What an unexpected pleasure! Having always found Licia Albanese sincere but pallid, I was pleasantly surprised by both her fresh, involved singing and her fiery temperament as Nedda–the character really comes to life here. And Jobin to my mind was a useful French tenor without much character or personality. How wrong I was! His Canio is terrific in every way: he’s loving, jealous, hopeless, terrifying by turns, and his tone rings out freely. He is foiled at every moment by Leonard Warren’s Tonio; in addition to singing gloriously, Warren uses his big sound to mock, cajole and destroy those around him. Francesco Valentino is a warm-sounding Silvio. The correctly-forgotten Cesare Sodero leads the Met forces limply, but he can’t keep such a good cast down and the whole performance excites despite him. [9/26/1999]
