Maretzek Italian Opera Company: La Favorita

Event Information

Venue(s):
Academy of Music

Manager / Director:
Max Maretzek

Event Type:
Opera

Record Information

Status:
Published

Last Updated:
27 January 2016

Performance Date(s) and Time(s)

12 Mar 1867, 8:00 PM

Performers and/or Works Performed

1)
aka La favorita; The Favoured One
Composer(s): Donizetti
Text Author: Royer, Vaƫz
Participants:  Maretzek Italian Opera Company;  Fernando [bass-baritone] Bellini (role: Alphonse);  Giuseppe B. [basso] Antonucci (role: Balthazar);  Carmelina Poch [mezzo] (role: Leonora);  Signor [tenor] Baragli (role: Fernando)

Citations

1)
Announcement: New-York Times, 07 March 1867, 5.
2)
Advertisement: New-York Times, 09 March 1867.
3)
Announcement: New York Post, 11 March 1867.
4)
Announcement: New-York Daily Tribune, 11 March 1867, 4.
5)
Announcement: New-York Daily Tribune, 12 March 1867, 4.
6)
Announcement: New-Yorker Staats-Zeitung und Herold, 12 March 1867, 8.
7)
Review: New York Post, 13 March 1867.

“Amusements. The Opera. The weather last night was so unpropitious that the audience at the Academy was less than usual, although larger than might reasonably have been expected. ‘La Favorita’ was produced for the first time this season, the principal parts having been assigned to Senorita Poch, Signor Bellini, Signor Baragli and Signor Antonucci, a distribution of characters which ensured an excellent performance.

Senorita Poch won the honors of the evening by the effective manner in which she interpreted the music of her part—Leonora—and more than sustained her high reputation. Her voice—which, although unusually powerful, is not at all lacking in tenderness and pathos—was never displayed to better advantage. Signor Baragli also was extremely successful in the part of Fernandino, being especially felicitous in his rendering of the famous air ‘Spirito Gentil.’ This admirable tenor di grazia has made a decided impression this season, and is already a general favorite.

It is needless to add that Bellini as Alphonso went through his part faithfully. If we ever had an artist who can always be depended on to do well it is Bellini.”

8)
Review: New-York Times, 13 March 1867, 4.

“Amusements. Academy of Music—Italian Opera.—The most interesting event at the new opera-house, so far this week, was the production last evening of ‘La Favorite,’ and the appearance of Senorita Poch as Lenora. It has been the fate of the part most frequently to be filled by an artist of mature age, and often more than mature voice. This at least cannot be said of it with the present representative. Instead of appearing to have broken that clause of the ecclesiastical law which forbids a man to marry his grandmother, it could be seen in this instance that King Alphonso has incurred the disapprobation of the Holy Father in a much more natural manner. In the first three acts Leonora has little to do, but Senoriata Poch did that little well. In the fourth act, which makes us forgive Donizetti for having written the three first, and which is, in fact, a master-piece—her acting and singing were most pathetic; her gestures, the expression of her face, and the tones of her beautiful voice being alike eloquent. Senorita Poch has not the pedantry to affect a new reading of a part which, like most others, can only be read in one day; but in her impersonation the tender, touching side of the character is most conspicuous. While others are loud and more or less tragic, she is painfully impressive. Her greatest success was, of course, in the last act, and her culminating triumph in the duet which concludes it. The rest of the cast was that of previous representations by Mr. Maretzek’s company—Bellini as Alphonse, Baragli as Fernando, and Antonucci as Balthazar. Their better efforts were gently cherished by an audience that appeared, however, to be more than usually fastidious. In the distribution of its [illeg.] though, to be sure, the outer influences of the evening were enough to dampen the ardor of the heartiest admirer of Donizetti or his representatives. Baragli, however, secured an enthusiastic encore for the Spritu Gentil, but then what audience could refuse one to anything short of the most indifferent singing of that rich aria?”

9)
Review: New-York Daily Tribune, 13 March 1867, 2.

“Donizetti’s Favorita is an old favorite. Senora Carmen Poch’s assumption of its chief role has been tested by a previous season; and we can therefore afford to speak of it briefly. The general performance last evening, was a good expression of some of purest music of the fervid and sensuous school of modern Italy—and Miss Poch won its freshest honors.”