Music: Homecoming at La Scala

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Homecoming at La Scala From a box near the stage, one admirer threw a red rose. From the rest of the house welled warm, welcoming applause. After eleven triumphant years in the New World, Licia Albanese, 37, one of the Metropolitan Opera's top sopranos, had returned to Milan's La Scala.

Soprano Albanese was "all emotional." Backstage, she had the same hairdresser, the same wardrobe mistress, and the same prompter she had for her La Scala debut (in Gianni Schicchi) in 1936. But Albanese had apparently forgotten that Italians like their opera loud. Never noted for a big voice, in Madame Butterfly she concentrated on her acting; not once did she break a dramatic sequence to turn, in full voice, toward the audience. Moaned one critic after the first act: "Albanese has returned, but she left her voice in America."

In the second and third acts, Albanese gave Milan more fine acting. Holding Butterfly's son in her arms, she sang her anguished farewell aria, dropped to her knees, got back up again, never let the three-year-old out of her arms, never lost a note. Albanese was pleased with La Scala's realistic casting of the youngster: "Finally I have a child the right age." At the Met, because of child-labor regulations, she has to struggle with seven-year-olds.

All in all, the hard-to-please Milanese liked Albanese fine, but they went away from her opening night still grumbling a bit that she didn't sing loud enough. In her second performance, Albanese took the hint, turned up the volume. To help, she parked the three-year-old on a cushion, center stage, instead of holding him in her arms. Milan was overjoyed.