[Met Performance] CID:161790



Carmen
Metropolitan Opera House, Fri, January 30, 1953 Matinee





Carmen (495)
Georges Bizet | Henri Meilhac/Ludovic Halévy
Carmen
Mildred Miller

Don José
Kurt Baum

Micaela
Lucine Amara

Escamillo
Renato Capecchi

Frasquita
Paula Lenchner

Mercédès
Margaret Roggero

Remendado
Alessio De Paolis

Dancaïre
George Cehanovsky

Zuniga
Osie Hawkins

Moralès
Clifford Harvuot

Dance
Janet Collins

Dance
Loren Hightower


Conductor
Kurt Adler







Review 1:

Review of Howard Taubman in The New York Times
YOUTHFUL CARMEN MAKES ‘MET’ DEBUT

Mildred Miller, Mezzo-Soprano, Sings Role With Assurance at Second Student Matinee

Mildred Miller, young American mezzo-soprano, got her chance to sing the title role in "Carmen" at the Metropolitan Opera yesterday afternoon. It was the second matinee of the season for students arranged by the Metropolitan Opera Guild, and the house full of boys and girls made as respectful and responsive an audience as any new Carmen is likely to have.

Miss Miller sang the role with assurance. Her voice is a good one; it is well placed, and it has freshness and color. She has musicianship, too. She knows how to phrase this music so as to convey its grace and sensuousness. She has probably sung the role in Europe; she seemed not to be self-conscious about it and she enunciated the French with clarity and accuracy.

Visually Miss Miller adorned the stage. She is good-looking, has a fine figure and knows how to move. This does not mean that she has conquered every challenge in the role. Her Carmen has a touch of the ingénue. The reason may be partly her, youth, but it also may lay in a lack of seasoning. Carmen must be projected with subtlety and tension. She is a temptress, but there is a fatality in her that cannot be conveyed by obvious means. The chances are that Miss Miller is aware of these things, and will deepen her range as she gets further opportunities to deal with Carmen.

Renato Capecchi, Italian baritone, did his first Escamillo at the Metropolitan and handled the role ably, vocally and histrionically. Kurt Baum was a sonorous Don José, and Lucine Amara, another young American singer, sang Micaela with style and opulence of tone, Osie Hawkins, Clifford Harvuot, Paula Lechner, Margaret Roggero, George Cehanovsky and Alessio De Paolis were not only familiar but dependable in the lesser roles, and Kurt Adler conducted with sustained musicianship.

These student matinees can be exciting to the adult lucky enough to have an excuse to be admitted. The youngsters in the audience sit through the performance like perfect ladies and gentlemen. They know how to hold up their applause for an aria until the orchestra postlude has ended; they react to the show with wonderful freshness, and they even relish bits of business that experienced operagoers seem not to notice. And in the intermissions they do not stride through the corridors and lobbies; they seem to leap and fly and float. They make it seem like a different opera house.


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