[Met Performance] CID:259270
Carmen {763} Metropolitan Opera House: 10/20/1979.
(Debut: William Johns
Review)
Metropolitan Opera House
October 20, 1979
CARMEN {763}
Bizet-Meilhac/L. Halévy
Carmen..................Viorica Cortez
Don José................William Johns [Debut]
Micaela.................Teresa Kubiak
Escamillo...............Lenus Carlson
Frasquita...............Louise Wohlafka
Mercédès................Isola Jones
Remendado...............Andrea Velis
Dancaïre................Russell Christopher
Zuniga..................Philip Booth
Moralès.................John Darrenkamp
Conductor...............James Conlon
Production..............Göran Gentele
Stage Director..........Bodo Igesz
Set designer............Josef Svoboda
Costume designer........David Walker
Lighting designer.......Gil Wechsler
Choreographer...........Alvin Ailey
Carmen received twenty-two performances this season.
Review of Robert Jacobson in Opera News
Judging from the first two acts of the "Carmen" revival (Oct 20), newcomer William Johns, an American with extensive European experience, supplied a sturdy Don José, sensitively sung (including the soft ending for the flower song), but without much individuality or brilliance, his acting of the hang-dog variety. The performance on the whole was either serviceable or dull, beginning with James Conlon's well prepared, but unpoetic, unbuoyant reading. Viorica Cortez' gypsy girl was a compendium of vocal uncertainties - pitch, knitting the registers, edginess and so much tone that a simple French "a" was out of the question - and she played the role as a lively sexpot caricature, relying on chesty sounds and hands-on-hips sultriness. Teresa Kubiak sounded flavorless as Micaela, and Lenus Carlson rasped the bottom third of his baritone, lacking the grand line for Escamillo.