[Met Tour] CID:120560



Il Trovatore
Brooklyn Academy of Music, New York, Brooklyn, Tue, February 2, 1937









Review 1:

Review of B. H. Haggin in the Brooklyn Eagle

MUSIC OF THE DAY

'Trovatore' Heard in Brooklyn

After two examples - in "Die Walk?re" and "Samson et Dalila" - of the Metropolitan's best in stage productions, Brooklyn witnessed at the Academy of Music last night an example of the Metropolitan's worst - its production of "Il Trovatore," which can hardly be called a production at all, since the action and movement and grouping on the stage show little evidence of the thinking out by an imaginative stage director that was so evident in the first act of "Samson et Dalila," for example. And if, nevertheless, the performance aroused enthusiasm, this merely demonstrated again the fact that the strength of an opera is in the music, and the strength of a performance in the way the music is sung and played. Last night's audience responded to the compelling vitality of Verdi's score, to the unexpected force and precision of Gennaro Papi's direction, and to the excellence of the singing.

Outstanding in the cast was Bruna Castagna who as Azucena sang with a complete absence of her usual tremolo, and with the opulence and intensity that brought her an ovation after first scene. Elizabeth Rethberg, the Leonora, was uneven as usual, but her best singing was exquisite. Giovanni Martinelli, as Manrico, sang with familiar constriction and power, and Carlo Morelli, the Count di Luna, was in excellent voice. Others in the cast were Thelma Votipka,(Inez), Virgilio Lazzari (Ferrando), Giordano Patrinieri (Ruiz), and Arnold Gabor (a Gypsy).



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