[Met Tour] CID:165730



La Traviata
Boston Opera House, Boston, Massachusetts, Sat, May 1, 1954




La Traviata (374)
Giuseppe Verdi | Francesco Maria Piave
Violetta
Licia Albanese

Alfredo
Richard Tucker

Germont
Leonard Warren

Flora
Margaret Roggero

Gastone
Gabor Carelli

Baron Douphol
Lawrence Davidson

Marquis D'Obigny
Algerd Brazis

Dr. Grenvil
Osie Hawkins

Annina
Maria Leone

Dance
Madeleine Artieres

Dance
Zebra Nevins

Dance
Eugene Slavin


Conductor
Fausto Cleva







Review 1:

Tucker Keiser in the Boston Post
“La Traviata”

When the Metropolitan Opera announced early in February Verdi’s “La Traviata,” with Licia Albanese as Violetta, Richard Tucker as Alfredo, and Leonard Warren as Germont for the closing opera in Boston, the performance was thoroughly predictable. We would have the most appealing of Violettas, the most dependable of Alfredos, and the most impressive of Germonts.


The scenery and costumes would look a little bit shabbier, the chorus would move a little more disinterestedly and the singers as if they had been on this particular treadmill a thousand times before, and the ballet would catch a spark of inspiration only in the third act gypsy sequence. The orchestra would be bored with little to do and Fausto Cleva, the conductor, would try to bring some measure of revitalization through sharper accents and expansive sweep on Verdi’s flowing melodies.


Roles Well Sung

And all of this was true last night at the Opera House.


Albanese, drier voiced than formerly, can still touch the heart with her “Addio! del passato” and give the listener a special thrill with her “Sempre libera.” Richard Tucker, the most unlikely looking Alfredo in the operatic world today, sang his many measures with accuracy, always remembering that after all, “Traviata” is really Violetta’s show.


Mr. Warren’s father was an immensely dignified one, and the baritone received a thunderous ovation for his golden-toned singing of “Di Provenza il Mar.”


The minor roles were sung by Margaret Roggero (a handsome Flora, incidentally), Maria Leona, Gabor Carelli, Lawrence Davidson, Algerd Brazis, and Osie Hawkins.


“La Traviata” is one of the bread and butter works in any operatic repertory; it is high time that Mr. Bing considered giving it one of his new celebrated face-lifting treatments.



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