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What with "La Juive" ("The Jewess") and "L"Africane" ("The African") on the current bills at the Metropolitan, members of the Ku Klux Klan must feel that it is Old Home Week here for them operatically. If the big matinee throng had any Klan adherents at "L'Africane" yesterday they stood not under the sign of the fiery cross, but rather under the spell of Tullio Serafin's fiery baton. That doughty conductor put vigor and impetus into the somewhat faded measures of this opera, relic of an age, more or less happily surmounted. He made the music sound important here and there, and the orchestration take on the semblance of glamour.

Whatever else "L'Africane" might be, it is, however, and ideal medium for the display of brilliant singing and melodramatic acting in the operatic sense. Rosa Ponselle took full advantage of those opportunities. She was splendid in voice, appearance and action, and caught the broad Meyerbeerian style to perfection. Gigli, as usual, delivered himself of lovely tones, immaculately rounded and phrased.

The darksome Nelusko of the occasion was Giuseppe Danise who looks were more intense than his song. Queena Mario, in the role of Ines, warbled sweetly in the first act. Others who contributed vitally were Leon Rothier, Adamo Didur and Angelo Bada. Excellent ballet filled the eye in the fourth act. The third act had a ship whose lines, were he to see them, would give Sir Thomas Lipton food for deep thought.

Search by season: 1924-25

Search by title: L'Africaine,

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