[Met Performance] CID:149300



Il Barbiere di Siviglia
Metropolitan Opera House, Tue, December 28, 1948

Debut : Italo Tajo




Il Barbiere di Siviglia (220)
Gioachino Rossini | Cesare Sterbini
Figaro
Giuseppe Valdengo

Rosina
Carmen Gracia

Count Almaviva
Felix Knight

Dr. Bartolo
Salvatore Baccaloni

Don Basilio
Italo Tajo [Debut]

Berta
Claramae Turner

Fiorello
John Baker

Sergeant
Paul Franke

Ambrogio
Ludwig Burgstaller


Conductor
Pietro Cimara


Director
D?sir? Defr?re

Set Designer
Joseph Urban





Il Barbiere di Siviglia received seven performances this season.
In the Lesson Scene Carmen Gracia sang the Shadow Song from Dinorah.

Review 1:

Review of Irving Kolodin in The New York Sun

Italo Tajo Makes Debut in "Barber of Seville"

Remembering last night's "Barber. of Seville," Italo Tajo, a basso of repute from Italy, might wonder whether he actually appeared at the Metropolitan Opera House or in some nightmarish theater singers imagine when a debut impends. There was more poor singing than good, a notable lack of stage direction, and only intermittent control from the conductor's desk, occupied by Pietro Cimara.

As Don Basilio, Tajo shared the stage a good deal of the time with Salvatore Baccaloni as Don Bartolo - shared it, that is, when he could separate Baccaloni from his predatory passion for applause. Pitched into a production creaking with wheezes and gags, the new basso worked diligently, artistically, to justify the applause that greeted him on his first appearance. At 33, he is a finished dramatic craftsman (in contrast to those artists who come to us when they are "finished" both dramatically and vocally) with something still to learn about projecting his voice into a theater the size of the Metropolitan.

A man of stature, adroit in make-up and gesture, Tajo's Basilio was more remarkable as an all-round characterization than it was for the singing of its showpiece, "La Calunnia." This was soundly delivered, but without virtuosity in tone or volume. The voice had more of both in the third act, where the challenge of combating a laugh-minded Baccaloni was lessened, and the bravos of the full house had exercised their stimulating effect. In a proper setting, his unmistakable talents will assert themselves. It was, in all, an inexcusable kind of performance in which to exhibit an artist of Tajo's accomplishments.

Baccaloni reaped what Baccaloni sowed (as Bartolo), with Carmen Gracia (a replacement for Lily Pons) a feeble Rosina, Giuseppe Valdengo (Figaro) and Felix Knight (Almaviva) competing for what was left of the audience's attention. Valdengo has the voice for the part, but little style; Knight, the style, but woefully little voice, and Gracia, not much of either. Her "Una voce poca fa" (of which the translated version reads "A little voice I heard just now") was more applicable to the tenor's singing than Cesare Sterbini (the librettist) intended. She was a much better vocalist in the "Shadow Song" from "Dinorah" (interpolated in the lesson scene) than in Rossini's music. Probably she had been alerted for the wrong part. Whether the benefit audience (gathered, for the Near East College Association) felt it had received its money's worth is incidental; the service to Rossini, as one honored guest, and Tajo as another, was distinctly shabby.



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