Metropolitan Opera Archives

The performance of "Turandot" given yesterday afternoon at the Metropolitan as a special matinee benefit for the Near East College Association was in every sense a triumphant occasion. In the first place, every visible seat was occupied and standees were populous, which indicated gratifying rewards at the box office, and, second, it was a thoroughly fine presentation on the stage and in the orchestra pit.

Maria Jeritza, singing the title role here for the first time this season, was in radiant good form. It is a part which serves her well, a vehicle for certain powers which are uniquely hers among all our singing actresses - imposing presence, personal glamour, and vitality of musical speech. Yesterday she was in superb voice, endowing the terrifically high and exacting tessitura with beauty as well as abundance of tone. Dramatically there was dignity, restraint and a sinister incisiveness which held the eye and imagination.

Her principal colleague, Giacomo Lauri-Volpi, as the astute Prince Calaf, also has in this role a characterization cut to his measure. There is probably no other contemporary tenor who could survive and put to confusion so much orchestral and choral clamor. Nannette Guilford was an appealing Liu and sang her aria in the third act with authentic emotion and vocal adequacy. Others in the cast who contributed valuably to the whole were the comedy trio, Ping, Pang and Pong, sung by the Messrs. De Luca, Bada and Bloch and Mr. Pinza as Timur, Mr. Altglass as the emperor, Mr. Cehanovsky and the Misses Parisette and Flexer in minor roles. The general production was keyed to a pitch of unusual excellence, largely due to Mr. Serafin's able baton and the work of Mr. Setti's choristers.

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