[Met Performance] CID:82210
La Traviata {116} Metropolitan Opera House: 11/30/1922.
(Debut: Italo Picchi
Review
)
Metropolitan Opera House
November 30, 1922
LA TRAVIATA {116}
Giuseppe Verdi--Francesco Maria Piave
Violetta................Lucrezia Bori
Alfredo.................Beniamino Gigli
Germont.................Giuseppe Danise
Flora...................Minnie Egener
Gastone.................Angelo Badà
Baron Douphol...........Millo Picco
Marquis D'Obigny........Louis D'Angelo
Dr. Grenvil.............Italo Picchi [Debut]
Annina..................Grace Anthony
Dance...................Giuseppe Bonfiglio
Dance...................Rosina Galli
Dance...................Florence Rudolph
Conductor...............Roberto Moranzoni
Review of Oscar Thompson in Musical America
A Winsome "Traviata"
Altogether winsome was Lucrezia Bori in "Traviata," sung for the first time this season at the Metropolitan Thursday evening. Miss Bori had appeared in the part, at an earlier performance in Brooklyn, but this was her first Violetta in New York. To say that she achieved bravura phrases with the ease and tonal velvet of some of her predecessors in the role, would be an exaggeration. This music was intended for the voice and style of a Patti, a Melba or a Sembrich rather than a lyric soprano like Miss Bori. But if she dispensed with some skyrocketing embellishments and achieved others with a touch of strain, she was pictorially and dramatically the most attractive Violetta of recent memory. Moreover, she sang the more sustained passages of the music very beautifully. Her scene with the elder Germont and her death scene were unusually convincing.
Beniamino Gigli sang the music of Alfredo with much beauty of tone when he did not try to inject too much of pathos into his voice, and Giuseppe Danise was a sympathetic and vocally rich Germont. Others in the cast were Minnie Egener, Grace Anthony, Millo Picco, Louis D'Angelo and Italo Picchi, the latter making his Metropolitan debut in the minor role of The Doctor. His voice disclosed a tremolo, but he gave evidences of excellent routine. Rosina Galli, Giuseppe Bonfiglio and Florence McNally danced in the third act divertissement with the ballet. Roberto Moranzoni (not Giuseppe Bamboschek, whose name appeared on the program) conducted. The performance was a smooth and satisfying one.