[Met Performance] CID:158960



Otello
Metropolitan Opera House, Fri, February 15, 1952




Otello (107)
Giuseppe Verdi | Arrigo Boito
Otello
Mario Del Monaco

Desdemona
Eleanor Steber

Iago
Leonard Warren

Emilia
Martha Lipton

Cassio
Thomas Hayward

Lodovico
Luben Vichey

Mont?no
Osie Hawkins

Roderigo
Paul Franke

Herald
Algerd Brazis


Conductor
Fritz Stiedry







Review 1:

Review of Cecil Smith in Musical America

Mario del Monaco, who has sung Otello more frequently than any other tenor in Italian and Latin-American productions of Verdi's opera in the last two or three years, appeared in the role for the first time at the Metropolitan in the season's second performance. The cast was otherwise unchanged from that of Feb. 9, and Fritz Stiedry again conducted.

The sheer physical power of his voice, the solidity and clarion ring of his upper tones and the baritonal strength of his lower ones, made Mr. Del Monaco seem better equipped by nature to cope with the grueling music than any Metropolitan tenor since Leo Slezak. Although he frequently seemed to be using his voice to the absolute limit of its volume, he did not get tired, and, indeed employed more color and refinement of nuance in the last two acts than he had at the beginning. The "Esultate," hurled above the noise of the storm, was truly imposing, and such other big moments as "Ora e per sempre addio" and "Si, pel ciel" (in which he was admirably seconded by Leonard Warren, the Iago) were genuinely magnificent in sound. Many moments in his singing, however, were merely crude and others seemed thoughtless, as though he had not taken time to discover the musical inflections implied by the score and the drama. When he turned his attention to expressive coloration he employed it very effectively, but too often he was content to plough through considerable passages with rather undistinguished loud singing.

His impersonation of the character was not of a kind that is admired in this country. Before the evening was over he had used nearly every conceivable cliche of old-fashioned melodramatic acting, and several times he was so intent on making a success for Del Monaco that he quite forgot to pretend to be Otello. When this happened--usually in conjunction with loud, high notes-the continuity was interrupted by applause and cheers from the corner of the house in which the claque apparently continues to congregate on certain Italianate occasions. A good many moments in his acting did, however, seem genuine, with the result that the crudities of his deportment elsewhere seemed unfortunate and unnecessary.

As Desdemona, Eleanor Steber accomplished some of the finest singing of her career. The last act, in particular, was deeply affecting, for her voice took on-for the first time in my experience of it-the vibrant, passionate quality of the genuine spinto soprano. Mr. Warren was evidently fully recovered from his cold, for his voice once again had its full resonance. Martha Lipton's Emilia was extraordinary in its tenderness and warmth.



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