[Met Performance] CID:190000
Siegfried {221} Metropolitan Opera House: 01/29/1962.
(Review)
Metropolitan Opera House
January 29, 1962
SIEGFRIED {221}
Siegfried...............Hans Hopf
Brünnhilde..............Margaret Harshaw
Wanderer................Randolph Symonette [Last performance]
Erda....................Jean Madeira
Mime....................Paul Kuen [Last performance]
Alberich................Gerhard Pechner
Fafner..................Gottlob Frick
Forest Bird.............Martina Arroyo
Conductor...............Erich Leinsdorf
Review of Francis D. Perkins in the New York Herald Tribune
'Siegfried' Sung For Last Time In Met's Season
Wagner's "Siegfried" had its third and last performance of the season at the Metropolitan Opera House last night, when Randolph Symonette sang The Wanderer, alias Wotan, for the first time here. Birgit Nilsson had been announced as the Brünnhilde to be awakened by Hans Hopf's Siegfried, but, owing to the Swedish soprano's indisposition, Margaret Harshaw sang in her stead.
With ample volume, Mr. Symonette's singing indicated a knowledge of the music; the quality of tone occasionally had its rather unpolished moments, but the phrasing was musicianly, and his call to Jean Madeira's Erda at the [beginning] of the third act was persuasive as well as vigorous. From an expressive point of view, his impersonation suggested a considerable, but not yet complete, understanding of the character.
Mr. Hopf's Siegfried was sung and acted with a convincing spirit, while Paul Kuen gave a vivid impersonation as Mime, and Gerhard Pechner fared well in his first and only appearance of the season as the "Siegfried" Alberich.
Considerations of time prevented the reviewer from hearing Miss Harshaw, or more than the first few minutes of Miss Madeira's warm-voiced earth goddess. Gottlob Frick, as Fafner, and Martina Arroyo as the Forest Bird completed the cast
under Erich Leinsdorf's conductorship.