[Met Performance] CID:95250



Falstaff
Metropolitan Opera House, Wed, February 2, 1927




Falstaff (53)
Giuseppe Verdi | Arrigo Boito
Sir John Falstaff
Antonio Scotti

Alice Ford
Lucrezia Bori

Ford
Lawrence Tibbett

Dame Quickly
Marion Telva

Nannetta
Frances Alda

Fenton
Armand Tokatyan

Meg Page
Kathleen Howard

Dr. Cajus
Angelo Bad?

Bardolfo
Giordano Paltrinieri

Pistola
Adamo Didur

Innkeeper
Ludwig Burgstaller


Conductor
Tullio Serafin







Review 1:

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

'Falstaff at the Metropolitan

Scotti and Miss Bori in Cast Which Ably Presents Verdi's Gay Opera

One traveling observer of music has always cherished a sneaking sympathy for the gentleman of the perfectly respectable past who complained so tearfully about the operas of the Chevalier Gluck. "We pay two florins to be amused and find ourselves passionately thrilled." Perhaps it was a realization of the sufferings of persons long imprisoned in the domain of lachrymose music dramas like "Il Trovatore" and "La Traviata" that induced Verdi in the winter of his life to troll out an immortal comic song which he draped around the gross presence and greasy character of Shakespeare's fat knight.

What interests this looker-on in Venice at the moment is the very, slowly growing favor the work. One of the singular facts which have forced themselves on his attention in the course of a lengthy experience in opera houses is that New Yorkers do not greatly like opera buffa. One gentleman expressed that attitude of the public when he declared at a performance of the "Donne Curioso" that it was "not grand opera." You see, in "grand opera" every one is unhappy and the hero or heroine (or both) dies. This funny business can't be grand and isn't worth the price of "grand opera" seats.

But the New York public, which for years would not listen to Verdi's "Falstaff" at all, is gradually awakening to the fact that is grand opera, even though it is funny. Possibly it will not be long now before people begin to discern the masterly character drawing in the work and to realize that it is not to be found in any other creation of the same master in quite the same degree. Not even Iago is so marvelously embodied in the Verdi music. And as for the champagne sparkle of the score, the infectious gayety which does not flag from beginning to end, how its vitality endures and how it cheers the drooping spirits of operagoers sated with blood and lust and the cheap defilement of honest musical sentiment!

There are a thousand details to refresh the mind and gladden the heart of the musician, but many of them are found in the instrumental part of the opera and the typical New York operagoer has not yet measured the value of the interpretive orchestra. However, in the performances of "Falstaff" given at the Metropolitan, there is enough of the "vie comica" to hold the attention of even the casual opera patron. The representation of last evening was gay and ebullient in spirit and the attitude of the audience to it was what prompted these cursory observations. It was what Gilbert described as "modified rapture" and, while it seemed to be that, the message of the opera had been perfectly understood.

The cast was that heard at earlier performances this season except that Miss Bori returned to her place in Mistress Ford. Her charm and delightful singing added much to the excellence of the interpretation. Mr. Scotti was quite himself as the knight and the others did well those things which they have done well in previous presentations of the work.



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