[Met Performance] CID:165520



Il Barbiere di Siviglia
Metropolitan Opera House, Tue, April 13, 1954




Il Barbiere di Siviglia (252)
Gioachino Rossini | Cesare Sterbini
Figaro
Renato Capecchi

Rosina
Victoria de los Angeles

Count Almaviva
Cesare Valletti

Dr. Bartolo
Fernando Corena

Don Basilio
Jerome Hines

Berta
Jean Madeira

Fiorello
George Cehanovsky

Sergeant
Alessio De Paolis

Ambrogio
Rudolf Mayreder


Conductor
Alberto Erede





From February 19, 1954 until 1/23/71, the selection sung by Rosina in the Lesson Scene was Contro un cor, the aria originally written by Rossini for this episode.

Review 1:

Review of Robert Sabin in Musical America

Victoria de los Angeles, who is one of the proudest ornaments of the Metropolitan Opera, was the Rosina of this performance. Miss de los Angeles had sung the role for the first time there on April 7. It was a foregone conclusion that she would sing the music exquisitely, for her performance in the recording of the opera made by RCA Victor in Milan under Tullio Serafin was already known to us. But her dramatic performance was equally distinguished in its youthful charm, its radiant warmth and mischievous flirtatiousness.

Miss de los Angeles is the most vocally lovely and dramatically convincing Rosina I have ever encountered. She sings the arias in their original keys, thereby restoring the music to its pristine state. When the part of Rosina was transposed up for coloratura sopranos, it took on a brilliant veneer that robbed it of much of its warmth. Furthermore, the temptation to turn the character into a sophisticated canary instead of an impish young girl was almost irresistible. But Miss de los Angeles humanizes the opera; we sympathize with the young lovers and obtain welcome relief from the constant chatter of the comedy in their tender duets and solos. Yet where agility and virtuosic power are called for, she can furnish them in abundance. In a hundred passages, her elegance, her musicality and her incomparable spontaneity of style came through. In the lesson scene, she sings the aria that Rossini composed for this passage. Mere vocal display, which used in bygone years to be the rule in this scene, would be completely out of place in the Metropolitan's new, well-integrated production of the opera.

The entire cast outdid itself in this performance. Cesare Valletti sang the arias of Count Almaviva with a caress of tone and phrase, an amplitude of breath and a richness of vocal

color that reminded one of some of the Metropolitan's celebrated Italian tenors of former years. Fernando Corena was a priceless Dr. Bartolo, not merely amusing but extremely able in vocal technique. Renato Capecchi, after a nervous beginning, was a vocally agile and dramatically vivacious Figaro. Jerome Hines's towering stature and orotund voice were perfect for the role of Don Basilio; and George Cehanovsky and Alessio De Paolis also gave spirited performances. Jean Madeira made the most of her aria di sorbetto, singing it so well that I am sure that even an audience of 1816 would have kept its spoons and tongues quiet while she was performing. Alberto Erede again conducted.

Review 2:

Jay S. Harrison in the Herald Tribune
Met Produces New “Barber,” With Miss de Los Angeles


Victoria de los Angeles returned to the Metropolitan Opera Wednesday to sing her first local Rosina in the company's uproarious new production of Rossini's "The Barber of Seville.” At the same time, Renato Capecchi appeared for the first time as Figaro in a cast, conducted by Alberto Erede, including Cesare Siepi as Basilio, Cesare Valetti as Aimaviva, Jean Madeira as Berta, Alessio De Paolis as a sergeant and Fernando Corena as Bartolo. Mr. Corena, one might add parenthetically, continues to provide the most hilarious impersonation now available to the opera-going public.


For the occasion, Miss de los Angeles chose to sing her two big arias in their original keys — "Una voce poco fa" in E, and the Lesson Scene in D. Thus heard, both lost somewhat in brilliance, but gained significantly in warmth and elegance. For that matter, it would have been no cause for concern had Miss de los Angeles sung in any key of her choice, since her work of the evening was ever gracious, ever clear and winged. It would, however, be untrue to state that Rosina is Miss de los Angeles' most polished and firmly rounded characterization. At present it has ample charm, sweetness also, and it projects with a gentility of manner that darts across the footlights like an arrow. But her singing was not consistently in focus, nor was her reading devoid of all suggestions of hesitation.


These minor flaws aside, Miss de los Angeles' performance was a grand one. Melodic coloration abounded and accuracies of pitch were the rule. Phrase after phrase was floated with beauty, power and precision, and in the main she kept her lines free of the brittleness that has trapped and ensnared many another Rosina singer. In all, when Miss de los Angeles works out the insignificant kinks that now trouble her, she will no doubt offer us a heroine of ravishing appeal.


Mr. Capecchi was a brash, leaping and vigorous Figaro whose voice, though big and thrusting, seemed in the final analysis a bit dry and sapless for the demands of the part. As a result, his impersonation, for all its qualities of brilliance, appeared riper in its potential than it did in its actuality. That is no condemnation. A first try at any leading opera role brings with it problems so convulsing that they cannot, in all honesty, be ironed out in a single evening.

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