[Met Performance] CID:130350



Lucia di Lammermoor
Metropolitan Opera House, Tue, December 31, 1940




Lucia di Lammermoor (192)
Gaetano Donizetti | Salvadore Cammarano
Lucia
Lily Pons

Edgardo
Frederick Jagel

Enrico
Frank Valentino

Raimondo
Norman Cordon

Normanno
Lodovico Oliviero

Alisa
Thelma Votipka

Arturo
John Carter


Conductor
Gennaro Papi







Review 1:

Review of Francis D. Perkins in the Herald Tribune

Metropolitan Repeats "Lucia di Lammermoor"

Jagel Appears as Edgardo, Lily Pons in Title Role

Donizetti's "Lucia di Lmmermoor" had its second performance of the season last night at the Metropolitan Opera House, where a large audience heard the hapless bride of the title role, as represented by Lily Pons, lose her reason in an ingratiatingly lyric manner. Edgardo, who slew himself not long afterwards, was sung by Frederick Jagel in his first appearance of the season. The New York tenor was in good voice, apart from occasional ruffling of the tonal surface, singing with a generous volume of tone, while in action he strove notably to present Edgardo as a dramatic character, rather than as a soloist in a concert in costume.

Miss Pons scaled the top notes of the Mad Scene effectively, and her fluent singing here had a tonal focus which was not always apparent in the voicing of her early scenes. Francesco Valentino, reappearing as Enrico, sang vigorously with occasional undue vocal vibrations. Norman Cordon was a well intentioned Raimondo; John Carter gave Arturo a better quality of tone than that ill-fated bridegroom is wont to receive. Ludovico Oliviero and Thelma Votipka completed the cast under Gennaro Papi's direction.

Despite the pleasurable features of the performance, it suggested that the Metropolitan's present production of "Lucia" was better suited to the closing of an old year than in the [beginning] of a new one. It would be interesting to see how this long-lived work would fare in a completely re-staged and re-studied presentation which might well include some of the now omitted measures of the score.



Search by season: 1940-41

Search by title: Lucia di Lammermoor,



Met careers