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Madama Butterfly
Metropolitan Opera House, Mon, February 9, 1925
Madama Butterfly (179)
Giacomo Puccini | Luigi Illica/ Giuseppe Giacosa
- Cio-Cio-San
- Elisabeth Rethberg
- Pinkerton
- Edward Johnson
- Suzuki
- Marion Telva
- Sharpless
- Antonio Scotti
- Goro
- Angelo Bad?
- Bonze
- Paolo Ananian
- Yamadori
- Louis D'Angelo
- Kate Pinkerton
- Phradie Wells
- Commissioner
- Vincenzo Reschiglian
- Yakuside
- Paolo Quintina
- Conductor
- Tullio Serafin
Review 1:
Review of W. J. Henderson in the Sun:
Miss Rethberg as Cio-Cio-San
Sings in Duet of 'Madama Butterfly' With Extraordinarily Beautiful Tone.
Some day the wise men will decide which of Puccini's operas is his masterpiece. At present the subject is open to discussion and the advocates of the supremacy of "La Boheme" and "Tosca" continue to shoot "paper bullets of the brain" at those who always prepare to shed their tears over the woes of Cio-Cio-San. Meanwhile "Manon Lescaut," neglected by the multitude which knows only the "Manon" of Massenet, has a few stanch friends who vow that is the composer's best work.
"Madama Butterfly"disputes the claim to first place and the Monday night audience which attended evening's performance bestowed enthusiastic applause upon it. The evening was made especially interesting by the return of Miss Elisabeth Rethberg who opened the season on November 3 with her impersonation of the Egyptian slave and after a few weeks departed on the inevitable concert tour. An item of equal interest was Edward Johnson's appearance as the perfidious Pinkerton. Mr. Johnson effected his reentry last week in "Carmen," was not in his best vocal condition.
It used to be said among the people of the theater that no woman was able to act Juliet till too old to look the part. No one has ever looked the fifteen-years-old Cio-Cio-San, but Miss Rethberg at any rate was correctly dressed. Her voice is excellently suited to the music and she sang well. She even sang the entrance music tune, which is now a vocal feat. But her singing in the duet of the first act was more important. It was a display extraordinarily beautiful tone coupled with poetic interpretation. From this time to the end of the opera she had the audience at her feet and won a well-deserved success.
In the first act she had a particularly good associate in Mr. Johnson, whose Pinkerton was not only vocally admirable, but impassioned and convincing. A more interesting Pinkerton the Metropolitan has not known.
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