[Met Performance] CID:131250



Il Barbiere di Siviglia
Metropolitan Opera House, Fri, March 14, 1941




Il Barbiere di Siviglia (172)
Gioachino Rossini | Cesare Sterbini
Figaro
John Brownlee

Rosina
Josephine Tuminia

Count Almaviva
Bruno Landi

Dr. Bartolo
Salvatore Baccaloni

Don Basilio
Norman Cordon

Berta
Irra Petina

Fiorello
Wilfred Engelman

Sergeant
John Dudley


Conductor
Gennaro Papi







Review 1:

Review of Francis D. Perkins in the Herald Tribune

John Brownlee Sings Title Role in "Il Barbiere"

Cordon Also Appears as New Basilio in Third Performance of Opera

Rossini's "Il Barbiere di Siviglia" had its third performance of the season at the Metropolitan Opera House last night when Josephine Tuminia, Bruno Landi and Salvatore Baccaloni reappeared in the respective roles of Rosina, Almaviva and Bartolo. Bartolo, however, was shaved by a new Figaro, John Brownlee, and was informed about the powers of calumny by a new Basilio, Norman Cordon.

Mr. Brownlee, whose singing was well styled if not unvarying in tonal mellifluousness, gave a dramatically well-conceived impersonation of the immortal barber and factotum of Beaumarchais and Sterbini. Mr. Cordon sang with notable sonority in an effective interpretation which like that of several of his colleagues treated the work in the spirit of broad and obvious comedy which usually characterizes it here. Within due limits this may be regarded as necessary when this perennial opera is presented in a large theater and in a language which is not that of the majority of its hearers.

Messrs Baccaloni and Landi again made convincing contributions to this comedic element, while Miss Tuminia often sang with a laudable, and sometimes with a rather tenuous, quality of tone. Irra Petina was a Berta of duly droll appearance; John Dudley was the much-bothered officer, and Wilfred Engelman, as Fiorello, completed the cast under Gennaro Papi's direction. There was a capacity audience.



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