[Met Performance] CID:136260



Tannh?user
Metropolitan Opera House, Sat, December 18, 1943




Tannh?user (337)
Richard Wagner | Richard Wagner
Tannh?user
Lauritz Melchior

Elisabeth
Helen Traubel

Wolfram
Herbert Janssen

Venus
Marjorie Lawrence

Hermann
Norman Cordon

Walther
John Garris

Heinrich
Emery Darcy

Biterolf
Mack Harrell

Reinmar
John Gurney

Shepherd
Marita Farell

Dance
Monna Montes

Dance
Nina Youskevitch

Dance
Ilona Murai

Dance
Michael Arshansky

Dance
Alexis Dolinoff

Dance
Leon Varkas


Conductor
Paul Breisach


Director
Herbert Graf

Set Designer
Hans Kautsky

Costume Designer
Mathilde Castel-Bert

Choreographer
Laurent Novikoff





Tannh?user received eight performances this season.
Traubel's costumes were designed by Adrian.

Review 1:

Review of Mark Schubart in The New York Times

Miss Lawrence's Touch of Venus

Despite two last-minute cast changes and a new conductor for the opera, the season's first performance of Wagner's "Tannh?user" at the Metropolitan Saturday evening showed little improvement - or deterioration from last season.

Paul Breisach, conducting his first Met "Tannh?user," brought little that was new or exciting to the job, managing only intermittently to whip the company into anything like a spirited interpretation. The second and third act choruses were well sung, but the orchestra responded only half-heartedly to Mr. Breisach's entreaties. The two replacements - Marita Farell for Maxine Stellman as the shepherd, and Herbert Janssen for Julius Huehn as Wolfram - acquitted themselves with honor.

In the leads Helen Traubel and Lauritz Melchior, that sturdy combination, carried the performance mostly on their shoulders. Miss Traubel's voice, after a shaky start, sounded as beautiful as I've ever heard it, though it lacked variety of dramatic expression. For sheer beauty of sound, and ease of production, however, it is unsurpassed.

The role of Venus was once more again sung by Marjorie Lawrence and was the high spot of the evening. At the end of Act I, Venus's dais was wheeled out onto the Thuringian forest so that Miss Lawrence who is still incapacitated from her illness, could acknowledge the applause. She looked radiant, though the ballet's version of the Bacchanal did its utmost to spoil the impression. May we suggest some new choreography, or maybe a rehearsal or two?



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