[Met Performance] CID:186480



La Bohème
Metropolitan Opera House, Sat, December 10, 1960




La Bohème (583)
Giacomo Puccini | Luigi Illica/Giuseppe Giacosa
Mimì
Lisa Della Casa

Rodolfo
Richard Tucker

Musetta
Laurel Hurley

Marcello
Lorenzo Testi

Schaunard
Roald Reitan

Colline
Bonaldo Giaiotti

Benoit
Gerhard Pechner

Alcindoro
Norman Kelley

Parpignol
Hal Roberts

Sergeant
Carlo Tomanelli

Officer
Edward Ghazal


Conductor
Thomas Schippers







Review 1:

Review of Francis D. Perkins in the New York Herald Tribune

Lisa Della Casa Sings Mimi in 'La Bohème'

Lisa Della Casa's first appearance here as Mimi provided the element of novelty in the season's sixth performance of "La Bohème," which completed Saturday's all-Puccini schedule at the Metropolitan Opera House. The afternoon offering was "Manon Lescaut," which also prefaces "La Bohème" in the chronological order of Puccini's operas.

Miss Della Casa had sung Mimi before in Europe and with the San Francisco Opera and her interpretation of Saturday night was individual and convincing, distinctly her own, while thoroughly in character. The personality of the role was deftly developed in the first act, from an effect of timidity and exhaustion at Mimi's entrance to one of restored vitality and confidence at the close. The heroine's quiet gaiety in the second act and pathos in the later scenes were realized with equal persuasion.

Both her singing and her demeanor fulfilled her discerning dramatic aims; vocal color was subtly increased in the first act to correspond with the changing of Mimi's mood, and the hues of her voice were pronounced and positive in the third scene. The quality of her song was consistently appealing; there was a slight variation in the tonal merit at the outset, but the phrase in which she bade Rodolpho farewell without rancor was unusually memorable for delectable timbre and musical contour.

Richard Tucker was again in his best voice as Rodolfo, with Laurel Hurley as Musetta, Lorenzo Testi as Marcello, Roald Reitan as Schaunard and Bonaldo Giaiotti as Colline, while Thomas Schippers conducted.



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