Metropolitan Opera Archives

Wallowing in self pity, your scribe left a warm and happy home to drive 30 miles through Saturday's snowstorm, and for no better reason than a matinee of "Faust" at the Metropolitan. Yet, there were compensations.

Alain Lombard was one of them. The 26-year old conductor, currently one of the assistants at the Philharmonic, had appeared at the Met before, but only in a ballet evening. Saturday he made his operatic debut with the company, arranged at short notice after Georges Prêtre decided to spend Christmas with his family in Paris, and it was a notable event.

Lombard seemed to have his own performance in mind, even though the Met's schedule makes it difficult to rehearse an opera in mid-run. His work had a distinction about it, a tension and a bigness that stamped him as a man worth your attention. The orchestra played for him with remarkable sheen, and the sounds of voices and instruments were in the kind of balance that bespoke some hard work. He is down for one more 'Faust," by the way, next Friday night.

Otherwise, the list of participants was routine, aside from the fact that Gabriella Tucci sang her first Marguerite of the season. It was surprisingly good routine, however.

John Alexander, the Faust, is coming along quickly, as one of the few instances recently of an American tenor who is being allowed to reach maturity with the company) instead of having to rush off to Europe). His voice is a lovely instrument, and he uses it with a real sense of phrasing.

Marcia Baldwin's Siebel and Justino Diaz' Mephistopheles provided further evidence of the high qualities of the Met's young American wing, and William Walker, the Valentin, has also done some good work on production since his debut.

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