[Met Performance] CID:190500



Tosca
Metropolitan Opera House, Thu, March 15, 1962




Tosca (416)
Giacomo Puccini | Luigi Illica/Giuseppe Giacosa
Tosca
Margherita Roberti [Last performance]

Cavaradossi
Barry Morell

Scarpia
Cornell MacNeil

Sacristan
Ezio Flagello

Spoletta
Andrea Velis

Angelotti
Norman Scott

Sciarrone
George Cehanovsky

Shepherd
Alan Fischer

Jailer
Roald Reitan


Conductor
Kurt Adler







Review 1:

Review of Martin Bernheimer in the Herald Tribune
Cornell MacNeil Is Scarpia in Met’s ‘Tosca’

Most of the first act of Puccini’s “Tosca” dragged along last night at the Metropolitan, as if the participants had taken an overdose of miltown. Then Cornell MacNeil, singing his first Scarpia of the season, entered and things caught fire. It was a welcome relief.

Others portray the sinister Roman police chief with more slimy elegance, but few sing the part with such finesse and sonority. The baritone from Minnesota commands a ravishing “mezza voce” and his hall-shaking fortes were remarkably free and in focus last night. One can’t ask for much more in the way of vocalism, and, although Mr. MacNeil handled the villainy rather gingerly, his acting was impressive, too.

Andrea Velis, who has proven a highly valuable addition to the Met’s comprimario wing this season, made a magnificently spidery little yes-man of Spoleta – his first at the house.

Others in the cast were Margherita Roberti, an uneven but improved Tosca, Barry Morrell, superb in Cavaradossi’s high-powered “Victoria” outburst, and Norman Scott, Ezio Flagello and Alan Fisher in secondary assignments. Kurt Adler, who has been conducting some really hot-blooded “Turandot”’s lately, seemed surprisingly lethargic on this occasion.


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