[Met Performance] CID:88930



Il Barbiere di Siviglia
Metropolitan Opera House, Mon, January 12, 1925




Il Barbiere di Siviglia (126)
Gioachino Rossini | Cesare Sterbini
Figaro
Titta Ruffo

Rosina
Amelita Galli-Curci

Count Almaviva
Ralph Errolle

Dr. Bartolo
Pompilio Malatesta

Don Basilio
Adamo Didur

Berta
Marie Mattfeld

Fiorello
Vincenzo Reschiglian

Sergeant
Giordano Paltrinieri


Conductor
Gennaro Papi





In the Lesson Scene Galli-Curci sang "Je suis Titania" from Mignon and "Home sweet home" from Clari (Bishop).

Review 1:

Review of W. J. Henderson in the New York Sun:

Galli-Curci Sings With Spirit

 

Prima-Donna Makes Her First Appearance of Season in “Barber of Seville”

 

Mme. Amelita Galli-Curci made her first appearance of the season at the Metropolitan Opera House last evening, singing Rosina in Rossini’s “Il Barbiere di Siviglia.” This opera, despite the many slings and arrows of outrageous criticism, retains its place as one of the hardy perennials in the lyric garden. Its flowers of song fail to deliver their fragrance to the sensitive nostrils of the purist, but the world admires them nevertheless and will probably continue to do so as long as there is a prima donna to warble “Una voce poco fa” and perform jugglery in the lesson scene, a tenor to serenade gallantly and get drunk like a gentleman, and a Don Basilio to publish in orotund tones the terrors of “La calumnia.”

 

Last evening’s cast had other interest than that provided by the presence of the prima donna. Ralph Errolle, the young American tenor, was the Almaviva, a good looking lover, with a light but agreeable voice, and sufficient acquaintance with florid song to carry him safely over the pitfalls of the first scene. And there was Titta Ruffo as Figaro, a burly and rather Milesian looking barber, whose singing was quite as carefree as his general behavior, who cared little for the beat of a tyrannical conductor (Mr. Papi) and who aided and abetted the schemes of Almaviva with burly jocundity and successfully concealed subtlety.

 

There was also Adamo Didur as Don Basilio, giving a broadly comic impersonation of a music master and singing his one great air to the evident delight of his hearers. But after all, the great glory in “Il Barbiere di Siviglia” is supposed to belong to the soprano ever since Patti immortalized the role and Sembrich crowned it with the royalty of her unrivaled art.

 

If there were anything new to say about Mme. Galli-Curci’s impersonation of the vivacious ward of Dr. Bartolo this would be the time to say it. But with each returning season the observer finds that this Rosina reached her artistic maturity long ago and that she remains a finished picture. Mme. Galli-Curi has the voice and the facility needed by Rossini’s music and when she does not wander from the pitch she is a delight to the ear, even if not always satisfying to the artistic taste.

 

She seemed to have some trouble with certain tones in the medium last night, but on the whole her singing was quite up to its standard. In the lesson scene she sang the brilliant polonaise from “Mignon” and “Home Sweet Home.” The audience was large and enthusiastic.



Search by season: 1924-25

Search by title: Il Barbiere di Siviglia,



Met careers