[Met Performance] CID:127220
Lucia di Lammermoor {189} Metropolitan Opera House: 12/15/1939.
(Review)
Metropolitan Opera House
December 15, 1939
LUCIA DI LAMMERMOOR {189}
Donizetti-Cammarano
Lucia...................Lily Pons
Edgardo.................Nino Martini
Enrico..................Richard Bonelli
Raimondo................Norman Cordon
Normanno................Lodovico Oliviero
Alisa...................Thelma Votipka
Arturo..................Nicholas Massue
Conductor...............Gennaro Papi
Director................Désiré Defrère
Set designer............James Fox
Costume designer........Mathilde Castel-Bert
Choreographer...........Boris Romanoff
Lucia di Lammermoor received two performances this season.
Review of Jerome D. Bohm in the Herald Tribune
Lily Pons Sings Metropolitan's Role of 'Lucia'
Large Audience Applauds Her Rendition of 'Mad Scene' in Donizetti Opera
That the Italian composer's thrice familiar hurdy-gurdy tunes have not lost their hold on the affections of local operagoers was evidenced by the large gathering present to hear them, which showered thunderous applause on Miss Pons after her altitudinous composition with the flute in the "Mad Scene," wherein her tones issued forth like a flurry of flawlessly formed ice blossoms, causing the ears to tingle with their chilling perfection
The slender soprano, who had provided herself with a striking new costume of flaming red velvet in the first scene of the second act, sang with at least equally gratifying adherence to the pitch throughout the evening.
Mr. Martini, a credible, slim Edgardo as of yore, was well-disposed and while his tenor voice has not increased in volume, it was for the most part projected with pleasurable results. As the scheming Ashton, Mr. Bonelli sang with his customary expertness and Mr. Cordon accomplished much that was admirable both dramatically and vocally with the part of Raimondo. The Arturo of Mr. Massue was not exactly a virile figure and his tones emerged "white" in texture. The dated qualities of the score were not made to appear less so by Mr. Papi's pedestrian treatment.