Metropolitan Opera Archives

Review 1:

Review of James Goodfriend in Musical America
Heralded or not in advance, it was most definitely Richard Tucker night at the Met. The veteran tenor gave one of the most vocally sumptuous performances heard in recent years but pointed up, by his example, the relative inefficacy of the remainder of the cast. Eileen Farrell was obviously saving herself for a big last act. There is no doubt her “Suicidio” was chandelier-shattering (as it should be) when it came, but “La Gioconda” is so constructed that the aria never comes before 11:30. And one has been sitting there for some three and one-half hours – fidgeting. Both Rosalind Elias and Margaret Roggero have sung considerably better on other occasions. Jerome Hines made a splendid visual Alvise in his first appearance in the role at the Met, but his singing did leave something to be desired, most notably, the cutting, almost sarcastic quality demanded by this rather demented role. Mario Sereni carried on most of the evening in a sort of excited Italianate “Sprechstimme” (unfortunately characteristic of more than one singer at the Met ) which, despite its being s somewhat ugly noise in itself, was at least so far away for the art of singing as to make questions of pitch and rhythmic accuracy purely academic.

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Search by title: La Gioconda,

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