"A Teutonic Zaza" - parterre box

Richard L. Stokes in The Evening World:

Both in her acting and singing, Mme. Jeritza observed for the most part a commendable restraint and serenity. There were no “stunts” in this portrait, no pursuit of headlines and sensation. Such screaming as occurred was the fault of the composer. Mostly the role was sung quietly, if not beautifully, with something of the repose and control of Mme. Jeritza’s Elizabeth.

But the Helen of legend and of this book possessed two principal qualities which were quite beyond the reach of the Bohemian cantatrice – majesty and seductiveness. For all her stature, Mme. Jeritza scarcely approached a regal, to say nothing of a classic, dignity. The Queen of Sparta, for instance, would not have crept into Aithra’s palace like a burglar and examined its furnishings with the curiosity of a street arab. And the singer’s notion of allurement, with her husband as well as with Altair and Da-Ud appeared to consist in ponderous coquetries and writhings, in the vein of a Teutonic Zaza. This was not a Helen to launch a thousand ships, or even a tugboat. . . .

The costumes which she was permitted to don were nothing short of outrageous. With the incomparable dress of classic Greece at her hand, she resorted instead to the dinner gowns, spangles, high heels and silk hose of modern Paris.

Birthday anniversaries of bass Nicola Rossi-Lemeni (1920), baritone Renato Capecchi (1923) and mezzo-soprano Beverly Wolff (1928).