[Met Performance] CID:136610
Die Zauberflöte {86} Metropolitan Opera House: 01/22/1944.
(Debut: Audrey Bowman
Review)
Metropolitan Opera House
January 22, 1944
In English
DIE ZAUBERFLÖTE {86}
Pamina..................Jarmila Novotna
Tamino..................James Melton
Queen of the Night......Audrey Bowman [Debut]
Sarastro................Alexander Kipnis
Papageno................John Brownlee
Papagena................Lillian Raymondi
Monostatos..............Karl Laufkötter
Speaker.................Norman Cordon
First Lady..............Eleanor Steber
Second Lady.............Maxine Stellman
Third Lady..............Anna Kaskas
Genie...................Marita Farell
Genie...................Mona Paulee
Genie...................Thelma Altman
Priest..................John Dudley
Priest..................Louis D'Angelo
Guard...................Emery Darcy
Guard...................John Gurney
Conductor...............Bruno Walter
Review of Noel Strauss in The New York Times
BOWMAN DEBUT MADE IN "THE MAGIC FLUTE"
Soprano Sings Queen of Night Role at the Metropolitan
In the season's third performance of Mozart's "The Magic Flute," last night at the Metropolitan Opera House, Audrey Bowman, 26-year-old soprano from
Cleveland, made her debut with the company in the difficult role of the Queen of the Night.
Miss Bowman sang the elaborate ornamental passages of her two arias cleanly and accurately, encompassing without effort the many altitudinous phrases allotted her. In these coloratura flights the voice was of pleasing texture, but elsewhere in the arias the tones were pushed and became inferior in quality through an attempt to give them the required dramatic emphasis.
But no final judgment should be passed on the singer's vocal attainments until she has been heard in a less exacting part than the one chosen for her initial appearance, since it is unmatched in its demands, and probably has not been sung as it should be by any vocalist except Mozart's sister-in-law, for whom it was composed, who alone seems to have had the flexible dramatic voice of exceptional range that it calls for.
Alexander Kipnis appeared for the first time this winter in his familiar role of Sarastro. The other members of the cast had all been heard in the work previously during the season, the principals including Jarmila Novotna as Pamina, James Melton as Tamino, John Brownlee as Papageno, Norman Cordon as the High Priest and Karl Laufkötter as Monostatos. Bruno Walter again conducted.