[Met Performance] CID:227460



Luisa Miller
Metropolitan Opera House, Thu, November 4, 1971




Luisa Miller (27)
Giuseppe Verdi | Salvadore Cammarano
Luisa
Adriana Maliponte

Rodolfo
Plácido Domingo

Miller
Mario Sereni

Count Walter
Bonaldo Giaiotti

Wurm
Paul Plishka

Federica
Jean Kraft

Laura
Ivanka Myhal

Peasant
Lou Marcella


Conductor
James Levine







Review 1:

Review Alan Blyth , visiting Associate Editor Opera

My other Metropolitan experience was disappointing. I was much looking forward to the "Luisa Miller" revival (November 4) and especially to Placido Domingo's first Rodolfo. He sang with his usual sense of Verdian style, but in the opera house (or this one at least) the voice sounded surprisingly small and monochrome, and he seemed to be using it rather recklessly. Perhaps he has simply been singing too much lately. On the other hand, Adriana Maliponte's Luisa was a pleasant surprise. Here is an artist who knows how to give a phrase individuality and endow it with true pathos. The way she led the ensemble in the third scene of Act I and began "Ah! l'ultima preghiera" in Act 3 showed that she is a cut above most of her Italian colleagues. Indeed, throughout hers was the one vocal performance that rose above traditional routine.

Cornell MacNeil was replaced as Miller at short notice by Mario Sereni, who sang a monotonous forte and often lost his way. Bonaldo Giaiotti was a powerful but unsubtle Count Walter. Paul Plishka, the Wurm, at least attempted some characterization; his is a talent worth watching. In the pit James Levine (the present darling of the audiences) conducted with plenty of fire and a good deal of feeling for the right style. The six-year-old production is ludicrously over-blown and realistic - like some left-over from the 1890s. "Luisa Miller," which I place rather lower in the Verdi canon than many, calls for delicate and sympathetic handling to thrive; it is not just another repertory piece to be thrown on without thought. At this revival it was treated with proper respect only by the conductor and Miss Maliponte, who would be a welcome visitor in London.



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