Metropolitan Opera Archives

Legerdemain offered by the light hand of Mozart placed last evening's operatic fare as one of the least solemn of the week. Given a book which rates as merely average musical comedy style and set to music which is at once effortless and timeless, "The Magic Flute" brings a welcome change of mood in the repertoire of tragic passions.

The mood of last night's performance was something less then buoyant. Even with the skill of Bruno Walter ready to work magic from the conductor's pit, pace and style grew heavy now and then. Longish pauses between the 15 scenes of the opera contrived to break the spell of Tamino's flute and Papageno's enchanted bells.

Ezio Pinza, whose diction seems flawless although he rarely sings in English, made the omniscient warnings of Sarastro notable. His "Within This Hallowed Dwelling" should have been recorded just as he sang it last night. Pinza enthusiasts will probably still prefer him cast as a sinner rather than as a saint, but his voice can adapt itself to a cathedral as well as to a courtyard.

James Melton, heard for the first time in the role of Prince Tamino in Boston, also took all nobility for his province. The constantly reiterated catalogue of the prince's "virtue," "wisdom," "strength," and "silence" is not calculated to endear him to an audience, particularly the requisite of silence, but when Tamino is allowed to sing the praises of Pamina he has some choice passages, to which Mr. Melton did justice.

As Papageno, who, given his chance at the noblest things in life by the high priests of freemasonry, invariably requires only a little cold wine, warm food, a place in sleep and, of course, Papagena, John Brownlee gives a restrained performance. Mr. Brownlee's Papageno is neither the buffoon nor the sad-faced butt of all jokes. He is rather the realist who knows that the fearless way of princes is not for him. The straightforwardness of his voice and his conception of the role strikes a note of normality in the midst of mystic rites.

Nadine Conner has a good Mozart voice, with the lightness of a Gilbert & Sullivan soprano and the skill of a Metropolitan specialist. After her early arias, which were slightly uneven in pitch, she was a distinct vocal ornament. Mimi Benzell's voice is too light for the role of Pamina's mother, the Queen of the Night.

The trios for women's voices to which Mozart gave some of the best melodic lines in the opera, were balanced both for the ladles in black and the genii in white; and Papagena, another of the ladies who never gets much of a chance to sing by herself, made the most of the famous duet with Papageno.

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