[Met Performance] CID:5720



Le Proph?te
Metropolitan Opera House, Sat, January 29, 1887 Matinee



In German



Le Proph?te (27)
Giacomo Meyerbeer | Eug?ne Scribe
Jean of Leyden
Albert Niemann

Berthe
Lilli Lehmann

Fid?s
Marianne Brandt

Zacharie
Georg Sieglitz

Jonas
Max Alvary

Mathisen
Rudolph Von Milde

Count Oberthal
Wilhelm Basch

Dance
Malvina Cavalazzi

Dance
Miss Leonhardt


Conductor
Walter Damrosch







Review 1:

Review in The New York Times:

METROPOLITAN OPERA HOUSE

In spite of Wagnerism and bad weather yesterday's performance of "The Prophet" summoned to the Metropolitan Opera House a large and enthusiastic concourse of spectators. The rendering of Meyerbeer's dramatic, picturesque, and tuneful work by the same artists that took part in it yesterday has so often been dwelt upon within the last few weeks that beyond recording its occurrence and its success there it little to be said on the subject. It is worth mentioning, however, that both its strongest excellences and chief defects stood forth with somewhat unusual sharpness in the representation under notice. The portrayals of Fides and Bertha, supplied, as heretofore, by Fr?uleins Brandt and Lehmann, were, in other words, uncommonly admirable, whether viewed from a histrionic or a lyric standpoint, while Herr Niemann's John of Leyden, in respect of the tenor's singing, fell far below the not very exalted plane to which the artist's reduced vocal powers has all along kept it. The first scene of the third act, when the two women meet in the streets of Leyden, has certainly never been sung and acted with a greater wealth of tone and more dramatic spirit and force than were revealed in its progress yesterday. Herr Niemann's performance, on the other hand, thoughtful, elaborate, and forceful as it was throughout "The Prophet," and notably in the cathedral scene, lost much of its impressiveness owing to the artist's being decidedly out of voice - a pretty serious matter when the limited capital Herr Niemann depends upon, even when at his best, is borne in mind. Dramatically, as implied, his delineation showed no falling off in sincerity, variety, and power, and the scene between Fides and her son was acted by the two performers with almost painful realism. The customary recall followed the fall of the curtain upon this striking episode of the opera; the heartiness of the three or four demonstrations that brought forth Fr?uleins Brandt and Lehmann after their duet, just before the proceedings in the cathedral began, was, however, altogether exceptional. In the brief, but pretty, divertissement in the second act Mme. Cavalazzi and Fr?ulein Leonhardt were seen as in the past and heartily applauded.



Search by season: 1886-87

Search by title: Le Proph?te,



Met careers