Metropolitan Opera Archives

The special matinee of "Rigoletto" at the Metropolitan yesterday was curious in that it allowed Miss Marion Talley to resume, for the first time this season, the role in which she made her sensational debut last February. In the interval the youngest of Gilda's had made a good deal of hay in Missouri and Pennsylvania and points nearer Broadway, so naturally there was a good deal of curiosity as to the state of her art on her return to her starting point. R. Gatti chose to have her begin the present season with the most difficult role in a coloratura singer's repertoire of the night, in Mozart's "Magic Flute." But this was hardly a sporting thing to do, because the two arias which comprise the part demand not only the perfection of florid singing, but a mature dramatic talent.

If Miss Talley had negotiated the music flawlessly, which she didn't, she might have given a purely musical pleasure, but would still have been miscast in the part. But no matter how well she could have performed vocally, she couldn't have been expected to feel the emotions of a woman twice her age. But no wonder that she showed for the first time symptoms of nervousness, treading her way through the difficult maze of notes as carefully and anxiously as a school girl doing a recitation at a commencement.

"Rigoletto," however, offers no emotional obstacles to any one who can sing in it. In the part of Gilda, which is the operatic equivalent of the usual ingénue in a current Broadway success, Miss Talley, with the help of a few regulation postures, was altogether free to make the most of her vocal equipment, which proved to be considerable from any angle.

Miss Talley's return yesterday in the part which started her phenomenal career brought a houseful of admirers. These couldn't but have been aware as the afternoon advanced that the singer had not progressed any in eradicating those serious flaws which one had hoped time and sturdy would effect. On the contrary, there were more lapses from correct pitch than last season and, considerably more scooping. Her voice was never an equalized succession of registers, and the lapse of a year only served to accentuate an indifferent vocal production.

Miss Talley, no doubt, can continue through the momentum of her extraordinary start to make great capital of her singing for many years to come, but what availeth it, etc. etc. It would be a real loss to the art of florid singing if such a lovely natural voice is allowed to go the usual way of commercial exploitation for want of musicianly and disinterested direction.

The rest of yesterday's cast was familiar. Mr. Lauri-Volpi was an engaging and exuberant Duke, and Mr. De Luca made the Hunchback Jester a poignant and vocally beautiful figure. Mr. Bellezza made an excellent job of the orchestral score.

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