"A graceful trifle" - parterre box

W. J. Henderson in the Sun:

The whole score is fragile and shallow. It might break down under cross-examination. There is not a distinguished page in the three acts. Yet “La Rondine” is a graceful trifle and occupies two hours and a half without strain upon the attention. When the distant convent bells chime through the orchestration of the last moments you may possibly feel that you might have done worse than be in the opera house. You have had cheerful entertainment.

The work owes a huge debt to its interpreters. Miss Bori as Magda achieved one of the triumphs of her career. If she had done nothing beyond her exit at the close of the first act, dancing and murmuring her ecstatic yearnings, she would have won her audience, but from the beginning to the end she delineated with irresistible charm, with sprightly gayety, with winsome tenderness the moods of the wayward, sorrowful wanderer. Her impersonation was composed with remarkable histrionic art. There was not a false note, no breaking out of the picture. And she sang her music not only with respect for the composer, but also with the communicative spell of a consummate artist.

More from Mr. Henderson and a bevy of other critics may be found in The Metropolitan Opera Archives.

Born on this day in 1892 soprano Dame Eva Turner.

Birthday anniversaries of librettist Lorenzo da Ponte (1749), composers Arthur Honegger (1892) and Stephen Oliver (1950) and bass Owen Brannigan (1908).