[Met Performance] CID:152740



Lohengrin
Metropolitan Opera House, Thu, February 2, 1950




Lohengrin (483)
Richard Wagner | Richard Wagner
Lohengrin
Lauritz Melchior [Last performance]

Elsa
Helen Traubel

Ortrud
Blanche Thebom

Telramund
Alexander Sved

King Heinrich
Dezsö Ernster

Herald
Frank Guarrera


Conductor
Fritz Stiedry







Review 1:

Philip Hamburger in the New Yorker

I am happy that I was on hand for “Lohengrin” last Thursday at the Metropolitan, since, apparently, Mr. Melchior was making his last appearance there that evening. As Lohengrin, he was superb. I cannot recall having ever heard him in better voice. In addition to the unique quality of his singing, Mr. Melchior brought to his role an almost overwhelming dignity and understanding – an understanding that is, I should think, the result of years upon years of experience. Having sung the role some seventy times at the Metropolitan alone, Mr. Melchior has reached a point where he even manages to arrive and depart in that swan boat without appearing ridiculous. This is no small achievement. Put the average tenor –  “Heldentenor” or no “Heldentenor” – in the swan boat, and the people are likely to stamp their feet and cry out for Bert Lahr. (Come to think of it, I’d give my hat to see Lahr as Lohengrin.) Miss Traubel, as Elsa, sang with the most elegance that we have come to expect of her, and Mr. Stiedry led the orchestra with consummate skill. The visual aspects of the opera were as they usually are at the Metropolitan, appalling. Sometimes I think that the current management is under the delusion that it is running an obscure, if not abandoned, wing the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The other night, the Exterior of the King’s Castle had to be seen to be believed. Actually, it wasn’t seen until more than halfway through the act, when the lights, therefore dimmed practically to the point of being out, were raised to reveal the ugliest, flimsiest, and most repulsive old castle I have ever seen from the outside. It is to Mr. Melchior’s credit that he soared far above his slum-like surroundings and turned in a performance that, even considering his noble record, was memorable.



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