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Lorenzo Alvary, who had made a good impression as Baron Ochs at the City Center early this season, sang this role at the Metropolitan Opera House for the first time Saturday night when Strauss’s “Der Rosenkavalier” had its fifth performance of the season there. The evening was also the occasion for Irra Petina’s first appearance as Octavian in New York.

Mr. Alvary’s impersonation again had many sympathetic features and it was pleasant to hear a Baron Ochs sing rather than bellow in the grotesque manner that is tempting to singers of a buffa part. For the Metropolitan, however, Mr. Alvary might have scaled his performance on slightly broader lines. The sentimental waltz episodes in particular did not carry too well. These are the moments when Ochs may indulge in lyricism, and Mr. Alvary took too little of the opportunity to do so.

Miss Petina cavorted about a bit too much and too deliberately, and she did not sing her lines well enough to be convincing. Her high notes were powerful, but seemed to emerge too suddenly as if from another voice. Nadine Conner deserves a word of credit for her Sophie, since she had had the unusual assignment Saturday of two roles in one day – Micaela having been her chore in the afternoon’s “Carmen.” Her clear, delicate high notes, floating above the trio in the third act, were among the saving virtues of her performance.

Eleanor Steber again sang the Marschallin’s part, and Fritz Reiner was again on the podium.

Search by season: 1949-50

Search by title: Der Rosenkavalier,

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