[Met Performance] CID:83460

United States Premiere, New Production

Mona Lisa
Metropolitan Opera House, Thu, March 1, 1923

Debut : Barbara Kemp, Michael Bohnen




Mona Lisa (1)
Max von Schillings | Beatrice von Dovsky
Wife, Fiordalisa
Barbara Kemp [Debut]

Tourist, Francesco
Michael Bohnen [Debut]

Monk, Giovanni
Curt Taucher

Pietro
Carl Schlegel

Sandro
William Gustafson

Masolino
Louis D'Angelo

Alessio
Max Bloch

Arrigo
George Meader

Dianora
Ellen Dalossy

Ginevra
Frances Peralta

Piccarda
Marion Telva


Conductor
Artur Bodanzky


Director
Samuel Thewman

Set Designer
Hans Kautsky

Costume Designer
Mathilde Castel-Bert





Mona Lisa received six performances this season.

Review 1:

Review in Musical America

In Barbara Kemp the Metropolitan has acquired a singing actress of real gifts and a personality of charm. Whatever the audience may have thought of the opera, there was no doubt left about the success of this Mona Lisa. She brought a voice adequate to all requirements of the part, a voice of many lights and shades, capable of coloring a passion and finding the key of an emotion. Of a capacity as a singer, there will be more opportunity to judge when she appears in a part that calls for something more than declamatory utterance. She moves with rare grace, and finds a remarkable attribute of her art in her ability to suit her actions to the musical line. This last gift was particularly marked in the scene where she dooms Francesco by slamming the door of the cabinet. She was in turn the calm, saint-like Mona Lisa; the woman roused to passion by the return of her lover; the creature of despair, burdened with horror at the realization of Giovanni's plight; the tigress, thinking only of revenge; and then, in the last moments, the woman, the Mona Lisa of the years, terrified by her own act, scarcely understanding the meaning of this end. It was a remarkable performance, blemished only by an occasional indulgence in operatics which may have been due to the self-consciousness inevitable in the circumstances of such a debut at the Metropolitan.

Michael Bohnen was also successful. He played Francesco with an intensity of feeling that must have been felt in the farthest reaches of the auditorium. There was something in his acting that suggested the motion picture studio, as if he must discount the force of words and make gestures carry his meaning. These gestures were at all times eloquent. He was a pictorial figure, and he added many gratifying touches of art to the scenes in which he appeared. The jealousy and brutality of the character were brought out with broad strokes. He sang with a voice that held his hearers; that gave evidence of a sonorous organ to be used with more purely vocal effect in other roles. Like Mme. Kemp, he has the capacity to reflect the mood of his text, and he brings to his work a considerable dramatic force.

The part of Giovanni afforded further opportunity for Curt Taucher. He sang straightforwardly and effectively and was at all times adequate. The minor roles were satisfactorily presented. George Meader accomplished some good singing as Arrigo; and Ellen Dalossy as Dianora and Marion Telva as Piccarda also did well, especially in a duet at the [beginning] of the second act. Frances Peralta made a dominant figure of Ginevra, the Venus of the carnival in the first act. William Gustafson, Sandro; Carl Schlegel, Pietro; Max Bloch, Alessio, and Louis D'Angelo, Masolino, completed the cast. Arthur Bodanzky conducted with skill and worked up the climaxes effectively. The scenic production was from the studios of Hans Kautsky, Vienna. The settings were beautifully handled, with pictorial glimpses of Florence, old and new, seen through three tall windows. The details of staging, under the direction of Samuel Thewman, showed care and thought, the pictorial grouping at the [start] of the fifteenth century scene being admirable indeed.

Photograph of Michael Bohnen, Barbara Kemp, and Curt Taucher in a scene from the United States premiere of Schillings's Mona Lisa.



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