[Met Performance] CID:85740



La Traviata
Metropolitan Opera House, Mon, December 31, 1923




La Traviata (124)
Giuseppe Verdi | Francesco Maria Piave
Violetta
Lucrezia Bori

Alfredo
Mario Chamlee

Germont
Giuseppe De Luca

Flora
Grace Anthony

Gastone
Angelo Bad?

Baron Douphol
Millo Picco

Marquis D'Obigny
Louis D'Angelo

Dr. Grenvil
Italo Picchi

Annina
Minnie Egener

Dance
Rosina Galli

Dance
Florence Rudolph

Dance
Giuseppe Bonfiglio


Conductor
Roberto Moranzoni







Review 1:

Review of W. J. Henderson in the Sun:

"La Traviata" was given at the Metropolitan Opera House last evening to the evident delight of a large New Year's Eve audience. The principals in the cast were Miss Bori as Violetta, Mr. Chamlee as Alfredo and Mr. De Luca as Germont. There was much to admire in the performance and some things to regret, but the musical merit and dramatic spirit of the representation, were such that minor defects were easily overlooked. Miss Bori was in excellent voice and in the first act was a sparkling and captivating Violetta, so youthful and beautiful that she created the illusion which is too often wanting. In the later scenes she was vocally more successful, while she gave to the impersonation a genuine note of tender pathos, Miss Bori continues to find difficulties in the florid passages of the first scene. It is a noteworthy fact that because of this scene Violetta has long been regarded as a coloratura soprano's part, whereas the florid music is only incidental and quickly ended. After the one scene the role is entirely lyric and while Miss Bori is not happy in the first duet with Alfredo, nor in "Sempre Libera," she is in her element from the beginning of the second scene to the end of the opera.

Mario Chamlee, who is an American tenor despite his name, finds a congenial role in Alfredo. His voice is in the same category as Mr. Gigli's and his field is therefore lyric music. He sang all of Alfredo's pages with much beauty of tone, with well sustained phrasing, and with fervor. He made Alfredo an earnest young lover, one whose eagerness gave much help to the Violetta in creating dramatic realism. Many singers might do well to emulate Mr. Chamlee's diction, The text fell clearly from his lips and there was no evidence of any interference on its part with his tone producing mechanism.

Mr. De Luca has always been a good Germont. He knows well how to assume the dignified bearing of the troubled father, and of course he sings the music well. He had the usual success with the familiar air "Di Provenza." No other characters in "La Traviata" have any importance.



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