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[Met Performance] CID:132610

Metropolitan Opera Premiere, New Production

Phoebus and Pan
Le Coq d'Or
Metropolitan Opera House, Thu, January 15, 1942

Debut : Thomas Beecham, Nikita Talin


In French






Note: Phoebus and Pan was a staged version of Bach's secular cantata,
Der Streit zwischen Phoebus und Pan, circa 1730, with a libretto by Picander
(Christian Friedrich Henrici). Phoebus and Pan received five performances this season.
The music for the ballet was selected from the French Suites by Bach,
orchestrated by Eugene Goossens.
Translation by Calvocoressi
Le Coq d'Or received four performances this season.
Boris and Dolinoff probably danced in all performances of LE COQ D'OR, but their names did not appear in the program until 1/31/42.
Phoebus and Pan was a staged version of Bach's secular cantata, Der Streit zwischen Phoebus und Pan, circa 1730, with a libretto by Picander (Christian Friedrich Henrici). Phoebus and Pan received five performances this season.The music for the ballet was selected from the French Suites by Bach,orchestrated by Eugene Goossens.

Review 1:

Review of Oscar Thompson in the New York Sun

Sir Thomas Beecham and Johann Sebastian Bach entered the Metropolitan cheek by jowl last night. Sir Thomas in the flesh as the conductor and Johann Sebastian in the spirit as the composer of "Phoebus and Pan". This was the titled Britisher's operatic debut in New York, and though "Phoebus and Pan" has been produced in stage form elsewhere in the city, it was new in the repertory of the Broadway house.

Chiefly because of its elaborate staging, last night's performance was to be regarded as something more than a curtain raiser for Rimsky-Korsakoff's "Le Coq d'Or" which was revived with it after a brief absence, as the second half of a double bill. As converted to stage uses, the Bach cantata's single scene was expanded by the introduction of an elaborate ballet danced to music borrowed from the third and fifth of Bach's French suites. Thus eked out, the little opus had about as much ballet as it had of opera. This in no way diminished the bright light that shone in the orchestra.pit. Sir Thomas was his effulgent self and save for some weird moments among the woodwinds the instrumentalists played beautifully for him, irrespective of what happened on the stage. Aside from the dancing, nothing much did happen. As an opera, "Phoebus and Pan" remained a secular cantata. Musically, it seemed to shrivel in its surroundings. Though its airs retained their freshness and animation, they pleaded in every measure for smaller and simpler quarters.

The essentially new thing about the "Coq d'Or" was Mr. Beecham's conducting, though Mr. Graf had made various changes in the stage action. The conductor restored much music that had been cut in earlier performances. Again the orchestra playing was of a superior order, with tempi on the fast side-a little disturbingly so in the slumber music of the first act.

It was Sir Thomas's evening. Some of the applause directed his way was as shrill as it was voluminous.

Review 2:

Review of Robert Bager in the New York World-Telegram

The much awaited "Phoebus and Pan" of Bach had its first Metropolitan performance last night, as curtain-raiser to Rimsky-Korsakoff's "Le Coq d'Or". Also much awaited was the Metropolitan debut of Sir Thomas Beecham, the distinguished English conductor.

In order, the best features of the production [of "Phoebus and Pan"] were (a) the music, (b) the performance-with the exception of some strident hysterics among the basses, (c) the ballet, (d) the choral work. The singing, or most of it, was in style one supposes. There was nothing furiously exciting about it, at any rate.

"Le Coq d'Or", also conducted by Sir Thomas, had its first performance of the season. The batonist gave a rousing reading of the music. He had the forces under control at all times and he shied away from the sentimentality in the slushier passages.

Account (unsigned) of Accident in the New York Sun

Rosa Bok Hurt During Opera

Metropolitan Soprano Goes On With Show Despite Brain Concussion.

Rosa Bok, coloratura soprano, is in the Post Graduate Hospital with a brain concussion, suffered in an accident on the stage of the Metropolitan Opera House during last Thursday night's performance of "Coq d'Or," it was learned today. In the final act of the Rimsky-Korsakoff opera, Mme. Bok, as the Queen of Shemakhan, and Ezio Pinza, basso, in the role of King Dodon, were to have made their entrance in a high, two-wheeled cart. As the cart moved into the wings it upset. Mme. Bok was thrown on her head. Mr. Pinza landed on his right side and suffered painful bruises.

Few if any in the large audience, before which Sir Thomas Beecham, British conductor, was making his debut, were aware of the accident, which occurred just out of sight in the left wings of the stage, but all noticed that Mme. Bok and Mr. Pinza made their entrance afoot, instead of in the customary cart. Mme. Bok went through her part in the final act without missing a single cue, and took six curtain calls before she collapsed. Later, she is reported to have told friends that she had no recollection whatever of anything that occurred after she fell from the cart.

Condition Grew Worse.

After an examination by the Metropolitan's house doctor in her dressing room, Mme Bok was taken to her home in the Esplanade Hotel, 305 West End Avenue, where her physician treated her. On Friday morning, her condition was such that Dr. Henry H. Ritter, a specialist, was called. He immediately ordered her taken to the hospital. Mme. Bok's feat of performing the third act of "Coq d'Or," despite the accident, is all the more remarkable in that she had never before sung the role. Furthermore, she had definitely been cast in it only four days prior to the performance as a substitute for the ailing Bidu Sayao, Brazilian soprano, who had originally been scheduled to sing it.

"Coq d'Or" is to be presented tomorrow night in Philadelphia, and the American soprano, Josephine Antoine, will take Mme. Bok's place in the cast. The Metropolitan management, despite Mme. Bok's injuries, in its advance programs, issued today, still lists her as one of the performers in next Sunday night's concert, and in the performance of "Coq d'Or" scheduled for Saturday night, January 31. Mme. Bok, well-known in European opera houses, made her debut at the Metropolitan Opera on December 11 in "The Magic Flute."

Search by season: 1941-42

Search by title: Phoebus and Pan, Le Coq d'Or,



Met careers

• Thomas Beecham [Conductor]
• Emery Darcy [Phoebus]
• John Brownlee [Pan]
• Stella Andreva [Momus]
• Anna Kaskas [Mercurius]
• Frederick Jagel [Tmolus]
• Arthur Carron [Midas]
• Ruthanna Boris [Dance]
• Monna Montes [Dance]
• Lillian Moore [Dance]
• Mary Smith Sigler [Dance]
• Michael Arshansky [Dance]
• Alexis Kosloff [Dance]
• Alexis Dolinoff [Dance]
• Leon Varkas [Dance]
• Douglas Coudy [Dance]
• Lee Foley [Dance]
• Nikita Talin [Dance]
• Herbert Graf [Director]
• Richard Rychtarik [Designer]
• Laurent Novikoff [Choreographer]
• Thelma Votipka [Cockerel]
• Rosa Bok [Queen]
• Ezio Pinza [Dodon]
• Doris Doe [Amelfa]
• Alessio De Paolis [Astrologer]
• Norman Cordon [Polkan]
• Emery Darcy [Gvidon]
• Arthur Kent [Afron]
• Michael Arshansky [Skhomoroh]
• unknown [Dance]
• Willy Pogany [Designer]