[Met Tour] CID:141710



La Boh?me
indiana University Auditorium, Bloomington, Indiana, Tue, April 30, 1946




La Boh?me (394)
Giacomo Puccini | Luigi Illica/Giuseppe Giacosa
Mim?
Licia Albanese

Rodolfo
Jan Peerce

Musetta
Frances Greer

Marcello
John Brownlee

Schaunard
Hugh Thompson

Colline
Ezio Pinza

Alcindoro/Benoit
Salvatore Baccaloni

Parpignol
Lodovico Oliviero

Sergeant
John Baker


Conductor
Cesare Sodero







Review 1:

Review of Walter Whitworth in the Indianapolis News

Inspired Cast Gives 'Boh?me'

Licia Albanese remains this listener's favorite Mimi, the unhappy heroine of "La Boh?me," the opera which the Metropolitan closed its all too brief season in the Indiana University auditorium Tuesday night. With those who insist that greater voices were heard in the fabulous days of opera this listener has no quarrel; he wasn't going to opera then.

He is firm in his belief, however, that among today's Mimis, Albanese is supreme. It is not only that she has a lyric voice of great purity. It is not only that she understands every vocal shading to give meaning and emphasis to the text. It is because she combines vocal beauty, interpretive art and a high talent for acting and with the combination achieves greatness. Here is a Mimi, not a singer going through the paces of an appealing role, but a singer who makes Mimi seem very real, almost tragic.

Miss Albanese's art set the standard for the opera. It was an extraordinary performance of a work so popular and so frequently sung that one had begun to feel that nothing new could be done about it. It may have been the spirit of the singers. Certainly it was their singing. Then, too, there were rollicking high jinks, sober pathos, ecstasy and poignancy, all given pertinent and believable expression by every one from Rodolfo to Musetta.

The performance, indeed, had a vitality that was not wholly vocal. This sort of inward glow is often encountered in the theater, not so often encountered on the lyric stage. When such a thing does happen, those in a hurry for words say the performance was inspired. That may be the answer for Tuesday's presentation at I. U.

At any rate, Jan Peerce and John Brownlee and Ezio Pinza not only sang well, but also entered completely into every mood. Frances Greer, the liveliest and prettiest of current Musettas, was animated and pert and sang her chatterbox music gaily. Salvatore Baccaloni, expert comedian and better singer than most operatic comedians, limned the two roles of the impatient landlord and the aging lover of Musetta with deft and comic strokes. When you add to these happenings some resounding singing by the chorus, you have Puccini entertainment at its best.

The one fly in the ointment was Cesare Sodero's over-insistent conducting of the orchestra. He let his strings soar in such full flight for the better part of two acts, that the singers were not as audible as they should have been. He finally adjusted his orchestra to the voices, but he should have taken a tip from Fritz Busch's conducting of the evening before much sooner than he did. If Wagner can be held within reason, Puccini certainly can. The "fly" however, was not hopelessly damaging. The audience, which again filled all the seats, applauded with a will.



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