[Met Concert/Gala] CID:117280
Grand Operatic Surprise Party. Metropolitan Opera House: 03/31/1935.
Metropolitan Opera House
March 31, 1935
Part I - VOCAL AND INSTRUMENTAL CONCERT
1. William Tell: Overture
Conductor: Ettore Panizza
2. Aida: Act II Finale
Clara Jacobo, Rose Bampton, Giovanni Martinelli, Lawrence Tibbett,
Louis D'Angelo, Ezio Pinza
Conductor: Ettore Panizza
3. La Bohème: Che gelida manina; Mi chiamano Mimì; O soave fanciulla
Nino Martini, Queena Mario
Conductor: Wilfred Pelletier
4. Lohengrin: Prayer and Finale
Dorothee Manski, Karen Branzell, Paul Althouse, Gustav Schützendorf,
Arnold Gabor
Conductor: Giulio Setti [Last appearance]
5. Faust: Act II
Helen Jepson, Lillian Clark, Frederick Jagel, Richard Bonelli, James Wolfe
Conductor: Louis Hasselmans
Part II - THE OPERATIC SURPRISE PARTY OF 1935
Entitled "OPERA-TUNITIES"
Book by Raymond Knight
Musical arrangements by Wilfred Pelletier, Robert Armbruster, and Paul Sterrett
Lyrics by Raymond Knight, Newman Levy and Deems Taylor
Raymond Knight, Master of Ceremonies
1. Der Worm Turns
Lawrence Tibbett
["Beginning with the house and stage in total darkness, the dragon in Wagner's Siegfried had a chance, for the first time in the history of the house, to come up to the footlights and tell of the shabby treatment to which he had been subjected these many years - always kept in the background and never getting as much attention even as some of his fellow animals in the repertoire, such as Nedda's donkey and Lohengrin's swan. The voice hymning those woes sounded like Lawrence Tibbett's."]
2. Coming Events
Leonora Corona, Queena Mario, Irra Petina, Désiré Defrère, Alfredo Gandolfi
3. Opera-Tunity Knocks But Once
Vandy Cape [Only Appearance]
["Brought Vandy Cape from 'Sunday Nights at Nine' to present one of her comic sketches and her own inimitable imitaion of opera singing." She sang 'Lo, Here the Gentle Lark.']
4. Aida Ballethoo
Rita De Leporte, Mildred Schneider, Ann McGary, Giuseppe Bonfiglio
["Rosina Galli's final exhibition of ballet designing. It was an Aida ballet brought up to date and modeled on the festive doings of the Rockettes over in Radio City."]
5. Nibelungen Ringling Brothers-Barnum Bailey & Götterdämmerung
Doris Doe, Helen Gleason, Margaret Halstead, Dorothee Manski, Elda Vettori, Phradie Wells, May Savage, Max Altglass, Paul Althouse, Arthur Anderson, Arnold Gabor, James Wolfe, Ludwig Burgstaller, Enrico Manghi, Amedeo Mazzanti, Giuseppe Sterzini [Last appearance]
["Showed how the tetralogy could be given in four scenes, each lasting less than a minute."]
6. Allez-Oop!
Lily Pons, Lauritz Melchior
["Lily Pons and Lauritz Melchior, the very small and the very huge, in an acrobatic act, concluding with Miss Pons holding Melchior aloft by one foot, was one of the really side splitting numbers of the evening."]
7. Music Without Words
Gladys Swarthout, Edward Johnson
["an imitation of a vaudville team of slow dancers."]
8. Woodman Spare That Trio
Lily Pons, Helen Jepson, Gladys Swarthout, Chick Webb Orchestra
[Lily Pons, Helen Jepson, and Gladys Swarthout, backed by Chick Webb's orchestra on the stage, sang 'Minnie the Moocher.' The music was arranged by William Daly and the act was staged by Frank Chapman.]
9. Bee's in Our Bonnet
Beatrice Lillie, Paul Althouse, Louis D'Angelo, Metropolitan Opera Chorus
["an abriged version of the first act of Carmen with the whole chorus, Althouse, and D'angelo and the newest and most completely up to date Carmen, Beatrice Lillie, whose performance was entirely original."]
10. The Cub-Critic's Dream
Len D. Hollister, Ralph Locke, John Cherry, Al Ochs, Louis Tanno, Bruce B. Evans, Bartlett Simmons, Don Tomkins
["showed some of the newspaper writers in the press room discussing the opera, ignorant of the fact that it had been changed."]
11. Louder, Please!
Marek Windheim, Louis D'Angelo, James Wolfe, Victor Trucco
["depicted Marek Windheim, invited in from the street for an audition. His singing was pronounced terrible, but he went on singing even while the stagehands began to build the next act."]
12. Putting the Rah in Operah
Lillian Clark, Editha Fleischer, Helen Jepson, Queena Mario, Max Altglass, Paul Althouse, Charles Hackett, Frederick Jagel, Edward Johnson, Giordano Paltrinieri, Marek Windheim, Richard Bonelli, Lawrence Tibbett, George Cehanovsky, Thomas Chalmers, and students of Columbia University
["showed the second act of Pagliacci done according to the best methods of football, with the chorus cheering and waving banners, the singers going into huddles and reeling off the act play by play with Mr. Chalmers as referee, while Mr. Knight breathlessly announced the course of the contest. There were many substitutions of singers, all duly numbered, so that Mmes. Clark, Mario, Jepson, and Fleischer played Nedda; Messrs. Jagel, Althouse, Hackett and Johnson took turns as Canio and Mr. Bonelli and Mr. Tibbett alternated as Tonio. Rain began to descend on the final play, and the scene then cleared for the showing of motion pictures of Mr. Gatti-Casazza, the first to be taken of him in the opera house."]
Finale
Emanuel List and the entire company
["Mr. Gatti-Casazza, as the film closed, appeared on the stage as all sang "Auld Lang Syne" - at least, it undoubtedly seemed to be Mr. Gatti-Casazza, appearing on the stage in public for the first time in years. But Emanuel List removed his well wrought make-up and pointed to Mr. Gatti-Casazza in his box. And thus Mr. Gatti-Casazza became the principal subject of the evening's surprise and of the ovation that followed."]
Conductor: Wilfred Pelletier
Additional artists appearing were:
Sopranos: Pearl Besuner, Lucrezia Bori, Ellen Dalossy, Philine Falco, Kirsten Flagstad, Gertrude Kappel, Lotte Lehmann, Göta Ljungberg, Mary Moore, Nina Morgana, Elisabeth Rethberg
Contraltos (sic): Ina Bourskaya, Grace Divine, Dorothea Flexer, Louise Homer, Kathryn Meisle, Carmela Ponselle, Henriette Wakefield, Rosina Galli
Tenors: Angelo Badà, Hans Clemens, Richard Crooks, Alfio Tedesco
Baritones: Armando Borgioli, Giuseppe De Luca, Millo Picco, Fredrich Schorr
Basses: Paolo Ananian, Ludwig Hofmann, Pompilio Malatesta, Léon Rothier, Frederick Vajda,
Conductors: Artur Bodanzky, Giuseppe Sturani,
Assistant Conductors: Adolfo Camozzo, Giuseppe Cesati, Pietro Cimara, Fausto Cleva, Riccardo Dellera, Antonio Dell'Orefice, Carlo Edwards, Edoardo Petri, Armando Petrucci, Karl Riedel, Hermann Weigert,
Stage Director: Wilhelm Von Wymetal Jr.