[Met Performance] CID:144720
Le Nozze di Figaro {100} Chicago, Illinois: 04/24/1947.
(Review)
Chicago, Illinois
April 24, 1947
LE NOZZE DI FIGARO {100}
Figaro..................Ezio Pinza
Susanna.................Frances Greer
Count Almaviva..........John Brownlee
Countess Almaviva.......Florence Quartararo
Cherubino...............Risė Stevens
Dr. Bartolo.............Salvatore Baccaloni
Marcellina..............Hertha Glaz
Don Basilio.............Alessio De Paolis
Antonio.................Lorenzo Alvary
Barbarina...............Marita Farell
Don Curzio..............John Garris
Peasant.................Thelma Altman
Peasant.................Maxine Stellman
Dance...................Julia Barashkova
Dance...................Lola Michel
Dance...................William Sarazen
Dance...................Josef Carmassi
Conductor...............Fritz Busch
Review of Claudia Cassidy in the Chicago Tribune
Gifted Old Friends and Welcome Newcomers Make "Figaro" the Met's Best Show
As the singers go, so goes the opera. In the Metropolitan era of Kirsten Flagstad and Laurtiz Melchior, Wagner was king; in the era of Ezio Pinza, his name is Mozart. So the town's smart money went on last night's "The Marriage of Figaro" tho it was considered sad in some cases that the opera neglected to hold a suitable role for Ferruccio Tagliavini. Nevertheless, it was the kind of evening to make you send a bread and butter note, saying "Dear Metropolitan: All is forgiven. Please come back."
One of the nicest things about this enchanting opera is that you don't dare tackle it - or you shouldn't - if you don't know how. Besides being a social document of the struggle against the abuses of entrenched privilege, it is the most serenely melodious of comedies, and it runs like a satin ribbon or it stops indignantly in its tracks. Bruno Walter put it together to the Metropolitan's lasting credit, and tho he was not in the pit last night to capture the tenderness as well as the sparkle of the score, he had been replaced by another Mozart expert, the calm and knowing Fritz Busch. Mr. Busch, too, put the accent on ensemble, where it belongs. From the piano recitative to the full throated brilliance of the orchestra, he made a sparkling authoritative show.
Surrounding Mr. Pinza, to whose brilliance in the name part we owe the delight of having "Figaro" regularly in the repertory, was a cast of familiar favorites and newcomers who were favorites before the curtain fell, and if you don't mind we well talk about two of those newcomers right now. They are Frances Greer, the piquant Susanna, who is an enchanting little actress with a voice like a slender thread, and Florence Quartarraro, the handsome girl who sang the Countess, and whose "Porgi amor" and "Dove sono" staked a claim on undivided attention. She sang superbly, with serenity and simplicity and the security that comes from having a wealth of resources in reserve. If that girl doesn't make opera sit up and take notice, I shall desist consulting my crystal ball.
Rise Stevens was the new Cherubino, and tho she is a charmer by nature and a dashing figure in boyish masquerade, she has not yet made the role her own as Octavian in "Der Rosenkavalier" is her stellar possession. She is inclined to mock heroics and pouting where Cherubino is that most serious of creatures, a boy in love with an older woman and the lovely music of the role really doesn't fit a mezzo-soprano. But Herta Glaz was an expert new Marcellina in the Salzburg tradition an integral part of the amusing trio of conspirators completed by the droll Salvatore Baccaloni and the deft Alessio de Paolis.
John Brownlee must have felt at home with his old conductor from Glyndebourne in the pit, and he was as authoritative a Count as Pinza a Figaro, tho his baritone is no match for the Pinza bass, as voluminous and yet as liquid a voice as Mozart could have dreamed to make you forget the difficulties of the music, and remember only its delights.
Herbert Graf's staging showed one way to conquer the dismaying costs of operatic design. It merely used the scenic screens against proscenium and backdrop of handsome draperies. And tho it was both explicit and adroit about the plot, a good English version would be worth the trouble,