[Met Performance] CID:176620



Carmen
Metropolitan Opera House, Sun, December 29, 1957




Carmen (556)
Georges Bizet | Henri Meilhac/Ludovic Halévy
Carmen
Risë Stevens

Don José
Carlo Bergonzi

Micaela
Lucine Amara

Escamillo
Robert Merrill

Frasquita
Heidi Krall

Mercédès
Margaret Roggero

Remendado
Paul Franke

Dancaïre
George Cehanovsky

Zuniga
Norman Scott

Moralès
Clifford Harvuot

Dance
Lolita San Miguel

Dance
Thomas Andrew


Conductor
Thomas Schippers







Review 1:

Review of Robert Sabin in the January 15, 1958 issue of Musical America

The Metropolitan introduced a new Don José, Carlo Bergonzi, on this occasion. There was much to praise in his performance despite certain undeniable vocal and dramatic shortcomings. It was in the lyric and delicate portions of the role that Mr. Bergonzi shone. The duets with Micaëla in Act I were sensitively sung, with fine-spun pianissimos, and, throughout the evening, Mr. Bergonzi turned a phrase every now and then that was delightfully colored and shaped. But the big, ringing climaxes put a perceptible tax on his voice, which sometimes sounded dry and constricted.

In the earlier acts, Mr. Bergonzi's acting was wooden, although in Act IV he worked up genuine intensity, albeit without much resource in gesture. Stylistically speaking, his performance was Italian rather than French, but never to a distressing degree. Despite Mr. Bergonzi's rather rudimentary acting, there was an emotional sincerity and concentration in his work that won an instant audience response.

The cast was otherwise familiar. Three of the artists made their first appearances of the season in their roles: Lucine Amara, as Micaëla; Robert Merrill, as Escamillo; and Clifford Harvuot, as Morales. Rise Stevens again was heard as Carmen, and in other roles were Norman Scott, Heidi Krall, Margaret Roggero, George Cehanovsky and Paul Franke.

Thomas Schippers conducted an exciting, often sensitive, but curiously uneven, performance. He took the frenzied climax of the dance scene in the tavern at a vertiginous pace that turned it into a mad scramble (and, incidentally, that silly final tableau with two up-ended dancers should be taken out at once; it is offensive). Again, in the quintet, Mr. Schippers set a tempo that made clear accents and graceful phrasing impossible for the singers. Nor did he conduct the card scene with the refinement and dramatic imagination that marked his work in other parts of the score. But, with all its faults, this was still the interpretation of a very gifted and dynamic musician



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