The lady came with an excellent reputation

Henry E. Krehbiel in the Tribune:

Among the singers the interest centered chiefly in Fräulein Lehmann, who filled the title role. The lady came with an excellent reputation and sustained it in her acting as well as her singing. Her tall stature and almost military bearing were calculated to produce an effect of surprise which had to be overcome before the audience were ready to enter into the feeling which she infused into the part. To the eye she was a somewhat more matronly Carmen than the fancy is tempted to paint as the ideal heroine of Bizet’s opera, and it was in harmony with the new picture that she stripped the character of the flippancy and playfulness which the public are inclined to associate with it, and intensified its sinister side. In this she deviated from Madame Hauk’s impersonation and came nearer to that of Madame Trebelli. In her musical performance, however, she surpassed both of these experienced and ripe artists. Her voice is true, flexible, and ringing, and of most telling quality. She sings with perfect ease and her high notes have a fairly electrifying timbre and power. She has the ability to fill it with the passionate expression and warmth of color which the music of the part often calls for, and utilizes this ability with rare judiciousness and taste. In every respect her Carmen is a unique creation and her art as exhibited in it realizes expectation to the full.

Happy 77th birthday baritone Håkan Hagegård.

Happy 72nd birthday soprano Yvonne Kenny.

Birthday anniversary of librettist Antonio Ghislanzoni (1824); sopranos Adelaide Saraceni (1895) and Adele Kern (1901); composer Virgil Thomson (1896) and conductor Jean-Claude Malgoire (1940).