[Met Performance] CID:156350



Cavalleria Rusticana
Pagliacci
Metropolitan Opera House, Tue, March 13, 1951




Cavalleria Rusticana (348)
Pietro Mascagni | Giovanni Targioni-Tozzetti, Guido Menasci
Santuzza
Astrid Varnay

Turiddu
Kurt Baum

Lola
Margaret Roggero

Alfio
Clifford Harvuot

Mamma Lucia
Jean Madeira


Conductor
Alberto Erede


Pagliacci (387)

Nedda
Delia Rigal

Canio
Kurt Baum

Tonio
Frank Valentino

Silvio
Frank Guarrera

Beppe
Thomas Hayward


Conductor
Alberto Erede







Review 1:

Review of Paul Affelder in the Brooklyn Eagle
Met Revives ?Lucia di Lammermoor;? Pons, Tagliavini in Leading Roles

After an absence of one season, Donizetti?s ?Lucia di Lammermoor? was returned to the active repertoire of the Metropolitan Opera last night. The performance also marked the initial appearance this year of two of the company?s popular artists, Lily Pons and Ferruccio Tagliavini.

Miss Pons gave a sensitive and often exciting account of the title role, her ?mad scene? being quite effective. Vocally, she was at her best in the middle register, where her tone was round and velvety, but as soon as she move upwards, the quality became thin and lifeless and the intonation faulty. She also no longer executes many of the coloratura passages with the fluency she once employed, despite these few shortcomings, however, she still cuts a striking figure in the part.

As Edgardo, Mr. Tagliavini was in better form than at any other time we have heard him. Though his tones were small, they had a pleasing and ? for once ? unforced quality. His singing in the final tomb scene was musical and dramatically most convincing.

Giuseppe Valdengo made a sonorous Lord Ashton, though we would have liked a more sinister aspect in both his singing and his unimaginative acting.

Norman Scott sang Raimondo for the first time with the company and did so with great nobility and richness of tone. Another newcomer to his role was Gabor Carelli, as Arturo. In the little that he was required to do, he sang in a pleasing, forthright manner. Completing the cast were Thelma Votipka, as Alisia, and Paul Franke as Normanno.

Zachary Solov devised some highly appropriate new Scotch choreography for the [beginning] of the last act, and it was danced with spirit ? and in kilts ? by the constantly improving Met Corps de Ballet.

The outstanding performance of the evening, however, was that of the orchestra, admirably controlled, as was the entire performance, by Fausto Cleva.


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