French Tenor

Famed French musicians are few--the U. S. public knows the names of Conductor Pierre Monteux, Pianist Alfred Cortot and a few others. Of the 97 principals in the Metropolitan Opera Company, in recent years there has been but one French singer, Basso Leon Rothier. Last week Basso Rothier was joined by a compatriot--Tenor Antonin Trantoul, a native of Toulouse and War veteran whose singing has won high praise in Paris, Italy, South America. He sang Faust in the Metropolitan's 200th performance of the Gounod opera. He was weak-voiced, uneven and unduly doddering as the aged philosopher. Transformed by Mephistopheles, stripped of his old-man's robe and shorn of beard and matted wig, he revealed unromantic jowls above a figure sadly heavy for his 38 years. Thereupon he proceeded with an impersonation of the love-struck cavalier which, if well-routined, had little to distinguish it from a dozen others.

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