[Met Performance] CID:144450
Otello {93} Boston Opera House, Boston, Massachusetts: 03/28/1947.
(Review)
Boston, Massachusetts
March 28, 1947
OTELLO {93}
Giuseppe Verdi--Arrigo Boito
Otello..................Torsten Ralf
Desdemona...............Daniza Ilitsch
Iago....................Leonard Warren
Emilia..................Martha Lipton
Cassio..................Alessio De Paolis
Lodovico................Nicola Moscona
Montàno.................William Hargrave
Roderigo................Thomas Hayward
Herald..................Philip Kinsman
Conductor...............Fritz Busch
Review of Cyrus Durgin in the Boston Globe
BOSTON OPERA HOUSE
"Otello"
Verdi's great masterpiece "Otello" received an impressive performance from the Metropolitan Opera Association at the Boston Opera House last night. The evening was one of sustained pleasure and not without its excitements since the audience was much more responsive than at any previous performance of the current Metropolitan visit.
On the stage and in the pit where conductor Fritz Busch spared nothing of his musicianship and energy, there was a high level of competence. The performance had good ensemble among the singers and even better in the orchestra. What is more, and due largely to Mr. Busch, this "Otello" really was intense.
There was a new Desdemona in Daniza Ilitsch, who made her Boston debut with notable success. She has a lovely soprano, fresh and ample, which she uses with both intelligence and sensuous effect. Her phrases are nicely turned; she does not force her voice. The first part of the fourth act relies for its effect upon the merit of the Desdemona. Last night those pages of the score glowed with extraordinary beauty, thanks to Miss Ilitsch's voicing of the "Willow Song" and "Ave Maria."
Miss Ilitsch could do with a bit of slimming, to be candid, and she is less of an actress than a singer. But, even so, she has a good command of the routine of operatic stage business.
The finest performance of the evening, from both the musical and dramatic points of view, was Leonard Warren's Iago. This steadily growing artist achieved a definite characterization with Iago, one whose vivid malevolence was set forth with a wealth of acting detail and splendid singing. Mr. Ralf took a while to warm up in the title role, and as a result the duet which closes the first act was perfunctory. The monologue of the third act went much better, but in Mr. Ralf's carefully husbanded tones there was little of the clarion ring of the heroic tenor.
There were admirable performances of minor roles: Martha Lipton's engaging Emilia; the vocally skilled Cassio of Mr. De Paolis and Philip Kinsman's Herald. The "Otello" decor is one of the Metropolitan's better productions, even though the Cyprus great hall could do with a little paint.