[Met Tour] CID:150210



Otello
Lyric Theatre, Baltimore, Maryland, Mon, March 21, 1949

Debut : Renato Cellini




Otello (99)
Giuseppe Verdi | Arrigo Boito
Otello
Ramon Vinay

Desdemona
Licia Albanese

Iago
Leonard Warren

Emilia
Martha Lipton

Cassio
John Garris

Lodovico
Nicola Moscona

Mont?no
Clifford Harvuot

Roderigo
Leslie Chabay

Herald
Philip Kinsman


Conductor
Renato Cellini [Debut]







Review 1:

Weldon Wallace in the Baltimore Sun

VERDI ‘OTELLO’ GIVEN BY MET

Baltimore had the privilege last night of hearing “Otello” by the gallant Verdi.

What a deprivation that this work, which answers any opposition to opera as a legitimate dramatic form, should be so seldom given!

Its presentation by the Metropolitan Opera Company had a number of excellences, vocal and visual. While not an ideal production or an historic occasion, the offering was commensurate with standards that should be expected of the Met.

Ramon Vinay, the evening’s Otello, is one of those rare tenors who can produce big, ringing sounds of good quality. He did not spare himself even in the most taxing regions of the role’s cruel tessitura, but declaimed the Italian syllables in trumpet-clear tones.

 

A Commanding Figure

His acting was not always subtle. In tense moments of the plot his face and body often twitched convulsively. But he was a commanding figure – tall, handsome, vigorous.

Leonard Warren was an excellent Iago, although not until his scene with Mr. Vinay at the end of Act II did his voice project with the resonance and breadth characteristic of his Rigoletto last season.

This was one of the production’s most compelling scenes. Mr. Warren’s voice almost purred as he spun the web of evil; then as the situation developed to its peak, volume surged outward from the two singers. There was something large and terrifying in the passionate utterance of primal emotions.

 

Licia Albanese Sings

Mr. Warren was less convincing in the Credo. It was good, but somehow failed to convey the purposeful malevolence, the inborn evil of the character.

Despite loveliness of appearance and vocal quality, Licia Albanese was a negative Desdemona. She is better cast, for example, as Madame Butterfly than as the heroine of Verdi’s last tragedy.

Her Desdemona was aristocratic and had appealing delicacy, but little conviction.

Her voice did not soar out over the footlights. Her phrasing lacked the silver flow needed.

 

Conductor in Debut

 

Act I gave promise that Renato Cellini, making his Baltimore debut as conductor, would keep a just relation between singers and instrumentalists, but after Act II was launched this hope had to be abandoned. From there on, it was all too obvious, that Mr. Cellini is a director who likes fortes carried to the double and triple power.

The brasses did splendid work. It is too bad they were required to play so loudly.

Even in the Willow Song, the orchestra was superimposed on the voice.

Mr. Cellini has an ear for noisy effects, but musically his conducting was largely routine.

Lesser roles in the opera were sung acceptably by John Garris, Cassio; Leslie Chabay, who replaced the indisposed Thomas Hayward as Rodrigo, Martha Lipton, Emilia; Nicola Moscona, Lodvico, Clifford Harvout, Montano and Philip Kinsman, a herald.

The stage picture was at all times tasteful and balanced. Costumes in rich but not gaudy colors created lavish effects.

 

Music and Drama United

The chorus sang resoundingly.

But it is the opera itself to which one returns.

No one can claim that in “Otello” drama is compromised for tune. Aria merges into duet and duet into concerted scene without a loosening of the musical strand. The melodic line, eloquent in itself, never takes precedence. It moves with the drama.

This lean music has no suggestion of Wagner. Voice and orchestra are one, but Verdi makes his orchestra part of the voice, an enrichment of vocal color, while Wagner followed an opposite procedure.

In “Otello,” music fired the libretto like flame racing along a fuse.



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