[Met Performance] CID:1260



Lohengrin
Metropolitan Opera House, Sat, December 1, 1883 Matinee



In Italian



Lohengrin (4)
Richard Wagner | Richard Wagner
Lohengrin
Italo Campanini

Elsa
Christine Nilsson

Ortrud
Emmy Fursch-Madi

Telramund
Giuseppe Kaschmann

King Heinrich
Franco Novara

Herald
Ludovico Contini


Conductor
Auguste Vianesi







Review 1:

Review W. J. Henderson in The New York Times

"Lohengrin" in now performed at the Metropolitan Opera house in a more effective manner than it was when first presented there, the several public repetitions of the work and a few additional private rehearsals having familiarized the chorus and instrumentalists with their very exacting tasks and produced among the principal artists that confidence in each other without which no representation is possible. Wagner's opera was given yesterday afternoon before a very large audience, who followed the performance to its close, long after sunset, with keen enjoyment. So far as the orchestra and soloists were concerned, this performance was symmetrical and full of spirit, while the chorus succeeded in keeping the pitch most of the time, and rendered the magnificent and impressive scenes of which they bear the chief burden with a closer approach to the composer's intentions than on any former occasion. The cast was the same as before, and with Signor Campanini as the Knight of the Grail, Mme. Nilsson as Elsa, Mme. Fursch-Madi as Ortruda, Signor Kaschmann as Telramondo, and Signor Novara as Enrico, it is difficult to see how it could be greatly improved upon in any other opera-house in the world. Signor Campanini's impersonation of Lohengrin was seen yesterday to the best advantage, for the tenor has entirely recovered from the trifling disability which obliged him to restrain himself somewhat in his acting earlier in the season, which his singing was beautiful as ever. The exquisite rendering of the swan song, and his masterly delivery of the music of the last act, including the touching farewell to Elsa, were, as hitherto, among the most noteworthy features of this portrayal, which was sustained throughout the opera with perfect art, and was remarkable alike for the dignity and pathos. Mme. Nilsson's Elsa still remains the ideal of Wagner's heroine, and the richness and purity of her voice were never more thoroughly enjoyed than yesterday. To particularize the various scenes in which the genius and dramatic experience of this artist appeared, for the time, to be most prominent would be entirely unnecessary. The scene in the first act, preceding the arrival of Lohengrin, was frequently interrupted by applause, and the audience took occasion to express their pleasure after the tasteful rendering of the "Ariette, a cui si spesso," in the second act; but every portion of the opera, replete with dramatic significance, and marked, in the splendid duet of Act II, by a degree of tragic force to which no other representative of the character in this country has ever attained. Mme. Fursch-Madi repeated her strong performance of the vengeful Ortruda, and Signor Kaschmann's Telramondo was an eminently satisfactory effort. Signor Novara treated the bewildering intervals in the music of the King somewhat gingerly, but on the whole his work was well done.?



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