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[Met Tour] CID:156700
Faust
Boston Opera House, Boston, Massachusetts, Sat, April 14, 1951
Faust (494)
Charles Gounod | Jules Barbier/Michel Carr?
Review 1:
Review of Elinor Hughes in the Boston Herald
?Faust?
The principal novelties of last evening?s generally satisfying performance of Gounod?s ?Faust? by the Metropolitan Opera Company were the first Boston appearance of the new Spanish soprano, Victoria de los Angeles, in the role of Marguerite, and the first local performance within my recollection of the Walpurgisnacht Ballet. Of the two, Miss de los Angeles was certainly the more interesting from a musical standpoint, since Gounod?s music for the ballet is prettily sentimental rather than erotic; dramatically, both evens were about on a par, polite way of saying not very startling.
A TAXING PART
Vocally Marguerite is a taxing part, and in this regard Miss de los Angeles came through very well indeed. Her lyric soprano voice is pure and sweet, well placed, fully capable of negotiating the musical arabesques of the Jewel Song and of ample volume for the big climaxes. Her French diction is not impeccable, but that is not too vital, considering that how she sings is undoubtedly of more interest to an audience than what she is singing about. As an actress, unfortunately, she is plump, placid and inclined to be coy, so that there is little feeling in her performance either of the rapture of love or the tragedy of betrayed innocence.
Acting wasn?t really the strong point of the performance as a whole, for Giuseppe di Stefano, who sings like an angel and gave a particularly lovely rendering of ?Salut, Demeure,? was more petulant than ardent as Faust.
IMPRESSIVE FIGURE
Frank Guarrera?s Valentin, also very well sung, was on the stolid side. Jerome Hines, the Mephistopheles was a towering impressive figure ? he fairly dwarfed everyone else on the stage ? and his voice is one of great beauty and power. Histrionically he kept within the frame of the story and is undoubtedly effective, but he does not as yet convey the suggestion of supernatural evil. Margaret Roggero sang the Flower Song very charmingly and Thelma Votipka?s Marthe was suitably plump and silly without being ridiculous. The chorus was in fine form, and the corps de ballet performed Anthony Tudor?s placidly classic ballet very nicely.
The audience was capacity and well pleased. The engagement comes to an end the afternoon with ?Tristan und Isolde,? which starts promptly at 2:30 pm.
Search by season: 1950-51
Search by title: Faust,
Met careers
Faust
Boston Opera House, Boston, Massachusetts, Sat, April 14, 1951
Faust (494)
Charles Gounod | Jules Barbier/Michel Carr?
- Faust
- Giuseppe Di Stefano
- Marguerite
- Victoria de los Angeles
- M?phistoph?l?s
- Jerome Hines
- Valentin
- Frank Guarrera
- Siebel
- Margaret Roggero
- Marthe
- Thelma Votipka
- Wagner
- Lawrence Davidson
- Dance
- Zebra Nevins
- Conductor
- Fausto Cleva
Review 1:
Review of Elinor Hughes in the Boston Herald
?Faust?
The principal novelties of last evening?s generally satisfying performance of Gounod?s ?Faust? by the Metropolitan Opera Company were the first Boston appearance of the new Spanish soprano, Victoria de los Angeles, in the role of Marguerite, and the first local performance within my recollection of the Walpurgisnacht Ballet. Of the two, Miss de los Angeles was certainly the more interesting from a musical standpoint, since Gounod?s music for the ballet is prettily sentimental rather than erotic; dramatically, both evens were about on a par, polite way of saying not very startling.
A TAXING PART
Vocally Marguerite is a taxing part, and in this regard Miss de los Angeles came through very well indeed. Her lyric soprano voice is pure and sweet, well placed, fully capable of negotiating the musical arabesques of the Jewel Song and of ample volume for the big climaxes. Her French diction is not impeccable, but that is not too vital, considering that how she sings is undoubtedly of more interest to an audience than what she is singing about. As an actress, unfortunately, she is plump, placid and inclined to be coy, so that there is little feeling in her performance either of the rapture of love or the tragedy of betrayed innocence.
Acting wasn?t really the strong point of the performance as a whole, for Giuseppe di Stefano, who sings like an angel and gave a particularly lovely rendering of ?Salut, Demeure,? was more petulant than ardent as Faust.
IMPRESSIVE FIGURE
Frank Guarrera?s Valentin, also very well sung, was on the stolid side. Jerome Hines, the Mephistopheles was a towering impressive figure ? he fairly dwarfed everyone else on the stage ? and his voice is one of great beauty and power. Histrionically he kept within the frame of the story and is undoubtedly effective, but he does not as yet convey the suggestion of supernatural evil. Margaret Roggero sang the Flower Song very charmingly and Thelma Votipka?s Marthe was suitably plump and silly without being ridiculous. The chorus was in fine form, and the corps de ballet performed Anthony Tudor?s placidly classic ballet very nicely.
The audience was capacity and well pleased. The engagement comes to an end the afternoon with ?Tristan und Isolde,? which starts promptly at 2:30 pm.
Search by season: 1950-51
Search by title: Faust,
Met careers