[Met Performance] CID:113400



Tristan und Isolde
Metropolitan Opera House, Fri, March 3, 1933 Matinee Broadcast





Tristan und Isolde (212)
Richard Wagner | Richard Wagner
Tristan
Lauritz Melchior

Isolde
Frida Leider

Kurwenal
Friedrich Schorr

Brang?ne
Maria Olszewska

KIng Marke
Ludwig Hofmann

Melot
Arnold Gabor

Sailor's Voice/Shepherd
Hans Clemens

Steersman
James Wolfe


Conductor
Artur Bodanzky





Acts I, II of Tristan und Isolde were broadcast from 1:45-4:30 pm on March 3, 1933

Review 1:

Review of Irving Kolodin in the Sun

Wagner Cycle Ends At Metropolitan

In the minds of yesterday afternoon's audience at the Metropolitan Opera House there can be few doubts concerning the success of this season's Wagner Cycle, for the matinee "festpiel" closed with a performance of "Tristan and Isolde" that was definitely the apogee of the series. For once, anticipation and accomplishment were complementary; The announced cast was intact when the performance commenced and Mr. Bodanzky found himself in possession of resources that were equal to the task of transferring to the audience the cumulative tragedy of the score. Particularly was this true of Mme. Leider's Isolde, which, after a first act of considerable vocal unevenness, gained steadily in focus and smoothness of tone through the love duet, with her "Liebestod" a surpassingly fine achievement.

Lauritz Melchior has rarely been so satisfactory in his portrayal of Tristan, which, of his various roles, seems the one in which his growth as an artist is most consistently observable. His singing in mezza voce in the second and third acts was skillfully achieved, with both the delirium and the vision of the wounded knight rhapsodic, in musical terms. Although there was no evidence that the bench in King Marke's garden had been moved closer to the orchestra, a heartening unanimity of pitch was accomplished by both singers and orchestra. Mr. Bodanzky's insistence on the symphonic qualities of the score deprived at least a portion of the audience of the full perception of Brangaene's watch song, which, to the extent that it was audible, was excellently sung by Mme. Olzcewska. Throughout, her performance was an important factor in the drama, intelligently voiced and enacted. The reliable Messrs. Schorr and Hofmann adhered to the qualities of the ensemble as Kurvenal and Marke, though the latter did not approach to the enviable high standard Mr. Hofmann has himself set in earlier performances.

So much of aural suasion served to emphasize the imaginative paucity of settings and direction, the Bremen-like beam of Tristan's bark, the greenish sky of Kareol, the mock combat under that sky. However, this did not decrease the enthusiasm of a very large audience, which recalled the singers a dozen times after the final curtain, and indorsed Mr. Bodanzky's efforts heartily.



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