[Met Performance] CID:2220



Martha
Metropolitan Opera House, Fri, March 14, 1884


In Italian



Martha (5)
Friedrich von Flotow | Friedrich Wilhelm Riese
Lady Harriet
Marcella Sembrich

Lionel
Roberto Stagno

Nancy
Zelia Trebelli

Plunkett
Franco Novara

Sir Tristram
Baldassare Corsini

Sheriff
Ludovico Contini

Maid
unknown


Conductor
Auguste Vianesi





Marcella Sembrich interpolated Proch's "Deh torna mio bene" at the end of the opera .

Review 1:

Review in The New York Times:

METROPOLITAN OPERA HOUSE

The audience that listened to 'Martha" last night was not so numerous as that of Monday, but it made up the deficiency in demonstrativeness. It was certainly susceptible to those vocal tricks which some serious-minded people chronically deprecate, and it several times manifested a good deal of enthusiasm over the performance of Signor Stagno, who judged by any artistic standard as Lionel, was a thoroughly uninteresting individual, seldom in time in the music, always ungracefully obtrusive in the action, and dressed in a manner that left one in doubt as to the time, place and character of the play.

"Martha" has passed through strange vicissitudes since it was first produced as a ballet, and with each new version, German, Italian and French, it has changed the period in which it is supposed to occur. How many periods were represented in the costumes worn last night we are not prepared to say, but we question whether an English farmer in the time of Queen Anne, or even in the fifteenth century, wore a Turkish fez and a dagger slung in the middle of his back. Save in these things, however, the opera received a performance which deserved the many marks of favor with which it was received.

Besides Signor Stagno, Mme. Sembrich and Mme. Trebelli appeared for the first time in New York in the appropriate characters of the opera. Both of the ladies found the music and the action excellent vehicles for the conveyance of the artistic qualities in which they excel. Mme. Sembrich seemed grateful because of the opportunity to sing music with which her voice and style are in complete accord, and gave it all brilliantly, attesting her musicianship by a dazzling execution of the spinning-scene music and Proch's variations, which she introduced in the finale. Mme. Trebelli was duly piquant in action, and her voice, blending beautifully with Mme. Sembrich's, gave a lovely color to the ensembles. Unfortunately some of the concerted pieces were decidedly ragged as to time. Signor Novara was the Plunket and Signor Corsini the Tristan.



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