[Met Performance] CID:187450



Aida
Metropolitan Opera House, Tue, March 14, 1961




Aida (645)
Giuseppe Verdi | Antonio Ghislanzoni
Aida
Leontyne Price

Radamès
William Olvis

Amneris
Rosalind Elias

Amonasro
Cesare Bardelli

Ramfis
Bonaldo Giaiotti

King
Louis Sgarro

Messenger
Robert Nagy

Priestess
Carlotta Ordassy

Dance
Thomas Andrew

Dance
Hubert Farrington

Dance
Lolita San Miguel


Conductor
Nino Verchi





Zachary Solov received credit for choreography throughout the season, sharing it with Mattlyn Gavers beginning April 14.

Review 1:

Review of Ronald Eyer in the Herald Tribune

The Metropolitan's "Aida" has developed termites.

The little beggars have been working away at the underpinnings for some time, and any day now the whole production is going to collapse into the cellar. Margaret Webster's direction and Rolf Gerard's sets never have been satisfactory. They reduce what can be the grandest of grand opera to a road-company extravaganza. There is no illusion of space, splendor or festive opulence. "Aida" is, after all, like "Die Meistersinger," a festival opera. And when it falls from that special festive estate, it falls harder than do those operas that depend less on the grandiose and the spectacular.

The physical decay has communicated itself to the cast. Practically everybody now walks through his part except the dancers, and they - well, it is not the business of this department to have opinions about dancing.

Last night we had our first opportunity to see and hear Rosalind Elias as Amneris. Miss Elias is one of the most delightful and also one of the most promising young singers in the company. Her voice is right in timbre and in volume for the role. But she is not yet Amneris.

She appears more the young, unsophisticated girl with boy trouble than the arrogant, vicious and vindictive princess with the power of life or death over her lover, and one is a bit surprised that she does not find herself twisted around the little finger of her much more mature slave-girl (also a princess, to be sure) Aida. Miss Elias was seductively pretty; she was appropriately dressed in what I took to be shimmering Nile green and blue, and she sang beautifully. But let's let Amneris wait a few years and do some pleasanter things that are better suited to this young artist at this stage of her career.

Another first at the Metropolitan was William Olvis's Radames. From his chesty tone, I take Mr. Olvis to be a converted baritone. Whether or not, this quality adds to the power and authority of his voice and, except for an insecurely placed tone at the end of "Celeste Aida," he gave a solid performance vocally, and when he develops the top voice more fully he should place among our ranking dramatic tenors.

Bonaldo Giaiotti sang Ramfis in place of Jerome Hines who was indisposed. Cesare Bardelli was quite satisfactory vocally in his first Amonasro of the season, and Leontyne Price again displayed great vocal prowess in the title role. The conducting of Nino Verchi did nothing to alleviate the dramatically dull routine of the evening..



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