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[Met Performance] CID:153060



Aida
Metropolitan Opera House, Fri, March 3, 1950









Review 1:

Cecil Smith in Musical America

Having determined to give Verdi’s Egyptian spectacle twice in a single day, the Metropolitan brought forth an entirely different group of singers and a different conductor in the evening. Only the ballet, the stage direction, and the investiture remained the same. They never change.

 

Ljuba Welitsch undertook the title role for the first time this season and offered a version of it that was exceedingly dubious, despite the clarity and carrying power of her remarkable voice and the personal authority of her stage presence. It was impossible to condone her rhythmic vagaries, which kept Emil Cooper in a lather down in the pit, or her very bad habit of failing to release notes until after the time for her colleagues to enter with theirs. The frantic haste with which she raced through expressive phrases in “Ritorna Vincitor;” the steady, uncolored forte and mezzo-forte she employed almost from beginning to end; and the way she required the rest of the cast to submit to her own tempestuous and uncontrolled treatment of the score all robbed the music of much of its grandeur and its touching inflection. One looked in vain for the meaningful phrasing, the variations of texture and volume, the long line and majestic arching curves, without which Verdi’s great score received not a performance but a recitation.

 

Her histrionism did not provide a sufficient compensation. In the first scene, she presented a most effective exposition of Aida’s character and situation. But as the evening wore on, her stock of devices came to seem much more than a trifle scanty, and too much of her interpretation – abetted by the sameness of her singing  -- remained on a single dynamic level. Moreover, her conception of the action did not bear a continuous relationship to the pacing, structure, or expressive qualities of the score. It was as though the music too often got in the way of her own individuality, and had to be swept aside. Good operatic acting seldom, if ever, results from a battle of wills between a prima donna and the composer. It was most disappointing to realize that Miss Welitsch was capable of accepting as her own standard a performance that had deteriorated artistically so markedly from the equivocal, but superior,  presentation of the part last year.

 

The others in the cast, except Dezso Ernster, an explosive Ramfis, who sang the role for the first time at the Metropolitan, were familiar from earlier representations.  Blanche Thebom was in exceptionally commanding voice as Amneris, and her acting, especially in the judgment scene, penetrated father below the surface than ever before. Her associates, all in good form, were Ramon Vinay, Robert Merrill, Leslie Chabay, and Thelma Votipka. Mr. Cooper, remembering from last year the sort of tempos Miss Welitsch would presumably require, began the opera at an unwontedly swift clip, and kept in that way all evening. As a result, his conducting had a degree of animation that is not its wont, though a good many attractive values were lost in the general haste.

Review 2:

Review signed C. H. in The New York Times
LJUBA WELITSCH SINGS FIRST AIDA OF SEASON

Ljuba Welitsch sang her first Aida of the season at the Metropolitan Opera last night, infusing the well-worn opera with new life. It was the second performance of the Verdi work in one day, a special performance for students having been presented by a separate cast in the afternoon.

Mme. Welitsch was impressive in her secure and often brilliant vocalism, not only touching the listener by the humanity of her solos but thrilling him as she dramatically topped the grandiose scenes. Her acting, though stylized, had vitality and movement.

There was an electric quality to the other performances, as well. Blanche Thebom’s Amneris, never a characterization to carp at, gained vocal stature last night and provided some wonderful moments.

Robert Merrill was a convincing Amonasro, Philip Kinsman a noble king, Ramon Vinay an expressive and masculine Radames and Deszo Ernster a resonant-voiced Ramfis. Emil Cooper did a fine job of pacing and balancing the production.

The opera was presented in the afternoon for students of twenty-six schools in the metropolitan area. The performance, sponsored by the Opera Guild, featured Gertrude Ribla in the name part, Martha Lipton, Lorenzo Alvary, Frederick Jagel and Francesco Valentino, under the direction of Max Rudolf.

A contest in costume and stage design preceded the performance. The winners were Eleanor Degnan of Franklin K. Lane High School and Herbert Basner of Abraham Lincoln. Honorable mention went to Joan Serka and Teresa Latanski, both of Franklin K. Lane.

Search by season: 1949-50

Search by title: Aida,



Met careers

• Emil Cooper [Conductor]
• Ljuba Welitsch [Aida]
• Ramon Vinay [Radamès]
• Blanche Thebom [Amneris]
• Robert Merrill [Amonasro]
• Dezsö Ernster [Ramfis]
• Philip Kinsman [King]
• Leslie Chabay [Messenger]
• Thelma Votipka [Priestess]
• Lorraine Ammerman [Dance]
• Barbara Hausler [Dance]
• Audrey Keane [Dance]
• Elissa Minet [Dance]
• Leon Varkas [Dance]