[Met Performance] CID:183390



Madama Butterfly
Metropolitan Opera House, Fri, December 4, 1959




Madama Butterfly (392)
Giacomo Puccini | Luigi Illica/ Giuseppe Giacosa
Cio-Cio-San
Licia Albanese

Pinkerton
Eugenio Fernandi

Suzuki
Rosalind Elias

Sharpless
Clifford Harvuot

Goro
Charles Kullman

Bonze
Osie Hawkins

Yamadori
George Cehanovsky

Kate Pinkerton
Joan Wall

Commissioner
Roald Reitan

Registrar
Luigi De Cesare


Conductor
Dimitri Mitropoulos







Review 1:

Review of Bodo Igez in Musical America
At this performance Licia Albanese appeared as Cio-Cio-San for the first time this season, and many of her admirers were on hand to welcome her back warmly. If Miss Albanese's singing of the part begins to show some signs of edginess, she sang most of the second and third acts with complete command of the vocal resources required for this role. Her phrasing remains exemplary and her portrayal a classic.

One could hardly have wished for a better Suzuki than Rosalind Elias, also singing her part for the first time this season. In a strikingly successful make-up she sang beautifully and acted convincingly. Clifford Harvuot, as Sharpless, made up in subtle dramatic expression and admiringly phrased singing for what Eugenio Fernandi's Pinkerton lacked in these respects.

Others in the cast were Charles Kullman, George Cehanovsky, Osie Hawkins, Luigi De Cesare and Roald Reitan, singing the Imperial Commissary for the first time at the Metropolitan. Mr. Reitan acquitted himself competently. Dimitri Mitropoulos conducted the opera with a dramatic awareness, which, if it left little room for lyricism, certainly kept things going.

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