Metropolitan Opera Archives

The season’s first performance of Bizet’s “Carmen” at the Metropolitan Opera House had a more or less familiar cast headed by Rise Stevens in the title role. There was, however, and element of novelty in the fact that Jonel Perlea was conducting this work for the first time here, and the admirable vocal and instrumental balance of the production and the unusually superior playing of the orchestra gave the musical interpretation considerable distinction.

The quality of instrumental tone, especially in the strings, was generally delectable: the clarity of the playing revealed frequently obscured details and the dynamic range was wide and finely graded. If a customary liveliness seemed missing at one or two points, this was a minor matter; the conductor was always conscious of the work as a whole and of the unity and proportion of the performance. The choral singing was well above the average standard.

In the solo roles, the performance followed a more customary course. Miss Stevens strove notably to project the positive, while elusive personality of Carmen, and usually, if not always, avoided overmuch emphasis on facial expression, but the impersonation did not carry complete conviction. Her voice, with pronounced color, had its meritorious and less meritorious moments. Charles Kullman, recovered from the accident which had kept him out of Saturday’s “Madama Butterfly,” was a sympathetic, if variably persuasive Don José; his singing was often appealing. Martial Singher, not in his best voice at all times, was a spirited Escamillo, while Nadine Conner’s Micaela, after some unfocused tones in the first act, sang with laudable quality and phrasing in her third act aria. Lorenzo Alvary, as Zuniga, Mmes. Votipka and Lipton and Messrs. Cehanovsky, DePaolis, Alvary and Harvout completed the cast.

Search by season: 1949-50

Search by title: Carmen,

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