[Met Performance] CID:94120



Aida
Metropolitan Opera House, Wed, November 10, 1926




Aida (316)
Giuseppe Verdi | Antonio Ghislanzoni
Aida
Elisabeth Rethberg

Radamès
Giovanni Martinelli

Amneris
Jeanne Gordon

Amonasro
Mario Basiola

Ramfis
Ezio Pinza

King
Louis D'Angelo

Messenger
Angelo Badà

Priestess
Charlotte Ryan

Dance
Rita De Leporte


Conductor
Tullio Serafin


Director
Armando Agnini

Set Designer
Angelo Parravicini

Costume Designer
Ethel Fox

Choreographer
Rosina Galli





Aida received ten performances this season.

Review 1:

Review of Samuel Chotzinoff in the Post

In the care of that sterling guide, Tullio Serafin, who knows every bar along the Verdi route, Gatti consigned an opera bus load of patrons on their first season trip last night to Egypt. Though they wouldn't live there if you gave them the place, everybody had a lovely time, voted the Temple of Ptah a marvelous sight, crashed all of the Bee's hundred gates, felt immeasurably indebted to the divertissement provided by Miss Rethberg and Mr. Martinelli, and signified their approval in the usual manner plus two spontaneous bravos of unassailable legitimacy.

When Gatti plays Verdi he leads an ace. All the slack of his Wagnerian rope become tautened when his evening mood is Latin, for his casts, with the exception of Elizabeth Rethberg, who can sing anything beautifully, lean that way. And all Verdi needs is an inclination.

The meticulous German invariably starts his singers from a scratch with a diaphragm full of exactions. The mellifluous Italian contra, spots them a phonographic pearl like "Celeste Aida" as a curtain raiser, generously syrups his soprano with a "Numi, Pieta," lavishly distributes dues, trios, sex and septets, and with utter abandon throws in as many gorgeous choral ensembles as he has acts for a box-office magnet unparalleled in the finance of art. No barnstormers ever flopped with "Aida."

The all-round Miss Rethberg, who can Bach it Sunday and Verdi Monday with amazing artistic equalization, displayed her continuously capable characterization of the dusky sweetheart. Basiola fathered her nicely with an earnest Amonasro, reserving for his excess only a make-up that conveyed a lineage no nearer than a foster parent.

Some other things Martinelli does better than Radames, but his peer in the role among contemporaries can't be named offhand. And he sang well; so did Pinza, this year's new bass, and especially so did the chorus. Serafin sees to that - they meet his baton or they meet him back stage.



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