[Met Performance] CID:134160
New production
La Serva Padrona {5}
Salome {18} Metropolitan Opera House: 12/9/1942.
(Debut: George Szell
Reviews)
Metropolitan Opera House
December 9, 1942
Il Matrimonio Segreto: Overture
Conductor...............Paul Breisach
New production
LA SERVA PADRONA {5}
Pergolesi-Federico
Serpina.................Bidú Sayao
Uberto..................Salvatore Baccaloni
Vespone.................Alessio De Paolis
Conductor...............Paul Breisach
Director................Lothar Wallerstein
Set designer............Richard Rychtarik
Costume designer........Mary Percy Schenck
La Serva Padrona received two performances this season.
SALOME {18}
R. Strauss-O. Wilde/Lachmann
Salome..................Lily Djanel
Herod...................Frederick Jagel
Herodias................Karin Branzell
Jochanaan...............Herbert Janssen
Narraboth...............John Garris
Page....................Helen Olheim
Jew.....................Karl Laufkötter
Jew.....................Lodovico Oliviero
Jew.....................Alessio De Paolis
Jew.....................John Dudley
Jew.....................Gerhard Pechner
Nazarene................Norman Cordon
Nazarene................Emery Darcy
Soldier.................Mack Harrell
Soldier.................John Gurney
Cappadocian.............Wilfred Engelman
Slave...................Lillian Raymondi
Conductor...............George Szell [Debut]
Director................Herbert Graf
Set designer............Donald Oenslager
Salome received three performances this season.
Review of Virgil Thomson in the New York Herald Tribune:
The occasion was enhanced by the debut at the Metropolitan Opera of the celebrated Czech conductor, George Szell, who directed the work with power, precision, and all imaginable exactitude of expression. Last night's revival of ["Salome's"] lurid expressionismus was orchestrally and vocally superb. Miss Djanel, who sang the name part, sang admirably. But admirably! So did everyone else. The performance was a rich and grand one; and the major credit must go, of course, to Mr. Szell. The score was squeezed for every effect and yet the great line of it was kept intact and the sonorities remained within the domain of "legitimate" musical sounds. Mr. Szell did a virtuoso job on a difficult and complex work. He didn't force the singers or the brasses. He made all the music sound and sound well. So vigorous an hour and a half of musical experience is not to be met with every week.
Review of Oscar Thompson in the New York Sun:
The dominating figure of the performance was not really on stage, but in the pit. George Szell, who made his Metropolitan debut as the conductor of the Straussian ensemble, lifted it out of the routine to which we have been accustomed. The score glowed and pulsated in his hands. The orchestra, on which so much depends, rose to the opportunities. The stage principals were fused into a stirring musical whole.