[Met Performance] CID:136610



Die Zauberfl?te
Metropolitan Opera House, Sat, January 22, 1944

Debut : Audrey Bowman


In English



Die Zauberfl?te (86)
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart | Emanuel Schikaneder
Pamina
Jarmila Novotna

Tamino
James Melton

Queen of the Night
Audrey Bowman [Debut]

Sarastro
Alexander Kipnis

Papageno
John Brownlee

Papagena
Lillian Raymondi

Monostatos
Karl Laufk?tter

Speaker
Norman Cordon

First Lady
Eleanor Steber

Second Lady
Maxine Stellman

Third Lady
Anna Kaskas

Genie
Marita Farell

Genie
Mona Paulee

Genie
Thelma Altman

Priest
John Dudley

Priest
Louis D'Angelo

Guard
Emery Darcy

Guard
John Gurney


Conductor
Bruno Walter







Review 1:

Review of Noel Strauss in The New York Times

BOWMAN DEBUT MADE IN "THE MAGIC FLUTE"

Soprano Sings Queen of Night Role at the Metropolitan

In the season's third performance of Mozart's "The Magic Flute," last night at the Metropolitan Opera House, Audrey Bowman, 26-year-old soprano from

Cleveland, made her debut with the company in the difficult role of the Queen of the Night.

Miss Bowman sang the elaborate ornamental passages of her two arias cleanly and accurately, encompassing without effort the many altitudinous phrases allotted her. In these coloratura flights the voice was of pleasing texture, but elsewhere in the arias the tones were pushed and became inferior in quality through an attempt to give them the required dramatic emphasis.

But no final judgment should be passed on the singer's vocal attainments until she has been heard in a less exacting part than the one chosen for her initial appearance, since it is unmatched in its demands, and probably has not been sung as it should be by any vocalist except Mozart's sister-in-law, for whom it was composed, who alone seems to have had the flexible dramatic voice of exceptional range that it calls for.

Alexander Kipnis appeared for the first time this winter in his familiar role of Sarastro. The other members of the cast had all been heard in the work previously during the season, the principals including Jarmila Novotna as Pamina, James Melton as Tamino, John Brownlee as Papageno, Norman Cordon as the High Priest and Karl Laufk?tter as Monostatos. Bruno Walter again conducted.



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