[Met Performance] CID:136280



La Boh?me
Metropolitan Opera House, Mon, December 20, 1943

Debut : Christina Carroll




La Boh?me (367)
Giacomo Puccini | Luigi Illica/Giuseppe Giacosa
Mim?
Licia Albanese

Rodolfo
Charles Kullman

Musetta
Christina Carroll [Debut]

Marcello
John Brownlee

Schaunard
George Cehanovsky

Colline
Ezio Pinza

Alcindoro/Benoit
Salvatore Baccaloni

Parpignol
Lodovico Oliviero

Sergeant
Carlo Coscia


Conductor
Cesare Sodero







Review 1:

Review of Virgil Thomson in the Herald Tribune

The Claque Is Back

No proper opera house is ever without a claque. It has been a great pleasure of late to notice that the applause at the Metropolitan is obviously directed. The cries of "Bravo!" and "Brava!" are too alacritous, too cheerful, too eagerly inappropriate to be anything but the work of paid help. This is all a part of our opera's comeback. The enthusiasm at last night's performance of "La Boh?me" was, indeed, far more lively than the show itself. But no matter. Welcome gentlemen! We've missed you.

The stage rendering that brought forth these bursts was relatively feeble. The excellence and the resonance, what there was, was in the orchestra, which Cesare Sodero conducted. The singing was mostly lacking in sonority and the acting full of attitudes. The style of the performance fell between the Italian and the French conventions about the handling of this opera. It can be treated as a vocal power number, which is what the Italians do with it, or as a lyric play, which is the way it is done in France. Either system works, if carried through, because it is both an Italian opera and French play. But the maximum of power singing and of touching drama has never yet been attained in my experience of the piece.

Charles Kullman has the self-pitying Puccini style all right, but he has not the force of vocal crescendo that the style requires for real carrying power. Licia Albanese has one of the loveliest lyric voices of our time and she is not a bad actress. But she has a limited crescendo, and her temperament is without self-pity. The very reserve that makes her Micaela moving in "Carmen" and the moral dignity that makes her "Traviata" a great creation are what prevented her from being a pathetic figure as Mimi. Her dramatic qualities are as miscast in this weepy role as her vocal ones are above Puccini's insistent horns.

Christina Carroll made her Metropolitan debut as Musetta. Her acting of the role followed the high-key tradition vocally current for the part. Correct vocalism was sacrificed constantly to leg-flipping and bustle-switching. She seems to have plenty of self-confidence and a voice of some strength. It was not evident last night whether she might be capable of singing with straightforward beauty. Like Miss Albanese, who is capable of singing very beautifully indeed, she mostly cackled and buzzed.

It was an off night for everybody but the conductor. The voices were feeble and the antics were middle-aged. For "Boh?me" we must have illusion of youth. Either that or some pretty powerful singing. Only the claque seemed to be properly cast and raring to go.



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