[Met Performance] CID:153290



La Bohème
Metropolitan Opera House, Sat, March 25, 1950 Matinee Broadcast





La Bohème (442)
Giacomo Puccini | Luigi Illica/Giuseppe Giacosa
Mimì
Licia Albanese

Rodolfo
Richard Tucker

Musetta
Lois Hunt

Marcello
John Brownlee

Schaunard
George Cehanovsky

Colline
Nicola Moscona

Benoit
Gerhard Pechner

Parpignol
Paul Franke

Sergeant
Lawrence Davidson


Conductor
Giuseppe Antonicelli







Review 1:

James Hinton Jr. in the April issue of Musical America

The radio audience that heard this final broadcast performance of the 1949-50 season also heard ceremonies marking the farewell of Edward Johnson, for fifteen years general manager of the Metropolitan, to the audience across the country. La

Bohème was given, a performance of routine competence, with Giuseppe Antonicelli conducting, and with Licia Albanese, Lois Hunt, Richard Tucker, John Brownlee, George Cehanovsky, Paul Franke, Lawrence Davidson, and Nicola Moscona singing roles in which they had appeared earlier. Gerhard Pechner, making his first appearance of the season in this opera, delivered thoroughly creditable impersonations of Benoit and Alcindoro.

 

The broadcast ceremonies, which originated in the, Metropolitan Guild box, were in three parts. During the first intermission, important events of Mr. Johnson's regime were presented in dramatic form, and during the second the guests of the Opera Quiz concerned themselves with questions relating to Mr. Johnson's tenure in office. During the final intermission, Mr. Johnson himself, introduced by Charles M. Spofford, president of the Metropolitan Opera Association, spoke in valediction to the radio audience (and, via a public address system, to listeners in the auditorium) and introduced Rudolf Bing, who will succeed him on June 1.

 

Mr. Johnson spoke of the audience as having been "my inspiration and my guide”; of the 115 American singers who have appeared at the Metropolitan since he became general manager; of .his services to the operas of Mozart; of the necessity of keeping in mind that the Metropolitan is "a human machine"; and of his pleasure in the support given the Edward Johnson Testimonial Fund. Mr. Bing, after an exchange of amenities, spoke feelingly of the magnitude of the responsibility he is undertaking; and, reminding the audience that "it is the artistic merit of performances only that matters,” asked his hearers “not to form your judgment about my management until you see and hear the results of my efforts.”

 



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