[Met Performance] CID:41400



Lucia di Lammermoor
Metropolitan Opera House, Sat, March 21, 1908

Debut : Ellen Beach Yaw




Lucia di Lammermoor (72)
Gaetano Donizetti | Salvadore Cammarano
Lucia
Ellen Beach Yaw [Debut] [Debut and Only performance]

Edgardo
Alessandro Bonci

Enrico
Riccardo Stracciari

Raimondo
Vittorio Navarini

Normanno
Giuseppe Tecchi

Alisa
Marie Mattfeld

Arturo
George Lucas


Conductor
Rodolfo Ferrari


Director
Eug?ne Dufriche





Lucia di Lammermoor received one performance this season.

Review 1:

Unsigned review in unidentified newspaper
Opera Revived for the First Time This Season for American Girl?s Debut

Donizetti?s ?Lucia? received its first presentation of the season at the Metropolitan Opera House last night. This opera, which has been Mme. Tetrazzini?s greatest magnet with the public [Manhattan Opera House] and was once announced at the Metropolitan early in the Fall, but abandoned on account of the indisposition of Mme. Sembrich, owes its present revival to the sudden appearance on the list of sopranos at the Metropolitan of Ellen Beach Yaw.

Miss Yaw is an American girl, who has undertaken several concert tours of the country, but who principal claim to fame hitherto has been the possession of certain high notes, which have been described as ?phenomenal.? She has appeared in opera on a few of the Italian cities and in Nice, but last night was her great chance to sing opera in America.

She was decidedly nervous, but it must be said that she made a good impression not only upon the audience as a whole, which applauded her singing vociferously, but upon the more critical persons who were present. Her middle voice is of sweet quality, and she knows how to use it. Her coloratura passages were managed with brilliancy, and with style. Her staccato was especially good. Unfortunately, howe3ver, she sang a large part of the second act with false intonation.

Her high notes, which have been so much heralded, were disappointing. They were always thin, and not of sufficient carrying power. She transposed the final G on ?quando rapito in Estasi? an octave higher than the score, but without much effect. The sudden leap up the scale was not musical, and the tone was so thin that it was not brilliant. The high C?s in the sextet were likewise disappointing. The voice is not a large one in any of the registers, but the high tones are especially small.

The mad scene of course, is the climax of any singer?s work in ?Lucia,? and this air Miss Yaw sang well, at time almost dazzlingly. The duet with the flute provoked so much applause that she repeated the coloratura phrases before finishing the act. And after the curtain fell she was recalled many times.


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