[Met Performance] CID:124940



Lucia di Lammermoor
Metropolitan Opera House, Thu, February 2, 1939

Debut : Lina Aimaro




Lucia di Lammermoor (187)
Gaetano Donizetti | Salvadore Cammarano
Lucia
Lina Aimaro [Debut]

Edgardo
Beniamino Gigli

Enrico
Carlo Morelli

Raimondo
Virgilio Lazzari

Normanno
Giordano Paltrinieri

Alisa
Pearl Besuner

Arturo
Nicholas Massue


Conductor
Gennaro Papi







Review 1:

Review in Musical America

A large, hardy-lunged and well-high hysterically enthusiastic audience was present on the evening of Feb. 2 to hear Lina Aimaro make her debut as Donizetti's heroine and to hear Beniamino Gigli as Edgardo, one of his most felicitous roles. Neither Miss Aimaro nor Mr. Gigli had cause to complain of the plaudits of their admirers, for the whole evening was punctuated with salvos, most of them from behind the rail. The young soprano at once revealed command of pitch and power of tone in the upper register of her voice, though through much of the first act she was obviously handicapped by the nervousness attendant upon all debuts. Later the nasal quality noticeable in the earlier scenes became less prominent and the tone quality of the voice became warmer and rounder. Miss Aimaro gave a skillful performance of the mad scene and her management of Donizetti's cascading fioriture, apart from a tendency to run passages together, was brilliant. Her acting was sincere, if not always effective, and she was recalled many times. Mr. Gigli sang with marked fervor, his silvery mezza voce and beautiful legato offering quite as much if not more enjoyment than his ringing upper tones. Other roles were adequately taken by Carlo Morelli as Ashton, Virgilio Lazzari as Raimondo, Pearl Besuner as Alisa, Nicholas Massue as Arturo and Giordano Paltrinieri as Normanno. Gennaro Papi conducted in routine fashion, occasionally drowning out the voices with rather surprising bursts of sound from the orchestra pit.



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