[Met Performance] CID:122810
Le Coq d'Or {58}
Cavalleria Rusticana {308} Metropolitan Opera House: 02/3/1938.
(Review)
Metropolitan Opera House
February 3, 1938
In French
LE COQ D'OR {58}
Rimsky-Korsakov-Byelsky
Cockerel................Thelma Votipka
Queen...................Lily Pons
Dodon...................Ezio Pinza
Amelfa..................Doris Doe
Astrologer..............Nicholas Massue
Polkan..................Norman Cordon
Gvidon..................Giordano Paltrinieri
Afron...................Wilfred Engelman
Conductor...............Gennaro Papi
Director................Herbert Graf
Designer................Willy Pogany
Choreographer...........George Balanchine
Translation by Calvocoressi
[Lily Pons' costumes were designed by Valentina.]
Le Coq d'Or received two performances this season.
CAVALLERIA RUSTICANA {308}
Santuzza................Dusolina Giannini
Turiddu.................Frederick Jagel
Lola....................Irra Petina
Alfio...................Carlo Tagliabue
Mamma Lucia.............Lucielle Browning
Conductor...............Gennaro Papi
Review of Pitts Sanborn in the Sun
Giannini a Striking Santuzza
Ordinarily no reviewer in his right mind would give preference to a repeat of "Cavalleria Rusticana" over the season's first "Coq d'Or," or the [beginning] of the annual Wagner cycle, in recounting the day's activities at the Metropolitan Opera House. But when the battered, old Mascagni thriller is productive of the most remarkable Santuzza of a good many years this becomes the news of the day.
Dusolina Giannini may be said to have found herself, so far as opera in New York is concerned, with this performance, so emphatically did her Santuzza transcend her Aida and her Donna Anna, the only other parts in which she has appeared in these surroundings. The role might have been written for her, so complete and convincing was her identification with it, dramatically, and so stirring and expressive her highly intensified delivery of the music.
This is not to say that the voice was the most beautiful that has been heard in this role. With the vitality of her tones went more of edge than might have been welcomed in the great days of Calvé and the later ones of Destinn, Santuzzas whom their admirers are not likely to forget. But the "Dite, Mamma Lucia," the "Voi lo Sapete," the "Andate, o mamma" and the soprano's part in the duets with Turridu and Alfio, surely among the most banal of all opera, not only were filled with passion and the life blood of the theater, but represented singing that was poised, assured, and admirably responsive to every demand made upon it.
In Santuzza's scenes with Turridu, there was an excess of bodily struggle, with too much mauling and throwing one another about, which may or may not have been the fault of the principals rather than the stage management. Otherwise the performance was generally a superior one, with the others of the cast, particularly Frederick Jagel, the Turridu, taking spark from the white heat of Miss Giannini's portrayal and in the more than one detail transcending the usual routine. Irra Petina sang Lola, Carlo Tagliabue, Alfio, Lucielle Browning Mamma Lucia, all were praiseworthy. Even Gennaro Papi in the pit shared in the stepping-up of a work that not infrequently sags in performance to the disheartening level of that tritest of choruses, "A casa, a casa, amici."