[Met Performance] CID:122820

Metropolitan Opera Premiere, New Production

Apollon Musagètes
Salome
Metropolitan Opera House, Fri, February 4, 1938

Debut : Lillian Reilly, Stewart Chaney, Muriel King, Inc.




Apollon Musagètes (1)
Igor Stravinsky
Apollo
Lew Christensen

Terpischore
Elise Reiman

Calliope
Daphne Vane

Polyhymnia
Holly Howard

Nymphs
Kyra Blank

Nymphs
Heidi Vosseler

Leto
Lillian Reilly [Debut]


Conductor
Wilfred Pelletier


Director
Stewart Chaney [Debut]

Costume Designer
Muriel King, Inc. [Debut]

Choreographer
George Balanchine


Salome (11)
Richard Strauss | Oscar Wilde
Salome
Marjorie Lawrence

Herod
René Maison

Herodias
Karin Branzell

Jochanaan
Julius Huehn

Narraboth
Karl Laufkötter

Page
Lucielle Browning

Jew
Giordano Paltrinieri

Jew
Angelo Badà

Jew
Max Altglass

Jew
James Wolfe

Nazarene
Norman Cordon

Nazarene
Nicholas Massue

Soldier
Louis D'Angelo

Soldier
Arnold Gabor

Cappadocian
John Gurney

Slave
Charlotte Symons


Conductor
Ettore Panizza


Director
Herbert Graf

Set Designer
Donald Oenslager





Apollon Musagètes received two performances this season.
Salome received four performances this season.

Review 1:

Review of Oscar Thompson in Musical America

'SALOME' RESTORED AT THE METROPOLIAN

Marjorie Lawrence Sings, Acts and Dances Title Role- Julius Huehn Appears as Jokanaan, Rene Maison as Herod, Karin Branzell as Herodias-Panizza Conducts

OF a quality to place it beside the season's highly successful "Elektra." the Metropolitan's revival of Richard Strauss's "Salome" was tumultuously welcomed on the evening of Feb. 4. A much more stirring and satisfying representation than that which brought the once-forbidden work back to the Broadway house on Jan. 13, 1934, it represented a new deal in the casting and a departure from routine in that the musical direction was entrusted to the chief conductor of Italian opera, Ettore Panizza, rather than to Artur Bodanzky, who presided over the seven performances of the 1934 revival. Herbert Graf had charge of the stage.

The performance yielded a personal triumph for Miss Lawrence, who undertook the title role in German for the first time anywhere. She had sung in it in French at the Paris Opera. Though her costuming was not altogether fortunate-particularly, a headpiece that distracted attention from her facial expression-she presented an embodiment of such vitality, skill and fervor as to minimize this and other minor reservations. Hers was in no sense a childish Salome; no one would doubt that it was a mature creature who lusted for the head of Jokanaan; but she was physically one of the trimmest and most seductive of those who have undertaken to dance as well as sing the part. She managed the erotic business of discarding the seven veils with the grace and the flair for pictorial effect to make it an effective detail of the drama.

A More Honest Performance

Relatively speaking, this was an honest "Salome." with less of subterfuge and squeamishness than characterized the Metropolitan performances of four years ago. Miss Lawrence was not debarred from exhibiting the head on the charger and in consequence the revolting kiss of which Salome sings was not just a euphemism of the text. Admirable as was her acting, it was as a singer that Miss Lawrence most completely met the requirements of the difficult role. She took various liberties with the letter of the score but the time has not yet come when any considerable number of opera habitues will be aware of, much less protest about, changes of the kind in the letter of either "Salome" or "Elektra."

Though also somewhat inappropriately dressed, the Herodias of Karin Branzell, first disclosed at the second of the performances in 1934, was again a characterization of striking artistry. She was the one important personage in the cast who had been connected with any of the earlier representations. New were the Jokanaan of Mr. Huehn and the Herod of Mr. Maison. The American baritone's exceptional height was of advantage to him in his portrayal and he was physically the most impressive prophet the work has known in these surroundings. He sang resonantly and succeeded in projecting the essential grimness and resolution of the character. Mr. Maison's picture of the decadent, hysterical tetrarch was skillfully and consistently drawn. It will be remembered as among his most artistic achievements with the company.

The first Nazarene was pictorially presented by Mr. Cordon and ably sung. If the Narraboth of Mr. Laufkoetter was only acceptable, the page of Lucielle Browning was a distinct contribution. For once the page was a page in appearance, not just an attendant in the compromise garb of a woman assumed to be a boy. The smaller roles were in able hands. The jangle of the Jews, once a shining example of Strauss's "cacophony," was effectively set forth.

The playing of the orchestra under Ettore Panizza assumed a place of dominating importance in an ensemble notably well coordinated. Mr. Panizza's energetic beat evoked sweeping, stinging, tingling sonorities. The string quality, in particular, was richly sensuous in those lyric passages where Strauss most closely parallels his tone poems. The once horrendous discords of sundry furious climaxes had the essential thrust and impact, though with the passing of time the score undoubtedly has lost something of its old shock and stir.

Donald Oenslager's somewhat crowded set for the great terrace of Herod's palace was given a fresh measure of effectiveness by means of an inner proscenium, while benefiting also from last years new cyclorama and recently improved lighting facilities. In many of its details the stage direction of Herbert Graf was admirable, the action being less cluttered than when the work was last presented. Touches of ballet methods in the posings and groupings of supplementary figures were less disturbing than in "Elektra," but the current notion of turning lights up or down to reflect the emotion or mood of the drama was carried still further, the nocturnal sky, with its huge round moon and its moving clouds, changing color according to some mysterious plan or caprice, the intent of which could only be conjectured by the onlooker.



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