[Met Performance] CID:167440



Faust
Metropolitan Opera House, Fri, December 24, 1954




Faust (522)
Charles Gounod | Jules Barbier/Michel Carré
Faust
Giacinto Prandelli

Marguerite
Nadine Conner

Méphistophélès
Jerome Hines

Valentin
Frank Guarrera

Siebel
Mildred Miller

Marthe
Thelma Votipka

Wagner
Lawrence Davidson

Dance
Sallie Wilson


Conductor
Pierre Monteux







Review 1:

Review signed F. M. in Musical America

The Gallic Santa Claus of this Christmas Eve performance of "Faust" proved to be Pierre Monteux, who bestowed upon his audience the great gifts of lightness, taste and proportion. The audience itself did not seem to appreciate its good fortune; the level of responsiveness in the house suggested that many faculties that evening had foundered in a sea of eggnog.

This was a particular shame in the case of Nadine Conner, who sang her first Marguerite of the season. Miss Conner's voice is not a very big one; one could have wished for a little more volume in the Jewel Song, for instance. But it remains one of the most beautiful instruments at the Metropolitan. No other singing there this season has surpassed the exquisite clarity of Miss Conner's silvery top tones, the finish of her phrasing and diction, or the way she steadfastly refused to sacrifice care of vocal production in the interest of mere sound. Moreover, the slender soprano's personality gave Marguerite a distinct characterization: she was shy and unassuming at first, infused with sudden feeling in the second act, movingly distraught in the third and fourth. Her performance was a finely scaled crescendo up to Rolf Gerard's impressive transformation scene at the very end, when the sudden reversion to utter peace and simplicity made Marguerite appear genuinely transfigured.

One missed fervor in Giacinto Prandelli's more impassioned moments as Faust, such as in "A moi les plaisirs." but in the tender interludes of the garden scene his flexible tenor left nothing to be desired - and for a change Mephistopheles' slight-of-hand really did leave Faust a handsome young man.



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