• U.S.

Music: New Carmen

2 minute read
TIME

For years Soprano Rosa Ponselle has openly aspired to be the Carmen of the Metropolitan Opera Company. Carmen in the repertoire, sung by any popular singer, means a crowded house, money in the till. Last week for the first time in four years the stage was set for the Bizet opera. Soldiers and cigaret girls filled the square when suddenly a fiery bushy-haired creature appeared on the parapet, tore down the steps, pushed her way to the footlights. Soprano Ponselle’s wish had come true.

First impression was to wonder why anyone so flagrantly sexy as her Carmen should trouble to work for a living in a cigaret factory. She sang the Habanera belligerently, as if defying the world. She turned on bewildered Don Jose like a tigress, sidled up to the captain of the guards like an oldtime cinema vamp. The stage scarcely seemed to hold her. Ponselle’s voice is naturally sumptuous, but she was too busy ranting to do justice by Bizet’s music.

The audience appeared to love it. Here was a slender, sinuous Carmen who looked like a gypsy. Here was one who took the prize for vulgarity, elbowing guards in the stomach, whistling hoydenishly, spitting out fruit skins, wriggling her hips. Most effective scene was when she read death in the cards, gave the toujours la mart all its tragic implications. Most debatable costume was a slinky black velvet affair with a top like a bullfighter’s jacket. This she chose for the final act as a symbol of her submission to Escamillo, the toreador.

In fairness to Miss Ponselle, disgruntled critics would have done well to point to the fact that there have been few successful Carmens. The redoubtable Lilli Lehmann sang the role like a Brünnhilde. Adelina Patti was completely unsuited to it. Most effective impersonation was by fiery Emma Calvé, though purists fussed at her because she took liberties with the music. Farrar’s popular Carmen lacked the finesse of many of her other roles. Mary Garden was not at her best in the part. Maria Jeritza failed to stand the test. Those who disliked Ponselle’s performance last week did not damn her as a singing artist but rather as a melodramatic actress.

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