[Met Performance] CID:98150
Pelléas et Mélisande {13} Metropolitan Opera House: 01/25/1928.
(Review)
Metropolitan Opera House
January 25, 1928
PELLÉAS ET MÉLISANDE {13}
Debussy-Maeterlinck
Pelléas.................Edward Johnson
Mélisande...............Lucrezia Bori
Golaud..................Clarence Whitehill
Arkel...................Léon Rothier
Geneviève...............Kathleen Howard
Yniold..................Ellen Dalossy
Physician...............Paolo Ananian
Conductor...............Louis Hasselmans
Director................Wilhelm von Wymetal
Set designer............Joseph Urban
Costume designer........Gretel Urban
Pelléas et Mélisande received three performances this season.
[Bori's costumes were designed by Erté.]
Review (unsigned) in the New York Tribune
'Pelléas et Mélisande' At the Metropolitan
Debussy's Opera Sung for First Time This Season in Eloquent Performance
Debussy's "Pelléas et Mélisande" was performed at the Metropolitan last night for the first time this season. The cast was that which has interpreted the opera ever since the Metropolitan produced it in 1925, with a single exception - Miss Ellen Dalossy took the part of the child Yniold, in place of Miss Louise Hunter, who is no longer with the company. Miss Dalossy presented an intelligently conceived embodiment of the difficult role, though she is physically less well suited to it than her predecessor.
Miss Bori gave us again her deeply expressive and very touching Mélisande, with the addition of some new costumes and a new coiffure. Mr. Johnson was the admirably sensitive Pelléas. Mr. Whitehill enacted Golaud, and again moved his audience by the tragic intensity of his performance, especially in the great scene of espionage at the end of the third act. Mr. Rothier is by far the finest Arkel who has even assumed that role in New York. Miss Howard made much of her brief but significant part as Genevieve, and Mr. Ananian was the physician.
Mr. Hasselmans conducted a memorably eloquent performance of the orchestral score, and the instrumentalists gave him of their best.
The Metropolitan's production of Debussy's exacting opera remains one of the most distinguished achievements of Mr. Gatti-Casazza's régime. That it is appreciated by responsive opera-goers was evidenced again last night by the absorbed attentiveness of the audience as the beautiful work progressed to its poignant culmination.