[Met Performance] CID:143620



Otello
Metropolitan Opera House, Thu, January 9, 1947




Otello (90)
Giuseppe Verdi | Arrigo Boito
Otello
Torsten Ralf

Desdemona
Florence Quartararo

Iago
Lawrence Tibbett

Emilia
Martha Lipton

Cassio
Alessio De Paolis

Lodovico
Nicola Moscona

Montàno
Kenneth Schon

Roderigo
Thomas Hayward

Herald
Philip Kinsman


Conductor
Fritz Busch







Review 1:

Review of Howard Taubman in The New York Times

Replacing Stella Roman, Young Soprano Gives Performance Worthy of a Veteran

Florence Quartararo, one of the most promising additions to the Metropolitan last season, got a major role last night and made the most of it. Singing Desdemona in Verdi's "Otello" in place of Stella Roman, who was ill, Miss Quartararo gave a performance that would have been a credit to an outstanding veteran.

This was the first time that the San Francisco girl had sung Desdemona on any stage. She had done no more than two or three other roles at the Metropolitan. But aside from a somewhat unsteady start in the first act and an understandable unfamiliarity with the action, she made Desdemona convincing. And the measure of her achievement was that she did it, for the most part, by the appeal of her singing.

It was a performance that reminded old-timers of another American girl who appeared on this stage more than twenty-five years ago, also a novice in opera but with enchantment in her throat. That was Rosa Ponselle.

Miss Quartararo's voice is perfectly suited for Desdemona, and she used it last night with a sure instinct for the molding of the musical phrase, She had at her command a finely controlled range of tone from the delicately soft to the ringingly full. And in the last act, her handling of the "Willow Song" and the Ave Maria made you forget the soprano on the operatic stage and left you only with the heartbreak of the poor, bewildered Desdemona.

Miss Quartararo will sing this role even better as she gets used to it. There were several occasions last night when she almost made the wrong vocal entrance. Her costumes, obviously designed for a soprano of much ampler proportions were a persistent nuisance to her as she tried to move about the stage. But she had the voice, the feeling, the temperament and the figure for Desdemona.

The rest of the cast was familiar. Torsten Ralf, as Otello, does a sound job. Lawrence Tibbett gave a portrayal of malevolent power as Iago that gave thrust and tension to the drama. Martha Lipton was a rich-voiced Emilia, and others were Alessio De Paolis, Thomas Hayward, Nicola Moscona, Kenneth Schon and Philip Kinsman. Fritz Busch's conducting was truly distinguished.



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