[Met Performance] CID:101910



Lohengrin
Metropolitan Opera House, Sat, March 16, 1929 Matinee





Lohengrin (365)
Richard Wagner | Richard Wagner
Lohengrin
Rudolf Laubenthal

Elsa
Grete St?ckgold

Ortrud
Gertrude Kappel

Telramund
Clarence Whitehill

King Heinrich
Michael Bohnen

Herald
Arnold Gabor


Conductor
Artur Bodanzky







Review 1:

Review signed M. W. in the New York Tribune

Mme. Kappel Acclaimed At 'Lohengrin' Matinee

Gives Dramatically Effective Performance as Ortrud

The principal interest of yesterday's "Lohengrin" matinee at the Metropolitan Opera was the impersonation of Ortrud by Gertrude Kappel. While in Germany and Austria this role is usually sung by a dramatic soprano, it is the first time in many years that it has been assigned here and, after the initial few moments in which the ear adjusts itself to lighter tessitura, it is easy to understand wherein this obedience to Wagner's original intention is the more effective.

Much of the music in Acts I and III lies high for the average contralto, and so we are accustomed to hearing it transposed or screamed. Yesterday the role was consistently and beautifully sung though Mme. Kappel's magnificent dramatic projection had an unfamiliar tendency to walk away with the stellar honors of the opera. An unfortunate costume somewhat neutralized her pictorial effectiveness in Act I, but she was a fearsome and splendid figure in the wedding scene, and her invocation in the scene just prior to that was greeted with a burst of spontaneous applause.

Grete St?ckgold, as Elsa, appeared for the first time upon the stage since her recent marriage to Gustav Sch?tzendorf, and Mr. Laubenthal repeated his ornamental investiture of the title role. Mr. Whitehill was Telramund, Mr. Gabor the Herald, and Mr. Bodanzky conducted. The audience was large and remarkably attentive.



Search by season: 1928-29

Search by title: Lohengrin,



Met careers