[Met Performance] CID:158900



Otello
Metropolitan Opera House, Sat, February 9, 1952 Matinee Broadcast
Broadcast Matinee Broadcast





Otello (106)
Giuseppe Verdi | Arrigo Boito
Otello
Ramon Vinay

Desdemona
Eleanor Steber

Iago
Leonard Warren

Emilia
Martha Lipton

Cassio
Thomas Hayward

Lodovico
Luben Vichey

Montàno
Osie Hawkins

Roderigo
Paul Franke

Herald
Algerd Brazis


Conductor
Fritz Stiedry


Director
Herbert Graf

Set Designer
Donald Oenslager





Eleanor Steber also sang in the evening performance on the same date.
Otello received five performances this season.

Review 1:

Review of Robert Sabin in Musical America

This performance of Verdi's "Otello," the first of the season and the first since '48-'49, was one of the most dramatically overwhelming interpretations of the work I have ever witnessed. Musically, also, it was of a high order. Verdi, Shakespeare, and Boito had inspired all of the artists, vocal and instrumental, to one of those spontaneous performances that are so vivid that they seem almost unreal afterwards. To Fritz Stiedry, conducting the work for the first time at the Metropolitan; to Herbert Graf, the stage director; to Ramon Vinay, in the title role; to Eleanor Steber, in her first Metropolitan appearance as Desdemona; to Leonard Warren as Iago, and to the others in the cast one can offer warm congratulations. Besides Miss Steber, five other artists made their first appearances at the Metropolitan Opera in their respective roles: Thomas Hayward, as Cassio; Lubomir Vichegonov, as Lodovico; Paul Franke, as Roderigo; Osie Hawkins, as Montano; and Algerd Brazis, as a Herald.

Ramon Vinay has sung the role of Otello several times at the Metropolitan, but never, to my knowledge, with such incandescent passion, such heartbreaking intensity, as he did at this performance. Vocally, he was far from perfect, and his voice was not in good condition until the second act ; but it would be critically out of focus to enlarge upon minor flaws of vocalism in the case of an interpretation so magnificent in its grasp of the character and in so much of its musical delivery. This Otello could be favorably compared with some of the great performances of the role on the legitimate stage.

At times Mr. Vinay overacted, but all reservations were swept away by the burning sincerity and the psychological truth of his conception. Nothing was finer than the last act, which left many of the audience in tears; it would have been difficult to remain calm in the face of so convincing a portrayal of the final tragedy.

In this act, also, Miss Steber's acting had a finish she has seldom equaled. Her Desdemona is perhaps the most original and convincing characterization she has ever created at the Metropolitan. From beginning to end, it was consistent, faithful to Verdi's indications, and sensitive to the unwritten nuances of the score. She looked young and radiant, and her singing was often beautiful. She was able, in the first act, to obey Verdi's constant admonitions, "dolce," "morendo," "Come una voce lontana," without sacrificing the luminous texture of her voice; and in the third

sang pathetically without sounding petulant or whimpering. In the fourth act her sudden outburst of terror, "Chi batte a quella porta?" was skillfully portrayed; and the last, impassioned farewell to Emilia on that unexpected phrase descending from a high A sharp that is one of the supreme moments in Verdi was poignantly sung. The plastique of the struggle with Otello and the strangling was a model of what operatic acting can be when it is clearly worked out in advance and executed spontaneously in performance.

Like many of the artists in the cast, Mr. Warren improved noticeably after the first act. Neither Mr. Vinay nor Miss Steber quite conveyed the rapture of the love scene at the end of Act I; and Mr. Warren's performance of the drinking song, earlier, was rhythmically and tonally uneven. He sang "Credo in un Dio crudel," in Act II, thrillingly; and he has never performed "Era la notte" with lovelier tone quality or more dramatic power. He seemed to be reliving a dream, without a suspicion of the terrible revelations it contained. At the end of Act III, Mr. Warren seated himself on the throne, instead of planting his foot on Otello's prostrate body at the words, "Ecco il Leone." It was an effective and justifiable bit of stage business, for Iago is ambitious, and the throne is a potent symbol in his mind.

Mr. Hayward sang the role of Cassio with better tone and diction than he has revealed in a long time in other parts. His acting was intelligent, if still somewhat stiff. Mr. Franke, Mr. Vichegonov, and Mr. Brazis also sang creditably; but Mr. Hawkins, as Montano, sounded hollow-voiced and breathy in the relatively few exposed phrases he had to sing. Miss Lipton was really sympathetic, not the routine confidante that Emilia often becomes at the hands of a less conscientious artist.

Fritz Stiedry's "Otello" was a profound and deeply moving conception of the score. It did not achieve at some points the boiling passion and sonorous splendor of Arturo Toscanini's, nor was it as infallible as George Szell's in its calculation of balances and textures in Act I and Act III. But in the essentials, in color, psychological penetration, command of expression in the orchestra and on the stage, in reaching the core of the human tragedy, it was splendidly right.

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