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[Met Performance] CID:200310

New Production

Les Sylphides
Don Pasquale
Metropolitan Opera House, Fri, November 13, 1964

Debut : Nicolyn Emanuel, Diana Levy







Choreography realized by Alicia Markova
Production a gift of the Metropolitan Opera National Council
Les Sylphides received six performances this season.
DON PASQUALE {59}
Donizetti-Ruffini
Don Pasquale received six performances this season.

FUNDING:
Production a gift of the Metropolitan Opera National Council

Review 1:

Review of John Ardoin in Musical America
Donizetti’s rollicking “Don Pasquale,” last heard at the Met during the 1956-57 season, returned on November 13 in a double bill with the Metropolitan Opera Ballet’s new production of “Les Sylphides” (see dance reviews). New to the “Pasquale” production were Gianna d’Angelo (Norina), Luigi Alva (Ernesto), and Andrea Velis (A Notary). Fernando Corena’s Pasquale and Frank Guarrera’s Malatetsta were familiar to those who had seen the production when new.

Though “Pasquale” is the first one of the great comic operas, the part of Ernesto contains some of the most delectable music ever written for a lyric tenor, such as the arias “Songo soave e casto,” and “Com’e ‘ gentil.” All three arias are the essence of bel canto vocal writing, and a more ideal interpreter of them than Luigi Alva would be hard to imagine. Singlehandedly he stole the vocal honors of the evening with his suave, pure singing coupled with an impeccable sense of line. Singing as perfect as his on this evening is a rare commodity today, and one had to go back to Tito Schipa to find Mr. Alva’s peer in this music.

As Norina Miss d’Angelo looked and acted as if Donizetti had her in mind when he wrote the part. Norina must start the evening with her biggest and most demanding moment, the aria “Quel guardo il cavaliere,” and she was not at her best here. But her voice became warmer and more responsive as the evening progressed. Both Mr. Corena and Mr. Guarrera are past masters at opera buffo, and provided most of the evening’s hilarity, but little of the evening’s better singing. The conductor was Silvio Varviso, and in “Pasquale” he did his finest conducting at the Met to date. He kept the performance light and always moving.


Search by season: 1964-65

Search by title: Les Sylphides, Don Pasquale,



Met careers

• Katharyn Horne [Nocturne]
• Carolyn Martin [Nocturne]
• Patricia Heyes [Nocturne]
• Hans Meister [Nocturne]
• Suzanne Ames [Dance]
• Miriam Ehrenberg [Dance]
• Susana Aschieri [Dance]
• Nicolyn Emanuel [Dance]
• Sally Brayley [Dance]
• Rhodie Jorgenson [Dance]
• Pauline Andrey [Dance]
• Diana Levy [Dance]
• Jeannette Maroulis [Dance]
• Naomi Marritt [Dance]
• Melanija Mihalic [Dance]
• Janet Morse [Dance]
• Sharon O'Connell [Dance]
• Nira Paaz [Dance]
• Ayako Ogawa [Dance]
• Kathy Von Bulow [Dance]
• Michel Fokine [Choreographer]
• Rolf Gérard [Designer]
• Silvio Varviso [Conductor]
• Fernando Corena [Don Pasquale]
• Gianna D'Angelo [Norina]
• Luigi Alva [Ernesto]
• Frank Guarrera [Dr. Malatesta]
• Andrea Velis [Notary]
• Margarete Belleri [Servant]
• Frank D'Elia [Servant]
• Frank [Servant]
• Arthur Backgren [Servant]
• Dino Yannopoulos [Director]
• Wolfgang Roth [Designer]