[Met Performance] CID:184030



Macbeth
Metropolitan Opera House, Thu, February 4, 1960




Macbeth (10)
Giuseppe Verdi | Francesco Maria Piave/Andrea Maffei
Macbeth
Leonard Warren

Lady Macbeth
Irene Dalis

Banquo
Giorgio Tozzi

Macduff
Barry Morell

Malcolm
William Olvis

Lady-in-Attendance
Carlotta Ordassy

Physician
Gerhard Pechner

Manservant
Carlo Tomanelli

Duncan
Walter Hemmerly

Murderer
Osie Hawkins

Warrior
Calvin Marsh

Bloody Child
Teresa Stratas

Crowned Child
Mildred Allen


Conductor
Erich Leinsdorf







Review 1:

Review of R. A. E. in the March 1960 issue of Musical America

Irene Dalis, young California mezzo-soprano, tackled the soprano role of Lady Macbeth in this performance and achieved a quite substantial success. Miss Dalis' only concession to the lower range she usually works in was the transposition down a tone of the second-act aria, "La luce langue," and the omission of the high D flat at the end of the Sleepwalking Scene (a note omitted by many sopranos as well). A scarcely noticeable caution marked some of the singing, a slight blurring some of the fioriture, but these were insignificant factors in the admirable overall performance.

It was worthwhile for Miss Dalis to go outside her normal repertoire in this instance, since Lady Macbeth is a role that can profit from her dramatic authority and musicianly singing. Her domination of the Banquet Scene, when Macbeth's vision of Banquo's ghost threatens to undo him, had tremendous power and a kind of insidious strength. And as the remorseful sleepwalker she was a truly pitiful figure.

Giorgio Tozzi, singing his first Banquo at the Metropolitan, gave vocal beauty and dramatic pathos to his aria about the foreboding night. Barry Morell, in his first Macduff of the season, was equally impressive in the lyricism and sensitivity of his singing in "Ah, la paterna mano." Erich Leinsdorf conducted the performance, which had Leonard Warren again as Macbeth.



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