DON CARLO
Giuseppe Verdi (1813 - 1901)
Opera in four acts in Italian
Libretto: G. Méry and C. du Locle after Schiller
Premièr at Opéra, Paris – 11 March 1867
16, 20 September 1958
War Memorial Opera House, San Francisco
DON CARLO'S FIRST SAN FRANCISCO PERFORMANCE
Conductor: Georges Sebastian
Chorus master: Gianni Lazzarini
Stage director: Paul Hager
Stage setting: Robert FletcherCostumes: Goldstein & Co.
Elisabeth de Valois LEYLA GENCER soprano [Role debut]
Princess Eboli her lady-in-waiting IRENE DALIS mezzo-sopranoDon Carlos heir to the Spanish throne PIERO MIRANDA FERRARO tenor
JUSSI BJÖRLING tenor
Rodrigo Marquess of Posa FRANK GUERRERA baritone
Philip II King of Spain GIORGIO TOZZI bass
The Grand Inquisitor GIUSEPPE MODESTI bass
A Monk MARK ELYN bass
Tebaldo JOAN MARIE MOYNAGH soprano
Count Lerma VIRGINIO ASSANDRI tenor
The Royal Herald ROBERT THOMAS tenor
A heavenly voice RUTH DANIEL soprano
Philip II King of Spain GIORGIO TOZZI bass
The Grand Inquisitor GIUSEPPE MODESTI bass
A Monk MARK ELYN bass
Tebaldo JOAN MARIE MOYNAGH soprano
Count Lerma VIRGINIO ASSANDRI tenor
The Royal Herald ROBERT THOMAS tenor
A heavenly voice RUTH DANIEL soprano
Time: Mid-Sixteenth Century
Place: France and
SpainPhotos © BILL COGAN, San Francisco
 |
| A crowd fills the lobby in during an intermission of Verdi's Dan Carlo |
THE OREGON DAILY JOURNAL
1958.05.11
THE SUNDAY OREGONIAN
1958.05.11
THE MODESTO BEE
1958.06.08
THE PENINSULA TIMES TRIBUNE
1958.06.10
THE BERKLEY GAZETTE
1958.06.12
THE OREGON DAILY JOURNAL
1958.06.15
OPERA MAGAZINE
1958 July
VALLEJO TIMES HERALD
1958.07.27
SAN FRANCISCO EXAMINER
1958.07.28
PETALUMA ARGUS COURIER
1958.08.02
DAILY INDEPENDENT JOURNAL
1958.08.16
INDEPENDENT PRESS TELEGRAM
1958.08.17
THE BERKLEY GAZETTE
1958.08.28
SAN FRANCISCO CALL-BULLETIN
1958 September
A rare beauty on the stage, a rich voice and perfect pianissimos. She interpreted the Spanish Queen perfectly thanks to her perfect vocal technique and great musical approach. She represented Queen Elizabeth in all her splendour.
SAN FRANCISCO CRONICLE
1958 September
Gencer interpreted
the Spanish queen perfectly thanks to her perfect vocal technique and great
musical approach.
SAN FRANCISCO NEWS
1958 September
Gencer represented
Queen Elizabeth in all her splendour.
OAKLAND TRIBUNE
1958.09.14
SAN FRANCISCO EXAMINER
1958.09.16
OAKLAND TRIBUNE
1958.09.17
SAN FRANCISCO EXAMINER
1958.09.18
THE BERKLEY GAZETTE
1958.09.18
CUMHURİYET DAILY NEWSPAPER
1958.09.20
OAKLAND TRUBUNE
1958.09.20
PETULUMA ARGUS
1958.09.20
SAN FRANCISCO EXAMINER
1958.09.20
THE OREGON DAILY JOURNAL
1958.09.22
OPERA NEWS
1958.09.23
LOS ANGELES MIRROR
1958.09.28
OPERA NEWS
1958.09.29
MUSICAL AMERICA
1958.09.22
SAN BERNARDINO SUN
1958.10.22
OPERA NEWS
1958.10.27
THE INDEPENDENT
1958.11.05
THE INDEPENDENT
1958.11.05
CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR
1958.11.08
MUSICAL COURIER [vol.158]
1958 December
OPERA MAGAZINE
1958 December
OPERA MAGAZINE
1959 January
THEATRE ARTS
1959 March
THE SAN FRANCISCO OPERA 1922 - 1978
1978
ARTHUR BLOOMSFIELD
From Arthur Bloomfield’s book The San Francisco Opera 1922 – 1978
(1978 Comstock Editions)
……. Francesca project stemmed from the fact that Tebaldi was learning the role for Maggio Musicale in Florance. When that the Festival dropped the work, she was less interested in doing it for San Francisco. It was more feasible for Adler to go ahead substitute soprano than a substitute opera – the production was already built when the unwooable Tebaldi made her decision – so Leyla Gencer, a Turkish soprano with Italian opera experience, was imported. She turned out to be an exceptionally interesting if uneven artist. Her physical beauty at the time was marked, her poise sure, her pianissimi exquisite, her voice in general, when well-projected, remarkably warm in tone. Whether she made more or less of Francesca than Tebaldi might have done is one of history’s little question marks. ……. The report continued with a statement of the position of the San Francisco Opera, which was, not surprisingly, that Madam Callas was fired, and that a complaint, furthermore, was being sent off to the American Guild of Musical Artists. The fact that a recording of Cherubini’s Medea was on the ailing Callas’ September schedule – sessions took place from 12th to 19th – did not sit exactly well with Adler and Miller. Nor the fact that she “rested up” by going to an early September ball tossed for her in Venice by Elsa Maxwell. Callas had wired Adler September 1 that he should have a sub on hand “in case”. Bul Callas’ logical follow-up, in Adler’s estimation, would have been either come on schedule and try to perform, or to cancel outright, and stay home. Most subscribers felt Adler and Miller were to be commended for their uncompromising action, and after Leonie Rysanek’s Lady Macbeth and Leyla Gencer’s Lucia – both highly successful – Maria Callas was, if not forgotten, hardy missed. ……. Gencer’s Lucia was not of the pretty-pretty pyrotechnical variety. Here was a warm spinto soprano who simply happened to have coloratura flexibility as well. The riches of her voice which, like Callas’, has a certain sonic sex appeal, helped produce an adult Lucia. Also, vivid acting: she conveyed a real sense of derangement in the Mad Scene. All in all, this was the most memorable portrayal offered in San Francisco by a sometimes-remarkable artist. Her success in the part indicated that another reengagement was in order, and she returned in 1958. Her other assignments were Violetta and Liu, the latter only in Los Angeles. ……. Mezzo Irene Dalis appeared first in one of her best roles, Eboli in Don Carlo. She swung into it with a fiery regality and sang it warmly, winning friends who would welcome her back in many seasons to come. She shared to honours in the first two performances with Tozzi, whose limping, swaggering Philip certainly one of the best all-around characterizations her offered through the years of personages more interesting than the stock Ramfis and Zaccaria types. Frank Guarrera was a vivid Rodrigo, Piero Miranda a so-so Don Carlo. No soprano has ever known better than Leyla Gencer how to stand about looking noble, but her vocal projection in the role of Elizabeth was spotty. ……. Opening Night 1967 brought a revival of Gioconda, not seen nineteen years. Adler had waited until he had the whopping sort of cast that can make this over-climaxed irresistible warhorse run. Up through the summer of ’67 there were problems, two of his choices agreeing the job and then backing off. Crespin was to do her first Gioconda, and she had coaching with Zinka Milanov in Yugoslavia on her agenda, but indisposition made it impossible for her to learn the role in time, and Peter Glossop defected from Barnaba for Fallstaff with Sarah Chadwell’s American National Company which toured the U.S. in the wake of the prematurely hatched Met National troupe. Crespin was ably enough replaced by Leyla Gencer, absent for nearly a decade from San Francisco scene. For Barnaba there were the parched tones of Chester Ludgin, a man-of-all-work baritone who was encountering vocal problems especially inconvenient for such a draftable singer. With Patané exceedingly crisp, cultivated man on the podium. Grace Bumbry an ideally handsome, mellifluous Laura, Maureen Forrester (a rare figure on the operatic stage) a plummy Cieca, and Cioni a pingy Enzo, this was, despite problems, a Gioconda lineup not to be dismissed. Gencer’s dramatic handling of the title role made one respect her artistic integrity even as one worried over instances of vocal abandon. Espaccially after the opening night, a traditionally troublesome time for voices, she achieved a fairly even effect, always using her voice, according to her habit, as a piece of highly charged equipment. There have been more brilliant-sounding sopranos of the Gioconda type, but none more resourceful. Gioconda being sort o character whor turns up from everybody’s woodwork, she tends to be more than a bit tiresome, but Gencer put you on her side.
