[Met Performance] CID:88710



L'Africaine
Metropolitan Opera House, Sat, December 27, 1924 Matinee



In Italian



L'Africaine (36)
Giacomo Meyerbeer | Eugène Scribe
Sélika
Rosa Ponselle

Vasco de Gama
Beniamino Gigli

Inès
Queena Mario

Nélusko
Giuseppe Danise

Pedro
Adamo Didur

Diégo
Paolo Ananian

Alvar
Angelo Badà

Grand Inquisitor
Léon Rothier

Anna
Marion Telva

Usher
Vincenzo Reschiglian

Officer
Max Altglass


Conductor
Tullio Serafin


Director
Samuel Thewman

Set Designer
Joseph Urban

Costume Designer
Gretel Urban

Choreographer
August Berger





Translation by unknown
L'Africaine received five performances this season.

Review 1:

Review of Leonard Liebling the New York American

'L'AFRICANE' GIVES ROSA PONSELLE BIG CHANCE

Soprano Splendid in Voice, Appearance and Action, While Gigli Delivers Lovely Tones and Rest of Cast Does Well

What with "La Juive" ("The Jewess") and "L"Africane" ("The African") on the current bills at the Metropolitan, members of the Ku Klux Klan must feel that it is Old Home Week here for them operatically. If the big matinee throng had any Klan adherents at "L'Africane" yesterday they stood not under the sign of the fiery cross, but rather under the spell of Tullio Serafin's fiery baton. That doughty conductor put vigor and impetus into the somewhat faded measures of this opera, relic of an age, more or less happily surmounted. He made the music sound important here and there, and the orchestration take on the semblance of glamour.

Whatever else "L'Africane" might be, it is, however, and ideal medium for the display of brilliant singing and melodramatic acting in the operatic sense. Rosa Ponselle took full advantage of those opportunities. She was splendid in voice, appearance and action, and caught the broad Meyerbeerian style to perfection. Gigli, as usual, delivered himself of lovely tones, immaculately rounded and phrased.

The darksome Nelusko of the occasion was Giuseppe Danise who looks were more intense than his song. Queena Mario, in the role of Ines, warbled sweetly in the first act. Others who contributed vitally were Leon Rothier, Adamo Didur and Angelo Bada. Excellent ballet filled the eye in the fourth act. The third act had a ship whose lines, were he to see them, would give Sir Thomas Lipton food for deep thought.



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