[Met Performance] CID:140030



Fidelio
Metropolitan Opera House, Wed, November 28, 1945


In English



Fidelio (69)
Ludwig van Beethoven | Joseph Sonnleithner
Leonore
Regina Resnik

Florestan
Arthur Carron

Don Pizarro
Kenneth Schon

Rocco
Lorenzo Alvary

Marzelline
Frances Greer

Jaquino
John Garris

Don Fernando
Hugh Thompson

First Prisoner
Anthony Marlowe

Second Prisoner
Louis D'Angelo


Conductor
Bruno Walter


Director
Herbert Graf

Designer
Joseph Urban





Translation by T. Baker
Fidelio received five performances this season.

Review 1:

Review of Francis D. Perkins in the Herald Tribune

"Fidelio" Is Given

Metropolitan Again Presents Beethoven Opera in English

The second evening of the season at the Metropolitan Opera House was Beethoven's only opera, ""Fidelio," which had returned to the active repertoire last March. The cast under the admirable direction of Bruno Walter was nearly the same as before - Osie Hawkins was to have sung his first Don Fernando, but he was indisposed, and the role of the beneficent Minister of State went to Hugh Thompson. Another substitution was that of Anthony Marlowe for Richard Manning.

In some distance from an ideal performance, last night's interpretation of "Fidelio" marked a considerable improvement over that of March 17. The merits included good co-ordination and balance between the voices in concerted numbers and between the voices and the orchestra, for which the major credit can presumably be assigned to Mr. Walter, whose devotion to this opera is notable and infectious. What was sometimes lacking was a sense of dramatic conviction in certain individual interpretations, and this affected the dramatic cogency of the production as a whole.

Miss Resnik's Leonora, in her disguise as the youth Fidelio, is more within the bounds of possibility than her predecessors' and her voice, when at its best, could be praised for the warmth of her lower tones and clarity and considerable volume in her higher ones. Sometimes her upper notes gave a certain hint of effort. From an expressive point of view, she strove for dramatic conviction, but could not achieve the sense of concentrated hate which marks the [very first] phrases of her principal aria, or that of ecstatic joy at the close of the dungeon scene. But the interpretation had its promising points.

Mr. Carron sang his [first] air with cloudy tones which gained in quality later on; dramatically his interpretation was fair. Miss Greer was a likable Marzelline, with tones that were usually commendable, sometimes edgy; Mr. Alvary was a sympathetic Rocco and Mr. Garris a creditable Jacquino. Some of the evening's best singing was that of Mr. Schon as the nefarious Pizarro; his voice was firm and well focused, but he did not quite manage to give an effect of genuine villainy in his utterances.

There was no difficulty in understanding the English in the spoken lines; and a very fair percentage of the sung text got across the orchestra pit. Dr. Baker's text is sometimes stagey, and the speeches sometimes had a touch of staginess; Mr. Alvary fared best in avoiding this.

A memorable feature of the evening was the orchestral performance of the third "Leonore" overture before the last scene, and for this Mr. Walter received a deserved ovation.



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