[Met Tour] CID:156890



Il Trovatore
City Auditorium, Houston, Texas, Mon, April 30, 1951




Il Trovatore (263)
Giuseppe Verdi | Salvatore Cammarano
Manrico
Kurt Baum

Leonora
Delia Rigal

Count Di Luna
Frank Valentino

Azucena
Blanche Thebom

Ferrando
Nicola Moscona

Ines
Lucine Amara

Ruiz
Leslie Chabay

Messenger
Paul Franke

Gypsy
George Cehanovsky


Conductor
Alberto Erede







Review 1:

Review of Ann Holmes in the Houston Chronicle
Met?s ?Trovatore? Has More Action Than a Whodunnit
The Metropolitan Opera, world-admired, opera organization paid its fifth visit to Houston Monday night, exactly 50 years after its first visit in 1901 ? and to be sure its performance of Verdi?s ?Il Trovatore? is to be ranked among its better local offerings.
We cannot say we were among those in the audience when the Met came to Houston in 1901, but we can say that its Monday night production on City Auditorium stage was a fast-paced, thoroughly entertaining story of revenge and thwarted love. That it contains some of the most lyric moments in the literature of opera is an established fact.
Empty Seats
There were too many empty seats in City Auditorium for this first of two performances in Houston?s opera ?season.? The total attendance was approximately 3,000, which means about 1,500 folk missed a good show.
The air conditioning, achieved by means of ice-cooled air, blown into the hall was effective, and the tedious unending hours of recitative without action, so often connected with productions of opera, were happily missing Monday. The performance ended before 11 p.m ., and the company had delivered four action-packed acts involving soldiers, gypsies, a count in love, a troubadour, and a noble lady of Aragon with a preference for troubadours before she took the count, mad scenes, and finally a tragic ending in the tower dungeon room. Could a whodunit offer more?
Thebom Is Star
Blanche Thebom ? one of Houston?s favorite ladies of the opera ? is the true star of this show, playing the role of the vengeful gypsy, Azucena, with brilliance both in singing and acting. Her ?mad scenes? might well be regarded among the prime stage performance of the year in Houston. Miss Thebom is a vibrant stage personality and possesses a voice of sinuous depths and flexibility. It was only last year that she rose from the supporting role in ?Lohengrin? to win the hearts of Houston audiences.
Kurt Baum as her adopted son, the troubadour for whom ?Il Trovatore? was named, is a tenor whose effectiveness seems to vary. At moments delivering his arias with too much thinness, he rises in the next to summon pleasing power and adroitness. It must be said that Mr. Baum?s musical powers are more pronounced, too, than his thespian ones.
Aristocratic Leonora
As Leonora, the lady of Aragon over whose affections the Count di Luna and the troubadour must do battle, Delia Rigal was sufficiently aristocratic in bearing. Her earlier scenes in which she does not rise to excitement pitch, were among her better moments.
Francesco Valentino, whose portrays the luckless count, is to be praised for his aria in the cloisters, ?Il Balen del Suo,? to which he attuned his baritone very aptly.
Gypsy Chorus
The music al high point to many listeners was the rousing chorus number song at the gypsy camp, the famed ?Anvil Chorus.?
The poignance and deep tragedy of the troubadour?s beloved aria ?Miserere? that drifted to the stage from the castle tower before the tragic ending again was a musical and dramatic climax, sung by Mr. Baum with depth and feeling and awareness of melody.
The orchestra, conducted by Alberto Erede, an 80-man unit of fine quality in this performance, gave excellent support.


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