[Met Performance] CID:161700
Der Rosenkavalier {144} Metropolitan Opera House: 01/22/1953.
(Debuts: Endre Koreh, Adelino Palomanos, Rudolf Mayreder
Review)
Metropolitan Opera House
January 22, 1953
DER ROSENKAVALIER {144}
R. Strauss-Hofmannsthal
Octavian.....................Risë Stevens
Princess von Werdenberg......Astrid Varnay
Baron Ochs...................Endre Koreh [Debut]
Sophie.......................Nadine Conner
Faninal......................Erich Kunz
Annina.......................Martha Lipton
Valzacchi....................Alessio De Paolis
Italian Singer...............Kurt Baum
Marianne.....................Thelma Votipka
Mahomet......................Gloria Lyons
Princess' Major-domo.........Emery Darcy
Orphan.......................Laura Castellano
Orphan.......................Paula Lenchner
Orphan.......................Margaret Roggero
Milliner.....................Genevieve Warner
Animal Vendor................Gabor Carelli
Hairdresser..................Adelino Palomanos [Debut]
Notary.......................Gerhard Pechner
Leopold......................Rudolf Mayreder [Debut]
Faninal's Major-domo.........Paul Franke
Innkeeper....................Paul Franke
Police Commissioner..........Osie Hawkins
Conductor....................Fritz Reiner
Director.....................Herbert Graf
Set designer.................Hans Kautsky
Costume designer.............Alfred Roller
Der Rosenkavalier received eleven performances this season.
Review of Francis D. Perkins in the Herald Tribune
After a season's absence, Richard Strauss' "Der Rosenkavalier" returned to the Metropolitan Opera House last night, when Endre Koreh, Hungarian bass, made his debut here as Baron Ochs. Two other principals, Astrid Varnay and Erich Kunz, also sang their roles for the first time in this house, and there would also have been a new Sophie, had not Hilde Güden's indisposition caused her replacement by Nadine Conner. Two of the orphans, Laura Castellano and Margaret Roggero, completed the list of newcomers to the cast.
Mr. Koreh, who comes here from the opera theaters of Budapest and Vienna, displayed a very sizable voice, resonant and rather weighty. His impersonation of the amorous, boorish noblemen was effective along rather obvious lines; it had personality but the characterization suggested that the singer was well acquainted with the role but not all its dramatic resources. Vocally, there was ample range but not a wide gamut of vocal hues.
Miss Varnay is an admirable artist, and the Marschallin is a rewarding role, but the soprano and the role did not seem to be at least for the time being, on particularly intimate terms; the music, judging by some sense of vocal effort in the first act, was exacting for her, despite convincingly presented phrases. Her characterization was prepossessing in appearance, which suited the Marschallin's presumable age, avoiding an elderly mien; there was emotional color for the eye and the ear when she laments the passage of time. But the Marschallin has more emotional resilience than Miss Varnay provided in this scene. She seemed on better terms with the role in the last act.
Miss Stevens' Octavian followed familiar and generally convincing lines; Mr. Kunz fared commendably in illustrating the snobbery and wrath of von Faninal. Miss Conner's ingratiating Sophie provided the best singing of an evening with only a middling vocal standard; her voice was sometimes limited in volume, but in various episodes her top notes were notable for clarity and well sustained continuity. The orchestral playing under Mr. Reiner's direction was clear in detail and well balanced, not encroaching upon the vocal province of the score. But the musical performances as a whole seemed to have enough momentum and general animating spirit to make this one the season's memorable evenings.
Review of Olin Downes in The New York Times
The performance of "Der Rosenkavalier" last night in the Metropolitan, the first of the season, has the distinction of being the worst performance of this opera that the writer has experienced.
Miss Varnay was miscast completely as the Marschallin. She sang badly, sometimes off pitch. She gave the character neither warmth, sentiment, pathos, nor conviction.
How many rehearsals this normally gifted artist was given is not known, but her composition of the parting scenes of Act I with Octavian was not tragic, but dismal, as if a discontented woman had determined in advance to make a scene. Small wonder that Octavian wrote her off on the spot!
That this was palpably not Miss Varnay's role was merely one of the masterly miscastings of the occasion. Endre Koreh, the new Ochs - a part in which Mr. Bing has given us infinitely better interpreters in the past - is an inadequate singer and interpreter of a famous roles. His characterization was dull, lumpish, uninteresting and unimportant. The voice of a prevailingly hollow resonance is not equal to the range of the music at the top or bottom of the scale, or in the middle part either, if one looks for quality and resonance.
Miss Stevens had been indisposed and was inevitably in poor voice. That she did comparatively so little with her role is not surprising, in view of the uninspiring conditions under which she had to act. Her second act was superior to the first.
The minor parts were better done. Kurt Baum sang his aria in the reception scene well, and with more of a baritone quality than formerly. Mr. De Paolis's Valzacchi was excellent as usual. Why Martha Lipton, his fellow-spy and intriguant, should have been dressed more royally than any other member of the cast is perhaps one of Herbert Graf's mysteries, of which there were several curious specimens in the stage action of the evening.
The bright spot in the cast of the principals was Nadine Conner, who substituted at short notice for Hilde Güden as Sophie, and interpreted the part with her wonted intelligence, taste and charm.