[Met Performance] CID:187200



Il Trovatore
Metropolitan Opera House, Sat, February 18, 1961




Il Trovatore (323)
Giuseppe Verdi | Salvatore Cammarano
Manrico
Franco Corelli

Leonora
Lucine Amara

Count Di Luna
Mario Sereni

Azucena
Nell Rankin

Ferrando
William Wilderman

Ines
Helen Vanni

Ruiz
Charles Anthony

Messenger
Robert Nagy

Gypsy
Edward Ghazal


Conductor
Fausto Cleva







Review 1:

Review of Alan Rich in the March 1961 issue of Musical America

Miss Amara's first local Leonora was admirably musical. She still has to master the grand legato of "D'amor sull'ali rosee," but what she does is always intelligent, nicely phrased and respectful of Verdi's own musical proportions.

The response from the standees and the gallery indicated that Mr. Corelli was giving his fan club what they had come to hear, but I am afraid l must count myself among the outsiders. Mr. Corelli stalked the stage when anyone else was singing, then stopped dead and delivered his response directly to the audience. His control over every shade of fortissimo was fabulous. He sang the first stanza of the "Miserere" half a tone flat, and he forced his way through "Di quella pira" as though the words had never been set to music in the first place.

Mr. Sereni duplicated most of these faults, although on a more modest scale. The curious spreading quality of his voice gives one the strange impression that he is both sharp and flat simultaneously, but at least he shows a rudimentary awareness of ensemble requirements. Miss Rankin's Azucena was modestly dramatic and musically intelligent. Mr. Cleva's conducting was reasonably tidy, considering the problems of following a tenor and baritone who seemed intent on improvising both tempo and music as they went along.



Search by season: 1960-61

Search by title: Il Trovatore,



Met careers