Metropolitan Opera Archives

Maria Jeritza, a gracious and candid Elisabeth, remains the most perdurable figure in one's impressions of the first "Tannhäuser" of the season on Nov. 9. There was sedulous restraint in her characterization, which held an even balance between virginal reserve and emotional spontaneity. She remained consistently within the classical frame of the picture, each movement and each plastic pose having its unerrant fitness. It was an impersonation compact of dignity and beauty, and her singing had a corresponding felicity of line and tone.

Clarence Whitehill's Wolfram was a portrayal in the style of which this experienced Wagnerian singer has so apt a mastery. He was the Minnesinger of romance, courtly, poetic and gravely impassioned, and, albeit his intonation sagged now and then from the norm, he sang with a noble tenderness. Margarete Matzenauer was a Venus of sumptuous voice and commanding presence.

Curt Taucher in the title role suggested that hysteria rather than moral vacillation was responsible for the hero's relapses. His acting verged on the extravagant, and he sang none too well. The remaining members of the cast were George Meader, Carl Schlegel, Max Bloch, William Gustafson and Raymonde Delaunois. Artur Bodanzky conducted.

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