[Met Performance] CID:165160



Il Barbiere di Siviglia
Metropolitan Opera House, Fri, March 12, 1954




Il Barbiere di Siviglia (247)
Gioachino Rossini | Cesare Sterbini
Figaro
Frank Guarrera

Rosina
Dolores Wilson

Count Almaviva
Cesare Valletti

Dr. Bartolo
Gerhard Pechner

Don Basilio
Cesare Siepi

Berta
Jean Madeira

Fiorello
George Cehanovsky

Sergeant
Alessio De Paolis

Ambrogio
Rudolf Mayreder


Conductor
Alberto Erede







Review 1:

Review of Robert Sabin in Musical America

In the season's fourth performance of the Metropolitan Opera's new production of Rossini's comedy, Dolores Wilson was heard for the first time at the Metropolitan in the role of Rosina. Two other artists made their first appearances this season in their roles and in the new production: Frank Guarrera, as Figaro, and Gerhard Pechner, as Dr. Bartolo.

Miss Wilson both sang and acted expertly. Her voice sounded fresh and she brought animation to the part. She did not affect the manners of a great star, but gave a modest and winning performance in which redoubtable skill was properly subordinated to dramatic effect.

Mr. Guarrera's Figaro was wonderfully effervescent. This young artist is an exemplary worker and he has improved by leaps and bounds in style, grace and range of dramatic power in recent seasons. His Figaro was not only charming, but musically distinguished in many passages, notably the ensembles, where Figaros are wont to grow careless. Mr. Pechner, if not very Italianate, was extremely funny and he sang accurately and dependably, as he almost invariably does.

The others in the cast, in familiar roles, were Cesare Valletti, as Count Almaviva; Cesare Siepi, as Don Basilio; Jean Madeira, as Berta; George Cehanovsky, as Fiorello; Alessio De Paolis, as the Sergeant; and Rudolf Mayreder, as Ambrogio. All of them were in top form. Alberto Erede conducted with praiseworthy refinement, if a little too timidly for the scintillating bravura of this heady score.



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