[Met Performance] CID:130740



Cavalleria Rusticana
Pagliacci
Metropolitan Opera House, Sat, February 1, 1941 Matinee Broadcast
Broadcast Matinee Broadcast








PAGLIACCI {349}
Available for streaming at Met Opera on Demand
Rebroadcast on Sirius Metropolitan Opera Radio

Review 1:

Review of Francis D. Perkins in the Herald Tribune

Metropolitan Repeats Double Opera Program

House Sold Out for "Pagliacci" and "Cavalleria Rusticana"

Mascagni's "Cavalleria Rusticana" and Leoncavallo's "Pagliacci," which had returned to the Metropolitan Opera Association's active list last month, were repeated yesterday afternoon with unchanged casts under Ferruccio Calusio's direction. The persisting popularity of this infrequently separated pair of operas was indicated by the proclamation, half an hour before the performance began, that all seats had been sold.

As before, "Pagliacci" was heard to better effect than "Cavalleria," in which Mr. Calusio's fondness for deliberate tempi made for a lack of momentum. Stella Roman's Santuzza gained markedly in emotional conviction; "Voi lo sapate" was sung with too vibratory a tone, but the voice was better in the stormy colloquy with Frederick Jagel's well sung Turiddu. Leonard Warren was a vigorous Alfio; Anna Kaskas played Lola with a somewhat obvious coquetry, and, like Doris Doe, as the sympathetic Mamma Lucia, sang commendably.

"Pagliacci" profited by the intensity which marked the impersonations of Giovanni Martinelli as Canio and Norina Greco as Nedda. The tenor sang with notable volume, and, in voice and gesture, portrayed the role with a whole-souled and persuasive emotionalism. Miss Greco was not in her best vocal estate for the Balatella, but in the rest of the first act sang with firm, well concentrated and incisive tone, and vividly projected Nedda's varying and contrasting moods. Lawrence Tibbett gave a very acceptable performance of the Prologue, although his voice has not yet completely recovered its normal form, and Francesco Valentino, a somewhat uneven-toned Silvio, and Alessio De Paolis as Beppe completed the cast. The Prologue was taken at an unusually leisurely pace, but thereafter the performance as a whole had ample vitality.



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