Estoy de acuerdo con Alberich en que algunos momentos que nos quedan del Otello de Melchior pocos cantantes se han acercado ni a otearlos (el Dio mi potevi, por ejemplo), por lo que no creo que se haya de desdeñar sin más su aportación al canto verdiano, aunque sea obviamente pasajera.
He encontrado unas reseñas curiosas del único Otello que cantó Melchior en el Met (sólo el cuarto acto, en el marco de una gala):
Lawrence Gilman: After a spirited curtain-raiser extracted from the immortal opus of Donizetti with Mme. Nina Morgana lending her gifts and skill and feeling and intensity as the unhappy heroine, the novelty of the evening was disclosed to us. This was a performance of the last Act of Verdi's "Otello," with Mr. Melchior embodying the Moor of Venice for the first time in New York and Mme. Rethberg playing Desdemona. It is twenty-two years since the music of "Otello" was heard at the Metropolitan. The last performance here of the great work was that given on January 31, 1913, under Mr. Toscanini, with Leo Slezak as the Moor, Alda as Desdemona, and Mr. Scotti (who took the place of Amato at the last moment) singing the first Act dressed as Barnaba in "Gioconda," while his Iago costumes were hastily assembled from out of town.
Mr. Melchior is a magnificent Otello. It is a pity that he has not sung the role before at the Metropolitan, for his performance last night brought down the house by its dignity, its passion, its restraint, its depth of feeling. Mr. Melchior as the tortured and terrible Moor captured the imagination from the moment when he loomed gigantically in Desdemona's doorway to the moment when he was filling his dying utterances with a profundity of pathos that searched the heart and spirit. One will not soon forget his singing of the "E tu…come sei pal! E stanca, e muta, e bella…" As for Mme. Rethberg's Desdemona, it was musically sung, though it is not yet quite completely seen and felt.
B. H. Haggin: Last night's gala performance at the Metropolitan provided me, completely unexpectedly, with one of the most exciting experiences I have ever had in a theater. The curtain had risen on the last act of Verdi's "Otello," revealing a characteristic Metropolitan set and some properties that had seen better days. There had followed a performance by Elisabeth Rethberg, the Desdemona, and Elda Vettori, the Emilia of the sort one is accustomed to - a performance in which Mme. Rethberg sang the lovely music of Desdemona for the most part with the exquisite quality that her voice still retains in its best moments, but created no dramatic illusion by her presence or her appearance) which included one of the preposterous wigs that she goes in for). I noticed a characteristic bit of bungled stage management; she was drawing the curtain of her bed with the Otello of the evening already entering. But with his appearance all thought of everything else was displaced from my mind. For not only had Lauritz Melchior achieved an amazing transformation of his appearance by his make-up and wig, but he had in some miraculous way changed his personality. The wooden first act Tristan was now a gigantic figure, arresting and dramatically compelling as it moved slowly about the stage; the absurdly gesticulating third act Tristan now exhibited genuine animation, intensity and eloquence of gesture that were breath-taking. Astounding that it should be Lauritz Melchior who should achieve this incandescence, and with it created dazzling illusion in such illusion-destroying surroundings.
Última edición por gakugeki el 06 Ago 2017 21:42, editado 1 vez en total
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