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MUSICAL COURIER
February 2 2, 1923
“ WE ARE CERTAIN HERE IS A GREAT FIND ”
—New York Evening Post.
QUEENA MARIO
METROPOLITAN OPERA COMPANY
New York Herald:
Queena Mario in Role of Juliette at Metropolitan
Takes Place of Miss Bori
“Romeo et Juliette” had its seventh performance at the Metropolitan Opera House last evening. There was an important change in the cast. Miss Queena Mario, who had been heard recently as Micaela in “Carmen,” took Miss Bori’s place as Juliette. She was very successful in the role. She sang her music with lovely voice and exquisite finish. Her acting and appearance had the naive and beauteous charm of youth.
Brooklyn Daily Eagle:
A New Juliet
At the repetition of Gounod’s “Romeo et Juliette,” at the Metropolitan Opera House Saturday night, the cast was as usual except for the title roles. The Juliet was the young American soprano, Queena Mario, who has sung the role with other companies, but this was her first appearance at the Metropolitan in such an important part. At her very first appearance she had the audience in her favor, for she was captivatingly beautiful in her girlish figure and winsome, vivacious and expressive face. Her voice is a pure soprano and she uses it after the manner of her famous teacher, Marcella Sembrich, whom she more than once recalled during the course of the evening. She sang the famous waltz song in a way that suggested that perfection is not such an unattainable attribute after all. At least, not for her. This song, to be sung properly, requires more than merely correct singing—although in the “coloratura” class it must be sung with feeling and with an expression of naive, childish joy that most singers capable of mastering the music are unable to impart to it. Also, in the tragic closing scene, Miss Mario’s acting and singing both conveyed the idea of infinite pathos. The performance of the opera as a whole was not a whit behind the other performances it has had this season—a production for which Mr. Gatti deserves much credit.
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New York Times:
Queena Mario was a new Juliet, whose waltz song was worthy of her own model, Mme. Sembrich, in its creamy vocal coloratura. She charmed eye as well as ear, and acted with tenderness the tragic ending.
Photo by Hartsook, N. Y.
As Juliet
(ROMEO AND JULIET) Metropolitan Opera House, Feb. 10
every angle as one might see in a decade.
And with Mr. Johnson was Queena Mario, lovely to see and singing with the cool crys-tality of a dream figure. Her voice is not cold, but it has just the ethereal quality, bordering upon the cool, which is virginal and hauntingly beautiful. To one hearer at least it was one of the two most memorable performances of the year, taken all in all. The other was the Easton-Johnson “Carmen” of a few weeks ago, also on a Saturday night.
New York Morning Telegraph:
Queena Mario Sings Juliette Beautifully
Little Queena Mario made her New York debut as Juliette last evening and scored an immediate and substantial success, giving a remarkably fine vocal performance and impersonating the guileless sweetheart in a manner so guileless and untheatric as to charm the big audience which heard her for the first time. Those who witnessed Miss Mario’s lovely Micaela early this season were not surprised, but they were delighted with her Juliette, and with Edward Johnson as her Romeo she achieved a distinct and gratifying triumph. It was a fine all-around performance in which the entire cast gave impetus and cordial support to the two youthful and (to the Metropolitan clientele) new American artists.
New York Evening Post:
Queena Mario Is a Fascinating Juliet
Her First Appearance in That Part at the Metropolitan
The conviction grows that at the Metropolitan Opera House on Saturday night New York entertained an angel unawares, in the girlish personality of Queena Mario as Juliette. This young woman grew in beauty, charm and grace as the story unfolded. She had a rarely sympathetic manner, the artless, unsophisticated charm of youth, and a voice that was not only true to pitch, but one that gave at times unusual sensuous pleasure and was full of expression and extremely beautiful. She exhibited some nervousness of manner and delivery in her first solo in the Capulet mansion, but quickly discovered that the audience was disposed to be kind and appreciative, and thereafter was at ease and unmistakably sure of herself.
There were moments in the balcony scene and duet that recalled Geraldine Farrar and Emma Eames at their best, both vocally and pictorially.
There were many unmistakable signs of surprised approval and satisfaction in the audience, for it is not the custom of impresarios to launch worth-while newcomers on a Saturday night. But we are certain from a long experience with Juliettes of all ages, avoirdupois, nationalities and degrees of pulchritude, both on the operatic and dramatic stage, that here is a great “find.”
The picture and the chaste, delightful pose of the lovers which was revealed as the curtain rose on Juliette’s bedchamber were beautiful, and the action and singing were truly a delight, depicted, with such ,moving expressiveness, both in voice and action, that the audience was electrified and in many instances tearful. There was an entire ab-scence in both Romeo and Juliette of that sophisticated operatic mannerism to which seasoned operagoers are accustomed, and in its stead youthful spontaneity and charm. The voices of both grew in beauty as the opera progressed.
Mile. Mario will become a favorite at the opera house if she is given the opportunity.
She was gowned in such perfect taste that she seemed truly to be the petted daughter of the wealthy and exclusive house of Capulet.
New York World:
Saturday night at the Metropolitan the dream of more than one habitual opera-goer came true. The fortunates who were there saw and heard a performance of “Romeo et Juliette” which was as nearly perfect from
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