[Met Performance] CID:99090



Tosca
Metropolitan Opera House, Sat, March 31, 1928




Tosca (208)
Giacomo Puccini | Luigi Illica/Giuseppe Giacosa
Tosca
Elda Vettori

Cavaradossi
Frederick Jagel

Scarpia
Antonio Scotti

Sacristan
Pompilio Malatesta

Spoletta
Angelo Badà

Angelotti
Louis D'Angelo

Sciarrone
Vincenzo Reschiglian

Shepherd
Dorothea Flexer

Jailer
Millo Picco


Conductor
Vincenzo Bellezza







Review 1:

Review signed M. W. in the New York Tribune

Elda Vettori Sings Tosca Appealingly At the Metropolitan

First Appearance Here in Role Merits Applause of the Capacity Audience

There was a new Tosca at the Metropolitan last evening, a Tosca who, in respect of heritage, appearance, and temperament, is probably the most authentic we have had on this stage in many long years. This was Miss Elda Vettori, a newcomer to the Metropolitan in 1926, but no novice on the operatic stage as anyone who witnessed her second act last evening might easily deduce.

Miss Vettori has won a certain amount of fame by last minute substitutions in many of the leading roles, and has been cast as Nedda, as Santuzza, as Gioconda, as Liu in "Turandot" and as Loretta in "Gianni Schicchi." In Brooklyn she has sung Adalgisa in "Norma." This was her first Tosca in New York, and was, without any doubt, the best thing that she has done.

This singer has the priceless ability to forget herself and her audience and to plunge headlong into the drama of a role. This is not always art, nor does it necessarily imply grace or ease. In the final estimate, it is usually the artificial which seems more natural on the opera stage. Thus Miss Vettori's quick gestures of nervousness and apprehension, her sudden starts, her stiff, too evident efforts at control were not always as impressive as the more calculated deportment of a more seasoned prima donna. They were not, however, without their value, and her sincerity and ardor were not long in making for her finding contact with the enormous audience which had come to hear her. Her tears were real and she showed genuine sobs to shake her to an extent which sometimes endangered the musical quality of her voice, but the "Vissi d'arte" was sung with real beauty and a touching simplicity. She was a very Latin murderess, however, and when she once made up her mind to the dispatching of Scarpia, she found it not without its happier aspect. There was little recoil of horror in her attitude, and probably she was right.

With her in the cast were Mr. Jagel, singing an honest, manly Cavaradossi; Mr. Scotti and Mr. Bada, returning to one of his best impersonations, that unpleasant character, Spoletta. Mr. Bellezza conducted.



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