[Met Performance] CID:205070



Fidelio
Metropolitan Opera House, Wed, January 12, 1966




Fidelio (93)
Ludwig van Beethoven | Joseph Sonnleithner
Leonore
Ludmila Dvoráková

Florestan
James King

Don Pizarro
Geraint Evans

Rocco
Otto Edelmann

Marzelline
Mary Ellen Pracht

Jaquino
Charles Anthony

Don Fernando
Sherrill Milnes

First Prisoner
George Shirley

Second Prisoner
Russell Christopher

Captain
Harold Sternberg


Conductor
Karl Böhm







Review 1:

Review of Louis Snyder in the Herald Tribune

Beethoven's 'Fidelio' Gets a New Leonore

Ludmila Dvorakova, a young Czech soprano with extensive European experience, made her American debut last night at the Metropolitan Opera as Leonore in Beethoven's "Fidelio." It is, of course, a great demanding role and the measure set by its previous interpreters here, even within recent memory, has been indeed formidable. That Miss Dvorakova did not eclipse any of them, or really even approach their standard is perhaps not her fault. For she has a large, warm, expressive voice. She is handsome and lithe, and if she does not project as an actress of great conviction, she is neither gauche nor does she lack poise. But whether or not one accepts the melodramatic tenet on which Beethoven based his opera, Leonore must carry the show, musically and theatrically, and last night it could not be said that this was within Miss. Dvorakova's range of capability.

Much of the difficulty with which she was faced at this debut seemed less of her doing than of a production where dramatic and musical elements failed to mesh. Simultaneous climaxes failed to materialize, so often did action on the stage and in the pit appear to be waiting one for the other. Perhaps in another role in another opera here, Miss Dvorakova will be better able to find and express herself to greater advantage. Obviously, she has the voice and intelligence to do so.

The cast of the one previous performance this season reappeared, with Karl Boehm again the conductor.



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