[Met Performance] CID:128080



Manon
Metropolitan Opera House, Mon, February 19, 1940

Debut : Raoul Jobin




Manon (143)
Jules Massenet | Henri Meilhac/Philippe Gille
Manon
Grace Moore

Des Grieux
Raoul Jobin [Debut]

Lescaut
John Brownlee

Count des Grieux
Nicola Moscona

Guillot
Alessio De Paolis

Br?tigny
George Cehanovsky

Poussette
Annamary Dickey

Javotte
Maxine Stellman

Rosette
Lucielle Browning

Innkeeper
Louis D'Angelo

Guard
Max Altglass [Last performance]

Guard
Arnold Gabor

Maid
Gina Gola


Conductor
Wilfred Pelletier







Review 1:

Review of Olin Downes in The New York Times

The performance of Massenet's "Manon" yesterday evening in the Metropolitan Opera House introduced to the audience the new Canadian tenor, Raoul Jobin, who made his New York debut as Des Grieux. Mr. Jobin obtained his Metropolitan appointment because of the impression he made at one of the Auditions of the Air. Tenors of any kind are too rare for a singer of Mr. Jobin's equipment to be readily discarded. He was in fact promoted to last night's stage without the formality of an elimination contest.

Mr. Jobin has sung at the Paris Opera as Tybalt. For two seasons he sang at Bordeaux Opera, later at the Paris Opera Comique, and last summer in the Municipal Theatre at Rio de Janeiro. His voice is warm in its best registers and when he does not force or exaggerate has a pleasing character. It becomes hard when he pushes it, especially at the top. His stage business is more effusive than distinguished, and his earlier scenes were more convincing than that, for instance, of the air "Ah, fuyez" in the seminary of St. Sulpice. His native feeling for the French text and his instinctive sympathy for the music, plus his serviceable routine, contrasted rather conspicuously with Miss Moore, whose Manon, sung in a capable way, has little of nuance, metier, or intensity.

In this performance John Brownlee substituted with competence for Richard Bonelli as Lescaut. Mr. Moscona enunciated an astonishing French as des Grieux pere, and shouted, and was far from characteristic of the role. Mr. Pelletier conducted, with vitality, if not invariable discretion. Little of the piquancy and charm of the opera was preserved in this performance. It attracted, however, the second big audience of the day, and there were cordial curtain calls for leading artists.



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