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Mme. Evanti Wins Acclaim of Capital
The Washington Post; Mar 21, 1932; p.10
MME. EVANTI WINS ACCLAIM OF CAPITAL
Soprano Scores Triumph on Return to Home City After Successes Abroad.
Mme. Lillian Evanti, lyric coloratura soprano, with Erich Riede, pianist of the Metropolitan Opera, accompanist, scored a home-coming triumph yesterday at the Belasco before a large and sympathetic audience of music lovers, when she presented a program of Italian, German, French and Spanish numbers, together with four English songs and a spiritual, a prayer, to an arrangement by Burleigh.
Her flawless rendition of "Care Selve" (Handel) and "Qual Farfalletta Amante" (Scarlatti) was followed by "Qui la Voce" (Bellini), from "Puritani," which proved a successful example of the florid style, the true "bel canto." A sympathetic naturalness in the "Murmelndes Luftchen" (Jensen), exemplified in the German numbers a striking legato register, which prepared her audience for her superb diction and dramatic exposition of the difficult "Als Mir Dein Lied Erklang" (Strauss).
The Berceuse (Rimsky-Korsakoff), from the opera "Sadko," and "Salut a Toi," from "Coq d'Or," exemplified the true Evanti vogue which has been displayed so successfully on the continent in France, Spain, Italy and England during the six years since the artiste left Washington for her audition in Paris. Most striking, of course, since the last appearance here, was the dramaturgic excellence and poise of the stage presence of the former Washington schoolmarm.
Her spiritual number, "Lord I Want to Be" (Burleigh), proved Negroid in no particular, but a prayer of matchless daintiness highly artistic. Among the numerous encores, the "Fan Song" and a lullaby by Reide, her accompanist, scored heavily.
Following her recent presentation with the Detroit Symphony, Mme. Evanti will be presented to New York audiences early this spring. She was accorded a reception by her admirers last night in the parlors of the Phyllis Wheatly Young Women's Christian Association.
E.H.L.