[Met Tour] CID:153790



Tosca
Civic Opera House, Chicago, Illinois, Mon, May 8, 1950




Tosca (298)
Giacomo Puccini | Luigi Illica/Giuseppe Giacosa
Tosca
Ljuba Welitsch

Cavaradossi
Jussi Bj?rling

Scarpia
Alexander Sved [Last performance]

Sacristan
Gerhard Pechner

Spoletta
Alessio De Paolis

Angelotti
Lorenzo Alvary

Sciarrone
Clifford Harvuot

Shepherd
Thelma Altman

Jailer
Lawrence Davidson


Conductor
Giuseppe Antonicelli







Review 1:

Felix Borowsky in the Chicago Sun-Times

Soprano Scores in Met’s “Tosca” Here

 

Puccini’s “Tosca” opened the Metropolitan Opera Co.’s six-day season at the Opera House Monday evening. It drew one of those extensive and socially resplendent audiences which delight the hearts of impresarios, and which, probably gave particular pleasure to Mr. Edward Johnson, who came here for the last time in his capacity as general manager of the New York organization.

It was, in general, an effective – occasionally even a brilliant – performance. Its focal point of interest was the first stage appearance in these parts of Ljuba Welitsch, Bulgarian soprano, who took the title role.

This red-headed Tosca, played her role, in the [first] act at least, with a more genial and amorously persuasive reading than most of her predecessors have done; nor was she in the least discouraged by the far more tepid reaction of her Cavaradossi, Jussi Bjoerling. Even at the beginning of the horrific second act it was a smiling Tosca who responded to the sinister interrogations of the infamous Scarpia.

Progressively, Mme. Welitsch found mounting tension and tigerish mood for her characterization. The element of tragedy and horror lent an added metallic sharpness to her tone, and in the torture scene the sonority of it easily was able to overtop the orchestral clamors with which Puccini sought to intensify the terrors of that scene. The singer’s great triumph arrived with “Vissi d’Arte,” which she delivered with notable beauty and expressiveness. The applause which rang through the theater was loud and long-lasting.

Jussi Bjoerling scarcely was well cast. He is in possession of a voice of great charm, but the [first] scene with Tosca surely was not that of a lover eager to respond vocally to her ardors, but rather that of a timid swain terrified by advances which were unexpected. In the second act Mr. Bjoerling’s voice and histrionism were much more telling. The face-to-face meeting with Scarpia, and the ringing “Vittoria!” with which he greeted the news that the royal troops have been defeated by Napoleon at Marengo were powerfully set forth.

Alexander Sved is a familiar Scarpia on the boards of our Opera House. Always he has been, and still remains, an excellent exponent of the part  -- sinister, indomitable, lustful, but possessed of a certain polish withal. Gerhard Pechner’s characterization of the Sacristan was well conceived and Lorenzo Alvary did well with the hunted Angelotti.

Giuseppe Antonicelli, who conducted, made a colorful business of Puccini’s score – occasionally too exuberant with orchestral tone, certainly with the organ roaring additionally in the latter portion of the church scene. The stage department had a few curious ideas of its own, as in the employment of women for the choirboys at the [beginning] ecclesiastical ceremonies. Nor is there much left of the one-time brilliance of the Met’s scenic equipment.



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