[Met Performance] CID:170400



Un Ballo in Maschera
Metropolitan Opera House, Mon, December 26, 1955




Un Ballo in Maschera (63)
Giuseppe Verdi | Antonio Somma
Amelia
Herva Nelli

Riccardo
Jan Peerce

Renato
Leonard Warren

Ulrica
Marian Anderson

Oscar
Laurel Hurley

Samuel
Giorgio Tozzi

Tom
Norman Scott

Silvano
Calvin Marsh

Judge
James McCracken

Servant
Charles Anthony


Conductor
Dimitri Mitropoulos







Review 1:

Review of R. A. E. in Musical America

Dec. 26. -- This was a first-rate performance of the Verdi opera, given vigorous and flamboyant dramatic impetus by the conductor, Dimitri Mitropoulos, and excellently sung, with a few negligible exceptions, by all ten members of the cast. Perhaps the performance was sparked by the return of Leonard Warren to the production, as Renato. The baritone's voice seems to have grown even more beautiful in recent seasons; it is completely solid, round, and ringing in tone, and Mr. Warren can command with the utmost ease both the smooth, legato line and the biting, powerhouse phrases that turn up in his music. And his characterization of the role was not the less forceful for its restraint.

Laurel Hurley was heard again as Oscar, the part that served as her debut last season. The liquid brightness of her voice, her musical accuracy, and the flashing pertness of her movement made her an ideal interpreter of one of the most charming characters Verdi ever created.

As Amelia, Herva Nelli has rarely sung better; the voice was at its luscious best and her management of the large-scale arias had gained breadth and continuity. Also in good voice were Jan Peerce, as Riccardo, and Marian Anderson, as Ulrica. The tenor's suave, stylish singing lost little of its impact from an occasional thinness in the high tones, and Miss Anderson's tones were firmer than usual -wonderfully dark in the lower register and growing increasingly brilliant as they went up the scale.

The cast was completed by a quintet of American male singers who handled their roles, however small, with remarkable intelligence, style, and clarity of diction: Calvin Marsh, as Silvano; Georgio Tozzi, as Samuel; Norman Scott, as Tom; James McCracken, as the Judge; and Charles Anthony, as Amelia's Servant.



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