MACBETH

MACBETH:Verdi
Original Air Date: 03/24/1962
Rosenstock; Colzani, Rysanek, Tozzi, Bergonzi
SID.19230316
Rosenstock picked up much of the conducting load previously assigned to Leinsdorf, who had decamped to the Boston Symphony as Music Director. Rosenstock had debuted at the Met in 1929 with six appearances not to reappear again until 1961 when he began a 248 performance run at the Met ending in 1969 with Meistersinger which he had premiered in November 1962 in a new production by Robert O’Hearn and Nathaniel Merrill. In other repertory most of this late career could be described as correct, and nowhere at the level of Bohm, Leinsdorf, or Stiedry. This is Rysanek’s third and last Lady Macbeth performance, and she is not in the form of her debut 4 years earlier, nor is Rosenstock as up to the task as Leinsdorf who replaced the orgiinally scheduled Mitropoulos in 1958. Colzani can be a bit rough hewn, but that works as Macbeth, and Bergonzi is as classy as it gets; Tozzi I prefer to HInes, but I prefer Giaiotti to either– a role Siepi never did at the Met (and don’t notice it elsewhere either).