Metropolitan Opera Archives

The colorful melodrama which Bizet set to tuneful and lively music, “Carmen,” had an excellent performance yesterday afternoon at the Opera House. With a magnificent love triangle in its plot, and some of the catchiest of all operatic music in the score, it is easy to see how this opera continues to be one of the favorites in the repertoire.

The bright splashes of color in the costumes are vividly contrasted with the dark background scenery, particularly in the second act, which takes place in an inn. To complement this ocular pleasure, the music itself runs on in gay patterns with a gradual crescendo of emotional excitement building up the final scene when the jilted Don José knifes his beloved Carmen.

Rise Stevens sang the part of Carmen with adequate relish, but was restrained in her manner of acting this white-hot feminine role. The bulk of Ramon Vinay stood him in good stead as he sang as Don José with splendid sonority and skill. Micaela, which was to have been played by Claudia Pinza, was beautifully done by Anne Bollinger, whose third act song, “Je dis que rien ne m’epouvante,” was outstanding for lyric warmth. Also Robert Merrill’s singing of the toreador’s song was of unusually good quality.

The ballet was sketchy, and its effect was marred somewhat by the fact that the costumes did not match some of the men having new coats or tights of a different color from the old. However, the dancing was graceful and the music, conducted by Wilfred Pelletier, was full of the liveliest spirits of the opera. Other notable performances were made by Thelma Votipka, as Frasquita, in lovely voice. Martha Lipton, as Mercedes, George Cehanovsky, as Dancaire, and Alessio De Paolis, as Remendado. The boy’s choir, in the first act, was from the Mission Church in Roxbury.

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