[Met Tour] CID:93340



Lucia di Lammermoor
Auditorium, Atlanta, Georgia, Fri, April 23, 1926




Lucia di Lammermoor (129)
Gaetano Donizetti | Salvadore Cammarano
Lucia
Marion Talley

Edgardo
Beniamino Gigli

Enrico
Giuseppe De Luca

Raimondo
Léon Rothier

Normanno
Giordano Paltrinieri

Alisa
Minnie Egener

Arturo
Angelo Badà


Conductor
Tullio Serafin







Review 1:

Review of Frank Daniel in the Atlanta Record

MARION TALLEY ENTHRONED AS ATLANTA QUEEN OF MUSIC; 'LUCIA' OVATION CONTINUOUS

America's Girl Opera Star Is Cheered at Every Opportunity by Audience Equal to Caruso's of Old

Like the girl Victoria, when she learned that she was England's queen, Marion Talley became Atlanta's regnant sovereign Friday evening, after her memorial triumph in "Lucia," with the words: "I hope I'll be a good queen." Queen Marion's coronation was immediate, and as festive as Queen Victoria's golden anniversary.

Wistful and ingenious as the harp prelude that heralded her entrance, Marion Talley appeared on stage of the Atlanta auditorium before the largest audience any singer has assembled since the pristine years when grand opera was a novelty every Atlantan was duty bound to look at. She was greeted by a solid intonation of applause which Geraldine Farrar, in Massachusetts and desuetude, must have heard and recognized as an echo of sixteen years ago. For Farrar, Caruso and precious few others, have evoked such monstrous and such thunderous applause as the adolescent immortal evoked Friday evening.

They cheered her youth, her temerity, her virgin freshness, and her swift-footed fame even before Marion Talley sang a note. They cheered this fulfillment of youth's dreams - they who have only dreamed. Thereafter, they cheered everything. Since our music-lovers regard every pause in music as an infallible signal for noise on their part, they sandwiched cheers between bars of arias. And Marion Talley bowed, and bowed, and bowed, with an incredible composure.

Throughout Marion Talley's triumphs Gigli's voice formed the rainbow border of the limelight circle he generously allowed the heroine to occupy alone. Vocally, he displayed the perfection he had employed on Wednesday evening in "La Bohème." Pictorially, he was the lace-valentine hero Donizetti created. De Luca, too, sang with the rich outpouring of color characteristic of his voice, and he and Rothier were acclaimed whenever possible. The remainder of the cast performed worthily.

After the mad scene Marion Talley received a baker's dozen of curtain calls. The perspiring audience neglected to report for duty at the soft drink stand to round out the commendation it had already unloaded upon the star. The sextet was traditionally repeated. Marion Talley received many times what the newspapers regularly describe as ovations, and her debut was what the newspapers regularly describe as a blaze of glory.

Needs Heart-Break Experience

Obviously, Marion Talley has no first-hand knowledge of even the uncomplicated heart-break which is the feeble Lucia's portion, but she was nonetheless acclaimed by an audience that probably did know. If Marion Talley's portrayal of heart-break was something like a high school rendition of Lady Macbeth, it was all the more delectable therefore. Lucia has never been acclaimed as a role for histrionic abilities, and Marion Talley had doubtlessly been told as much. What made her performance more pleasing was that Lucia's ridiculous misfortunes never intruded upon the good fortune of Marion Talley - current proprietor of the world's applause.

Atlanta, having in mind the Lucias of Barrientos, Hempel and Galli-Curci, wisely approved the Lucia which Marion Talley cut out of a nonagenarian music score in much the same manner as she must have cut out elegant ladies from the fashion plates adorning the 1916 issue of the "Ladie's Home Journal."

In short, Marion Talley is queen, and exactly because she is the first operatic heir-apparent to accept her throne with the words: "I hope I'll be a good queen." And so operatic fame is another reward for virtue.



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