[Met Performance] CID:173890



Il Trovatore
Metropolitan Opera House, Sat, January 26, 1957




Il Trovatore (289)
Giuseppe Verdi | Salvatore Cammarano
Manrico
Kurt Baum

Leonora
Antonietta Stella

Count Di Luna
Ettore Bastianini

Azucena
Jean Madeira

Ferrando
Norman Scott

Ines
Helen Vanni

Ruiz
Charles Anthony

Messenger
Gabor Carelli

Gypsy
Calvin Marsh


Conductor
Max Rudolf







Review 1:

Review signed G. F. in Musical America

This performance of Verdi's perennial "Il Trovatore" was marked by the first appearance this season of Jean Madeira as Azucena and of Ettore Bastianini as the Count di Luna.

Antonietta Stella was not in the best of vocal form, but gave a compelling account of the hapless Leonora nonetheless. There was much to admire in this sterling artist's work. She knew how to spin a dreamlike pianissimo and her wide-ranged soprano was ideally suited to the music. Her manipulation of the florid passages in "Di tale amor" and "D'amour sull'ali rosee" was spotlessly clean and rhythmically accurate. She looked lovely and handled herself with dignity and restraint.

Miss Madeira was dramatically very convincing as the vengeful gypsy. Her singing revealed an occasional unsteadiness in pitch in the upper register. Her low tones, however, were rich and secure, and it was here that her dark-hued contralto sounded best. This, by the way, was Miss Madeira's second performance of the day, since she had sung Erda in the matinee performance of "Das Rheingold." Ettore Bastianini made a handsome and credible Count and his beautiful singing of "Il balen" was a high spot of the evening. Kurt Baum was a robust Manrico.

Max Rudolf was complete master of the situation and it was gratifying to hear some fresh accents, planned ritards and repolished phrasing from the orchestra.



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