[Met Performance] CID:170680
La Forza del Destino {84} Metropolitan Opera House: 01/21/1956.
(Review)
Metropolitan Opera House
January 21, 1956
LA FORZA DEL DESTINO {84}
Giuseppe Verdi--Francesco Maria Piave
Leonora.................Renata Tebaldi
Don Alvaro..............Richard Tucker
Don Carlo...............Leonard Warren
Padre Guardiano.........Giorgio Tozzi
Preziosilla.............Rosalind Elias
Fra Melitone............Fernando Corena
Marquis de Calatrava....Louis Sgarro
Curra...................Thelma Votipka
Trabuco.................Alessio De Paolis
Surgeon.................George Cehanovsky
Conductor...............Pietro Cimara
Review of A. H. in the Herald Tribune
Fourth 'Forza del Destino' Of Season Is Given at Met
Had the season's fourth performance of Verdi's "La Forza del Destino" been announced as a competition among leading singers, one would scarcely have expected a more dazzling display of sheer vocal brilliance than that heard at the Metropolitan Opera on Saturday evening.
Renata Tebaldi, appearing as Leonora, was the leading contestant, but Richard Tucker (Don Alvaro) and Leonard Warren (Don Carlo) stayed in the race to the bitter end. Events of this sort seldom offer much in the way of subtlety, but they make up for it, perhaps, with flashing excitement.
It was the lot of two artists - Rosalind Elias and Giorgio Tozzi - to enter the lists of this vocal free-for-all as newcomers to their respective roles at the Metropolitan, (Mr. Warren was singing his part for the first time this season, but it is one he knows perfectly by now.)
Commendable Impression
Neither Miss Elias, as Preziosilla, nor Mr. Tozzi, as Padre Guardino, threatened the positions of the pace setters, but each made a commendable impression. To look at, the young lady was as comely a camp follower as any set of troops could wish for, and she sang her brief aria with smooth control and unblemished beauty of tone.
Mr. Tozzi used his fine voice equally agreeably and wore well the surface dignity of a benevolent holy man. But he has yet to project the warmth and nobility of a serene and wholly sympathetic spirit
Other members of the cast included Fernando Corena as Fra Melitone, Louis Sgarro as Leonora's father and Thelma Votipka as the servant. Pietro Cimara conducted.