Get happy

Allen Hughes in The New York Times:

Ponchielli’s “La Gioconda” will achieve the age of 100 during the current Metropolitan season (on April 8, to be precise), and to celebrate the anniversary the company has revived the work after a seven-year absence from its repertory.

This is no routine revival. John Dexter has restaged the work in Beni Montresor’s lavish sets, the cast (except for Mignon Dunn as Laura) is a new one for the company, there is new choreography by Louis Johnson for the “Dance of the Hours” with Allegra Kent as the leading dancer in it, and a conductor new to the Metropolitan, Giuseppe Patané, is on the podium. It all added up to a handsome and on the whole successful production in its first presentation, Saturday night.

Martina Arroyo was in the title role, which proved to suit her well. It would be easy to imagine a more incandescent interpretation than hers, but the blessing of her voice and the sincerity of her approach to character portrayal make her a commendable if not thrilling Gioconda.

On this day in 1974 Britten’s Death in Venice had its American Premiere at the Metropolitan Opera. Tenor Peter Pears and baritone John Shirley-Quirk made their debuts.

Three Broadway openings on this day: Bock/Harnicks The Apple Tree (Barbara Harris, Alan Alda and Larry Blyden) in 1966; Ahrens/Flaherty’s Once on This Island in 1990 and the Abba musical Mamma Mia in 2001.

Happy 88th birthday soprano Berit Lindholm.

Happy 85th birthday soprano Catarina Ligendza.

Happy 77th birthday tenor Henry Price.

Happy 75th birthday soprano Margarita Castro Alberty.

Happy birthday to parterre box scribe Christian Ocier.