[Met Tour] CID:354819



Siegfried
Cincinnati Baseball Park, Cincinnati, Ohio, Tue, June 20, 1916




Siegfried (117)

Siegfried
Johannes Sembach

Br?nnhilde
Johanna Gadski

Wanderer
Clarence Whitehill

Erda
Ernestine Schumann-Heink

Mime
Albert Reiss

Alberich
Otto Goritz

Fafner
Carl Braun

Forest Bird
Frieda Hempel


Conductor
Artur Bodanzky







Review 1:

Review in Musical Courier of 6/29/16:

OPEN-AIR SIEGFRIED CHARMS CINCINNATI

The all star open air performance of "Siegfried" at the Cincinnati Baseball Park, last Tuesday evening, was a novel experience for this city and was well attended. Estimates as to the number of persons present vary between seven and eight thousand. If the evident satisfaction attested by these in the form of rapturous applause and approving comments is any criterion, the affair must be considered a great artistic success, in spite of certain noisy interludes in the shape of tooting automobile horns, obstreperous children, and screeching railroad locomotives about the park.

Of course, partly because of his prominent position in the cast, as well as his wonderful art, the Siegfried, Johannes Sembach, was singled out for the greatest amount of applause. On one occasion, he was forced to appear before the curtain no fewer than a dozen times, and nearly as many times on other occasions. It must be stated that he was the very personification, both vocally and histrionically, of youthful joy and buoyancy, notable assets in the delineation of the Siegfried character.

Johanna Gadski as Brunnhilde shared the honors with Sembach in the final scene, and Ernestine Schumann-Heink's Erda was appropriately effective in its mystic significance. Frieda Hempel did full justice to the part of the Waldvogel. Clarence Whitehill as the Wanderer was admired greatly. The same may be said of Carl Braun and Otto Goritz as Fafner and Alberich, respectively.

It was the first occasion Cincinnati has had to become acquainted with the new Wagnerian conductor of the Metropolitan Opera house forces, Artur Bodanzky, and the city is the gainer by this, for it met a conductor who is not only a thorough musician, but also a commanding and magnetic personality. His control of the intricate score, and of every member of the big ensemble was nothing short of wonderful. The augmented Metropolitan Opera House orchestra proved a revelation as to finish and technical equipment.

Certain abridgements which, of necessity, had been made in the score, added to, rather than took from, the value of the presentation.



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