[Met Performance] CID:98220



Tosca
Metropolitan Opera House, Mon, January 30, 1928




Tosca (205)
Giacomo Puccini | Luigi Illica/Giuseppe Giacosa
Tosca
Maria Jeritza

Cavaradossi
Giacomo Lauri-Volpi

Scarpia
Antonio Scotti

Sacristan
Pompilio Malatesta

Spoletta
Giordano Paltrinieri

Angelotti
Louis D'Angelo

Sciarrone
Vincenzo Reschiglian

Shepherd
Dorothea Flexer

Jailer
Millo Picco


Conductor
Vincenzo Bellezza







Review 1:

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

Lauri-Volpi Says Farewell

Tenor Makes Final Appearance for Season With Mme. Jeritza in 'Tosca'

It is now the interesting period of the opera season when Mr. Gatti-Casazza shuffles the cards of his lyric pack and deals new hands. Kings and queens who have appeared since the beginning of the series of performances disappear and new faces, or rather old ones absent till now, return to blaze the footlights. Rosa Ponselle made her farewell bow last week, and last evening Mr. Lauri-Volpi distributed the peace of Rome for the final time.

The opera was 'Tosca" and Mr. Lauri-Volpi carried the burdens of Mario Cavaradossi. He was in plentiful voice and when he loosed the fullness of his tones the bravos came thick and fast. This tenor conquers by power rather than by strategy. There are opportunities in "Tosca" for a tenor to do some lyric singing, but Mr. Lauri-Volpi has generally scorned finesse and gone in for singing with a punch to it. He had the punch last evening.

The celebrated prima donna, who becomes the victim post mortem of the wily Scarpia, was Mme. Jeritza. For her the role of Tosca is favorable. Naturally, she indulges in some of her own peculiar ways in it, but on the whole she commands the interest of audiences and she sings some of the music with vocal merit. Mr. Scotti impersonated the Roman Minister of Police. There is no other Scarpia; it almost seems as if there could never be another.

But art must not be defeated and science cannot be. Doubtless when the long enduring barytone retires our bewildered eyes shall behold him entering the church just the same and discovering the fan in the chapel. Again he will sing "Va, Tosca." And again he will vainly cry "Soccorso" and be laid out between candles at the end of the second act. And while we wonder how it has all been accomplished, a sensational story will be published telling how this counterfeit Scotti is a Robot with a phonographic record in "his little insides." And the new Scotti will sing Scarpia for the two thousandth time and even after he is dead by Tosca's table knife, Mario will "become shot" and the twenty-seventh Tosca will jump off the roof in the good old way.

To conclude the chapter of disappearance, Mme. Galli-Curci and Titta Ruffo will make their final appearances on Friday night in "Il Barbiere di Siviglia."



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