Metropolitan Opera Archives

Aida received twelve performances this season.

Review 1:

From the editorial review in Musical America
The following evening ("Aida," Oct. 17) was memorable – it was! —the credit goes first and foremost to Leontyne Price, whose singing and portrayal of the title role was perfection itself. The difficulties which plagued Miss Price's voice last season seem completely to have vanished. Her singing was effortless and the sound ravishingly beautiful. Add to this Price's consummate musicianship and phrasing, her directly-motivated, unoperatic acting and her commanding "presence," and you have the Aida “par excellence.”

Rita Gorr, Belgian mezzo-soprano, made her Metropolitan debut as Amneris. She has a large voice that tends to be overly-brilliant and somewhat "metallic" in the high register. The fact that the quality of her voice improved as the evening went on, however, suggests that she may have been suffering (and not without cause) from first-night jitters. For her singing in the Judgment Scene she received a well-deserved ovation. Clearly she is a fine artist, who knows what she is doing vocally.

Carlo Bergonzi as Radames and Anselmo Colzani as Amonasro contributed to this feast of voices, as did the supporting cast. Nello Santi, conducting his first "Aida" at the Met, kept things together and moving admirably. About the sets, staging and choreography, the less said the better.

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