT III Ballet Divertissement devised and arranged by Rosina Galli


1. Adagio - Valse: Rosina Galli, Premiere Danseuse; Giuseppe Bonfiglio, Premiere Danseur; Florence Rudolph, Rita De Leporte, Florence McNally, Jessie York, and Corps de Ballet


2. Variations de Caractere: Misses Florence Rudolph, Rita De Leporte, Lilyan Ogden, Jessie Rogge, Ruth Viemeister, Dorothy Wagner [Debut], Frances Weller [Debut], Leonora Nickerson [Debut], Marion Klebora [Debut], Yvonne Bailey [Debut], Marie Anderson [Debut]


3. Ensemble Finale: Rosina Galli, Giuseppe Bonfiglio and entire Corps de Ballet


Le Roi de Lahore received six performances this season.

Review 1:

Review of Deems Taylor in the New York World

One thing should be made clear. There is no point in demanding of "Le Roi de Lahore" that it be something it isn't. It belongs to the great operatic family whose Father Adam was Meyerbeer and whose sole aim in life is to provide sumptuous settings, rich costumes, elaborate ballets and impressive pageantry for the eye, with rousing choruses, graceful dances, stirring marches, and all sorts of arias, duets, trios, and ensembles for the ear-in other words, a solid evening's entertainment, with no elements of uplift or dramatic unity or musical apotheosis or such like nonsense to complicate the spectator's enjoyment. An old, opulent, and respectable family that numbers at least one immortal - "Aida" - among its members, and which is no more to be despised than the Hippodrome or a Boston Symphony "pops" concert.

But Massenet has not done his part of the job. An opera of this school absolutely must have good tunes. The "barrel-organ" operas are much derided, but they did possess that requisite. There is hardly a theme that rises up from the orchestra imbued with life of its own from the beginning to the end of "Le Roi de Lahore."

If the production could save an opera, "Le Roi de Lahore" might have a chance, for Mr. Gatti-Casazza has given it a mounting that deserves the long-suffering adjective "sumptuous." The acting was prudently reduced to the minimum required by the Meyerbeerian formula - that is, to look heroic, raise the eyebrows occasionally, and clench the fists. The audience was a large and interested one, and the upper right hand corner of the gallery applauded louder and more persistently than one would have believed possible.

Photographs of Giacomo Lauri-Volpi as Alim and Giuseppe de Luca as Scindia by Herman Mishkin.

Search by season: 1923-24

Search by title: Le Roi de Lahore,



Met careers

• Louis Hasselmans [Conductor]
• Giacomo Lauri-Volpi [Alim]
• Delia Reinhardt [Sitâ]
• Giuseppe De Luca [Scindia]
• José Mardones [Indra]
• Léon Rothier [Timour]
• Merle Alcock [Kaled]
• Rosina Galli [Dance]
• Giuseppe Bonfiglio [Dance]
• Florence Rudolph [Dance]
• Rita De Leporte [Dance]
• Florence McNally [Dance]
• Jessie York [Dance]
• Lilyan Ogden [Dance]
• Jessie Rogge [Dance]
• Florence Glover [Dance]
• Ruth Viemeister [Dance]
• Dorothy Wagner [Dance]
• Frances Weller [Dance]
• Leonora Nickerson [Dance]
• Marion Klebora [Dance]
• Yvonne Bailey [Dance]
• Marie Anderson [Dance]
• Wilhelm Von Wymetal [Director]
• Boris Anisfeld [Designer]