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Madama Butterfly
Metropolitan Opera House, Fri, November 19, 1954
Madama Butterfly (332)
Giacomo Puccini | Luigi Illica/ Giuseppe Giacosa
- Cio-Cio-San
- Lisa Della Casa
- Pinkerton
- Eugene Conley
- Suzuki
- Mildred Miller
- Sharpless
- Frank Valentino
- Goro
- Alessio De Paolis
- Bonze
- Norman Scott
- Yamadori
- George Cehanovsky
- Kate Pinkerton
- Heidi Krall
- Commissioner
- Calvin Marsh
- Conductor
- Alberto Erede
Review 1:
Review of L. T. in the Herald Tribune
New Cio-Cio-San
The season's third performance of "Madama Butterfly," last night at the Metropolitan Opera, brought with it a Cio-Cio-San in the person of Lisa Della Casa, who was singing the role for her first time with the company. Other members of the cast included Eugene Conley as Pinkerton; Frank Valentino as Sharpless; Mildred Miller as Suzuki; and Heidi Krall, Alessio De Paolis, George Cehanovsky, Norman Scott, and Calvin Marsh. Alberto Erede again conducted.
Miss Della Casa should by all rights make an uncommonly striking Madama Butterfly, blessed as she is with beauty of person and a voice which, in its upper register, rings forth with fetching brightness and clarity. There is a curious detachment in her impersonation, however, and an air of personal containment which not only holds it securely on the singers' side of the footlights, but precludes any intimate contact with other players on the set. In the sweetly romantic scenes of the first act, one felt often that Cio-Cio-San was being not so much demure as obtuse, and in subsequent acts as well, the character's essential innocence and na?vet? was less than fully exploited. Some-of these things may have been due to preoccupations inherent in a first performance. Ones hopes so, for Miss Della Casa possesses both visual and vocal qualities ideally suited to the part.
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