[Met Performance] CID:141040



La Bohème
Metropolitan Opera House, Sat, March 2, 1946 Matinee Broadcast





La Bohème (389)
Giacomo Puccini | Luigi Illica/Giuseppe Giacosa
Mimì
Stella Roman

Rodolfo
Jan Peerce

Musetta
Frances Greer

Marcello
John Brownlee

Schaunard
Arthur Kent

Colline
Giacomo Vaghi

Alcindoro/Benoit
Louis D'Angelo

Parpignol
Lodovico Oliviero

Sergeant
John Baker


Conductor
Cesare Sodero







Review 1:

Review

The performance of Puccini's "La Bohème" yesterday afternoon in the Metropolitan Opera House was graced by the most significant and communicative interpretation of Mimi's role that this stage has offered in many seasons. Stella Roman took the leading part for the first time here and made an indelible impression in it.

The voice, not under perfect control, is nonetheless a superb one in its color and emotional quality. This Mimi was not merely the charming and pitiful character in miniature of a romantic story of Bohemian Paris. This was the unfolding of a woman's nature, revealed with exceptional sincerity and a native eloquence that came straight from the heart. The deepening emotion of stress of the song of the simple Mimi's life, her joy at the coming of spring, the hesitating avowal and the complete surrender were revelations that swept over the footlights in a fashion to remember. The third act, on the whole the weakest of the opera, was given a degree of intensity and poignancy that lifted it to a place of unexpected significance. Her "Senza rancor" in this act made the action pause and the house break into applause.

Some opera singers achieve fame, despite slender vocal equipment, as "singing actors" or "actresse," as the case may be. Some have voices and vocal virtuosity that replace in a measure the absence of true dramatic feeling. Miss Roman yesterday was a great singer, despite some minor technical flaws in her earlier moments; a great dramatic interpreter, a great artist with something elementally true within her, revealed by gesture, action and supremely by the inherent qualities of a superb voice.

Olin Downes

New York Times



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