[Met Performance] CID:170550



La Forza del Destino
Metropolitan Opera House, Tue, January 10, 1956




La Forza del Destino (83)
Giuseppe Verdi | Francesco Maria Piave
Leonora
Renata Tebaldi

Don Alvaro
Richard Tucker

Don Carlo
Josef Metternich

Padre Guardiano
Jerome Hines

Preziosilla
Margaret Roggero

Fra Melitone
Fernando Corena

Marquis de Calatrava
Louis Sgarro

Curra
Thelma Votipka

Trabuco
Alessio De Paolis

Surgeon
George Cehanovsky


Conductor
Pietro Cimara







Review 1:

Review of Miles Kastendieck in the Journal American

TEBALDI IN TRIUMPH IN MILK FUND OPERA

How Renata Tebaldi sang her first Leonora in Verdi's "La Forza del Destino" should long be remembered by the audience attending Mrs. William Randolph Hearst's Free Milk Fund benefit performance at the Metropolitan last night. As the curtain rose on the final scene, Tebaldi met one of the most challenging moments of her career. To sing "Pace, Pace" at the Met became quite suddenly a highly significant point in the whole season. That she met the test superbly is now history. The show stopped momentarily while the audience cheered and cheered.

Not the sustaining of one high note but the thorough artistry that went into singing the whole aria (and the whole role) won Tebaldi this demonstration. Some of her gestures were still too studied, some tones early in the opera sounded hard, some moments of singing reflected very conscious art; but somehow these mattered little as she skillfully fashioned her performance. Her triumph lies in superb control of voice.

Added Flavor

This was a first time for Fernando Corena as Melitone. A fine artist himself, he made much of the role and added much flavor to the performance as a whole. Pietro Cimara made an important contribution, too, for the opera was much more judiciously paced than before. Though the orchestra could have responded better, the playing had more style because Cimara was conducting.

Making first appearances in their roles this season, Richard Tucker sang admirably as Don Alvaro and Jerome Hines as Padre Guardiano. The remainder of the cast, including Josef Metternich as Don Carlo, were familiar in their roles.

So well cast, well paced and well mounted, the opera itself gained in stature in this performance. Some day it may find an inspired conductor to exact from the score all the fire lurking therein, and have it played with abandon. But the beauty of the music shone through last night, as it does more and more on acquaintance.



Search by season: 1955-56

Search by title: La Forza del Destino,



Met careers