[Met Performance] CID:152250



Rigoletto
Metropolitan Opera House, Sat, December 17, 1949




Rigoletto (295)
Giuseppe Verdi | Francesco Maria Piave
Rigoletto
Enzo Mascherini

Gilda
Erna Berger

Duke of Mantua
Jan Peerce

Maddalena
Martha Lipton

Sparafucile
Dezsö Ernster

Monterone
Clifford Harvuot

Borsa
Paul Franke

Marullo
George Cehanovsky

Count Ceprano
Denis Harbour

Countess Ceprano
Inge Manski

Giovanna
Thelma Altman


Conductor
Pietro Cimara







Review 1:

Irving Kolodin in the Sun

Mascherini Sings First Rigoletto

 

Without Jonel Perlea as conductor, or Richard Tucker and Leonard Warren in the cast, Saturday night’s “Rigoletto” was a dimmer, duller affair than the admired one of the week before. The absence of Perlea was a consequence of the afternoon “Tristan,” which he conducted as impressively as before. As Rigoletto, Enzo Mascherini was either having a bad night, vocally, or was engaging a task too heavy for his resources in this big house. It was mostly hoarse, strained singing, without more than conventional drama, and too little resource for the climaxes. Jan Peerce’s Duke was earnestly conveyed, but this voice is beginning to show the wear of hard use. In consequence, the evening was saved by Erna Berger’s ear-caressing finely-turned Gilda which every lover of skillful florid singing should have. Italian opera is in a bad way here when the best work comes from a woman born in Dresden! Pietro Cimara conducted as if in a hurry to get over with the whole thing.



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