Triste madre

Raymond Ericson in The New York Times:

Galina Vishnevskaya, the Soviet soprano who has sung in several performances of ‘Aida’ with the Metropolitan Opera this season, made her only scheduled appearance there last night in the title role of ‘Madama Butterfly.’ She sang in Russian, except the familiar ‘Un bel di,’ where she used the original Italian. The rest of the cast, of course, sang in Italian.

Miss Vishnevskaya had little difficulty adapting to the Metropolitan production, although much of her personal movement was her own. Her performance was one of the few in which Butterfly was more effective in the first act than in the second.

She was utterly charming to look at because she is small and pretty, and in her white bridal gown she looked like a porcelain figurine. her movements reflected a lively intelligence, and her singing had many exquisite phrases.

In the second act, where there is much more give-and-take between singers, the use of Russian intruded constantly on the listener’s ear and blurred complete enjoyment of her performance. She did many affecting things dramatically and musically, but there were also uncomfortable melodramatic moments and undue license in handling the vocal line.

Happy 76th birthday tenor José Carreras.