On this day in 1958 soprano Inge Borkh made her Metropolitan Opera debut as Salome. (Also on the bill… Gianni Schicchi?) Ronald Eyer in the March 1958 issue of Musical America:
Miss Borkh, who certainly possesses an Isolde-type voice, is a statuesque, but well-proportioned woman and clearly is not the fragile child-princess of Wilde’s, and Strauss’s, invention. But she has made a thoughtful, intelligent study of this impossible part; she has developed a characterization in which every detail is calculated, down to the smallest movements of the dance, and she produces an entity which is consistent and, therefore tasteful and, for many people, exciting. I personally prefer a more acidulous and penetrating voice, particularly in the lower reaches, and a somewhat simpler acting style (Strauss always deplored tendencies to overact the part.)
