[Met Performance] CID:91320
La Vestale {2} Metropolitan Opera House: 11/27/1925.
(Review)
Metropolitan Opera House
November 27, 1925
In Italian
LA VESTALE {2}
Giulia..................Rosa Ponselle
Licinio.................Edward Johnson
High Priestess..........Margarete Matzenauer
Cinna...................Giuseppe De Luca
Pontifex Maximus........José Mardones
Consul..................Paolo Ananian
Act I Ballet - Dance of Homage
Goddess: Lilyan Ogden
Corps de Ballet
Act II, Scene 2 Ballet - Fête in Honor of Venus
a) Nuptial Dance - Corps de Ballet
b) Autumnal Fête - Florence Rudolph, Albert Troy, Corps de Ballet
c) Grecian Dance - Corps de Ballet
d) Dance of Jugglers and Finale - Corps de Ballet
Conductor...............Tullio Serafin
Review signed B. B. in Musical America
'La Vestale' Again
Spontini's revived and glorified "La Vestale" had its second performance on Nov. 27 with the same cast that gave distinction to its Metropolitan premiere a fortnight before. The music, so singularly prophetic of Rossini, went its thinly orchestrated way with classical dignity of movement under the guidance of Tullio Serafin, but remained an item subsidiary to the pomp and circumstance of the "mise-en-scène."
In the eventual résumé of the season, "La Vestale" will take its place as a notably beautiful and elaborate spectacle and as the pedestal for Rosa Ponselle's artistry. The young soprano has reached in the lyric-dramatic role of Giulia a point of accomplishment that is a satisfaction to those who have been hopefully watching her progress. Her fine voice is warming with new emotional hues and wields a growing power of appeal. While losing no whit of dramatic strength, she is tempering her tone into lovely refinements of color. The ovation she received at the end of the second act was fully merited.
The best and most effective of Spontini's melodic lines fell to Miss Ponselle. Her colleagues were Edward Johnson as Licinio, Margaret Matzenauer as the High Priestess, Giuseppe de Luca as Cinna, Jose Mardones as the Pontifex Maximus and Paolo Ananian as A Consul.