Metropolitan Opera Archives

Miss Bowman sang the elaborate ornamental passages of her two arias cleanly and accurately, encompassing without effort the many altitudinous phrases allotted her. In these coloratura flights the voice was of pleasing texture, but elsewhere in the arias the tones were pushed and became inferior in quality through an attempt to give them the required dramatic emphasis.

But no final judgment should be passed on the singer's vocal attainments until she has been heard in a less exacting part than the one chosen for her initial appearance, since it is unmatched in its demands, and probably has not been sung as it should be by any vocalist except Mozart's sister-in-law, for whom it was composed, who alone seems to have had the flexible dramatic voice of exceptional range that it calls for.

Alexander Kipnis appeared for the first time this winter in his familiar role of Sarastro. The other members of the cast had all been heard in the work previously during the season, the principals including Jarmila Novotna as Pamina, James Melton as Tamino, John Brownlee as Papageno, Norman Cordon as the High Priest and Karl Laufkötter as Monostatos. Bruno Walter again conducted.

Search by season: 1943-44

Search by title: Die Zauberflöte,

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