[Met Performance] CID:124520



Fidelio
Metropolitan Opera House, Sat, December 31, 1938 Matinee Broadcast





Fidelio (61)
Ludwig van Beethoven | Joseph Sonnleithner
Leonore
Kirsten Flagstad

Florestan
Ren? Maison

Don Pizarro
Friedrich Schorr

Rocco
Emanuel List

Marzelline
Marita Farell

Jaquino
Karl Laufk?tter

Don Fernando
Arnold Gabor

First Prisoner
Nicholas Massue


Conductor
Artur Bodanzky


Director
Leopold Sachse

Designer
Joseph Urban





Joseph Urban was not credited as designer in the program, although the scenery was his, repainted by Joseph Novak.
The dialogue was performed with orchestral accompaniment composed by Artur Bodanzky.
Fidelio received three performances this season.

Review 1:

Review of Irving Kolodin in the Sun

"FIDELIO" RETURNS TO OPERA ROSTER

Flagstad, Maison, List and Schorr in Chief Roles

Differences of opinion persist as to the merits of Kirsten's Flagstad's embodiment of Leonore in Beethoven's "Fidelio," which returned to the active repertory of the Metropolitan on Saturday afternoon, after an absence of two years. This reviewer has no hesitation in placing it beside the Norse soprano's Wagnerian interpretations, not only because of such singing as would be difficult to match in the lyric theaters of the world today, but because of the sympathy, the honesty and the freedom from theatrical exaggeration which distinguish Mme. Flagstad's characterization of the faithful wife.

There have been more Amazonian conceptions of the role but none in the experience of this writer that communicated more touchingly the essential womanliness of Leonore. Mme. Flagtstad sang the great "Abscheulicher" scene superbly, once she had passed the [beginning] phrases, which might readily have had more of denunciatory vehemence. Here and there the spoken lines in the dungeon scene needed a little more point and thrust. But these were trifles compared to the vocal beauty and the personal appeal of this Leonore.

Rene Maison's Florestan was the same moving and convincing portrayal that it was two years ago and one could hardly ask for a better Rocco that that of Emanuel List. Friedrich Schorr was moderately successful as the villainous Pizarro, but this is not one of his most fortunate parts. The Jacquino of Karl Laufk?tter was acceptable, if not vocally all it might have been. Marita Farell as Marzelline was another whose voice was scarcely adequate but who contrived otherwise to meet requirements. Arnold Gabor, called upon to substitute for Julius Huehn, could only do what he might with the solo of the Minister of State. One of the altogether commendable features of the performance was the singing of the chorus. Artur Bodanzky contrived a generally good orchestral performance, though some erratic horn playing beyond his control seriously marred the "Abschuelicher."



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