[Met Performance] CID:152330



Manon Lescaut
Metropolitan Opera House, Mon, December 26, 1949




Manon Lescaut (72)
Giacomo Puccini | Luigi Illica/Giuseppe Giacosa/Marco Praga/Ruggero Leoncavallo
Manon
Licia Albanese

Des Grieux
Richard Tucker

Lescaut
Enzo Mascherini

Geronte
Salvatore Baccaloni

Edmondo
Thomas Hayward

Innkeeper
George Cehanovsky

Solo Madrigalist
Jean Madeira

Dancing Master
Alessio De Paolis

Sergeant
Clifford Harvuot

Lamplighter
Paul Franke

Captain
Osie Hawkins


Conductor
Giuseppe Antonicelli







Review 1:

Howard Taubman in The New York Times

ALBANESE, TUCKER IN “MANON LESCAUT”

 

 

They Sing Roles in Opera for First Time This Season — Mascherini Also Heard

 

For the season's third performance of Puccini's "Manon Lescaut," the management of the Metropolitan Opera changed the singers in the romantic leads and managed, nevertheless, to remain on the alkaline side. Licia Albanese was the hew Manon and Richard Tucker the new Des Grieux who took over with little or no falling off in the effectiveness of the production.

 

The customer might well ask why the Metropolitan makes vital changes in a perfectly satisfactory cast. In some cases it has to; in others it wants to. Leading singers have all kinds of concert and radio engagements, and to protect itself against all contingencies the management must have several artists of almost equal stature for a given role.

 

It is a rare opera and singer that remain coupled throughout the length of a season these days. Apparently it is futile to argue whether this is the best of all systems, for it seems to be inevitable under today's modus operandi.

 

It worked all right last night. Miss Albanese, whose first act was hesitant and weak, came to life in the second, singing with her accustomed sense of style and feeling thereafter. In the second act aria her voice had warmth and color, and the music was phrased with sincerity of feeling and with perhaps a shade more elegance than there is in it. In the third act Miss Albanese's costume was rather sweet and demure for an abandoned woman being shipped from France in disgrace.

 

Mr. Tucker's achievement was more remarkable in some ways. Miss Albanese has sung in this opera in Italy and elsewhere. For the tenor the role was a recent acquisition. But as with everything he has been doing this season, his performance had high distinction. Vocally it was extraordinary in richness of quality, range and musicality; and histrionically, while not finished, it was convincing. Mr. Tucker, if you haven't heard, is now among the finest tenors at large, and he is still developing.

 

Enzo Mascherini was the new Lescaut. What little the role required he did acceptably, though his voice was not as impressive as it was in the days when he sang at the City Center. The rest of the cast was familiar, as was the conductor, Giuseppe Antonicelli.



Search by season: 1949-50

Search by title: Manon Lescaut,



Met careers