Music: Met

In the Metropolitan Opera's current season Der Rosenkavalier and Roméo et Juliette have been billed as "revivals."' Yet neither had been absent more than three years from the repertory; Rosenkavalier had not even been newly staged. Last week a genuine revival finally did appear. Verdi's Otello, one of his last and greatest works, had not been seen & heard at the Opera House since the days when Toscanini conducted and principal roles were taken by dashing Leo Slezak, gossipy Frances Alda and drama-wise Antonio Scotti.

Last week's blackface Otello, veteran Giovanni Martinelli, could have won his audience without the smash-clapping and howling of the inevitable claque. Elisabeth Rethberg (Desdemona) substituted massively for Eide Norena, who was ill. Long-legged, snub-nosed Lawrence Tibbett (lago) acted so enthusiastically he almost made a home-plate slide in the second act.

¶While Heldentenor Carl Hartmann continued to win moderate favor as Tannhäuser and Tristan (Flagstad was the Isolde), the remainder of the debutant crop to date caused little excitement. Zinka Milanov (née Kunc), whose three-year contract had been promised only after she had agreed to learn three Italian roles and reduce 25 Ib. in three months, made her U. S. debut in II Trovatore (Leonore). Nicola Moscona, Greek basso, attracted the whole Greek colony to his Ramfis (Aïda). Sturdy American Baritone John Charles Thomas (Germont) saved a Traviata (with Vina Bovy and Nino Martini) from absolute mediocrity; dependable molasses-voiced Contralto Bruna Castagna (always affectionately regarded by Manhattan operagoers who knew her when she sang at the lowly Hippodrome) saved at least three operas (Samson et Dalila, II Trovatore, Norma) from a similar fate.