[Met Performance] CID:286490



Tosca
Metropolitan Opera House, Tue, November 11, 1986

Debut : Maria Slatinaru




Tosca (709)
Giacomo Puccini | Luigi Illica/Giuseppe Giacosa
Tosca
Maria Slatinaru [Debut]

Cavaradossi
Ermanno Mauro

Scarpia
Juan Pons

Sacristan
Italo Tajo

Spoletta
Andrea Velis

Angelotti
Michael Smartt

Sciarrone
Russell Christopher

Shepherd
Matthew Dobkin

Jailer
Philip Booth


Conductor
Garcia Navarro







Review 1:

Will Crutchfield in The New York Times

A “Tosca” Debut

 

In the years when a Metropolitan Opera troupe of singers was resident in New York for the  bulk of the season, it was relatively easy to replace one singer with another in the event of indisposition. ("If tonight's Tosca is ill, let Saturday's Leonora sing Tosca.")

Sometimes this still happens — but in the age of the jet, with surgically calculated New York stopovers, and commuting between performances, the Met cannot count on it. Saturday's Leonora might be singing "The Merry Widow" in Miami tonight. A cast of standby singers must be engaged, rehearsed and paid — and because of the shortage of singers and their opportunities elsewhere, they must also be offered a performance or two in their own right whether or not anyone is sick, and whether or not the standbys are really qualified. 

All this is by way of preface to the report that the Metropolitan presented Maria Slatinaru in her house debut as Tosca Tuesday night. While she is by no means a dishonorable singer, she gave no evidence that her voice could encompass the music of the role, least of all in a large house. Her high notes were unsteady and she had trouble sustaining them; the lower and middle ranges were weak. She is attractive and a good actress, and the basic quality of her voice is agreeable when not forced; one must hope that she will find a better career niche singing appropriate roles in appropriate places.

Ermanno Mauro performed Cavaradossi in his familiar style: recognizably in touch with the basic of Italian tenorizing, but lacking the generosity of sheer sound that would balance the fairly primitive level of artistic and vocal cultivation.



Search by season: 1986-87

Search by title: Tosca,



Met careers