BWW Reviews: With Mattei as the Lead and Gilbert at the Helm, GIOVANNI Settles the Score at the Met

I consider Mozart's DON GIOVANNI at the top of my list of favorite operas--the music starts to go through my head without much encouragement and gets stuck there. Yet, it's also one of the most problematic in performance, calling for a large group of A-list singers to do justice to the ripe and sometimes rollicking score--and frequently falling short. Luckily for current audiences at the Met, the cast is headed by Swedish baritone Peter Mattei, who already triumphed in Mozart at the Met this season in the new NOZZE DI FIGARO and there are enough other first-rate principals to make it work.

It's not just the singing that makes Mattei such a wonderful Don. In fact, I wonder if there are any other title roles in opera that have as little solo singing to do as in DON GIOVANNI. I doubt it, but that's not the point. He's the glue that holds the opera together. Mattei does that and then some. He's not one of the irresistible Dons, while also not being too repulsive (though even that can work with the right performer). He's more like the Count in FIGARO--his droit de seigneur is enough to get him where he wants to go. The "Champagne Aria" (sans champagne here) and "Deh vieni alla finestra" (and, of course, "La ci darem la mano" with Zerlina) are pretty modest assignments for the star of the show, but Mattei gave adroit accounts of all three.

Baritone Luca Pisaroni was an exemplary Leporello, manservant to the Don. In some ways he was the perfect counterpoint to his boss--slightly goofy to the Don's worldliness, resigned to Giovanni's assertiveness, glad when a bone is thrown his way. He bore a physical resemblance to the Don that is always a useful element in the scene where they switch clothes to trick Elvira, Masetto and the other townspeople. His "Catalogue Aria" was great fun--except, of course, for Elvira, who found out exactly how far down the pecking order she really was in the Don's conquests.

Soprano Elza van den Heever--the wonderful Elisabetta of last season's MARIA STUARDA--was an excellent Donna Anna, full voiced and manipulative of her sad sack courter, Don Ottavio. I kept wondering, however, whether she would have been even better as Elvira, where her spirited singing would have been put to better use. Mezzo Kate Lindsey, who did such a fine job as Nicklausse in LES CONTES D'HOFFMAN, was an unusually self-assured Zerlina and her timbre brought a unique quality to her ensemble numbers. Baritone Adam Plachetka made a fine debut as Massetto, who seemed more of a bumpkin than usually seen, but was the perfect opposite to Zerlina. Veteran James Morris brought the right creepy note to the return of the Commendatore, as he brings down the Don.

On the down side, there were soprano Emma Bell as Donna Elvira and Dmitry Korshak as Don Ottavio. Bell had an unpleasant hooty quality that I don't associate at all with Elvira but, as I earlier alluded, might have worked better as Anna. Korshak seemed to be having an off (key) night for his company debut (I heard he was better at the dress rehearsal).

Who had the best time at the performance? My vote would go to conductor Alan Gilbert, who led a lively performance from the orchestra and singers and seemed to be enjoying every minute of it. He should be back regularly.

As for the production: What was Michael Grandage--who built his stellar reputation at the Donmar Warehouse theatre company in London--thinking when he came up with this non-starter in 2011? The answer, I suppose, was "not much." There's nothing worse than a concept without a point of view--and this was one of them. His co-conspirators--Christopher Oram (sets and costumes) and Paule Constable (lighting)--produced a drab image for the piece.

Luckily, the cast did much to make us forget the physical aspects of the show. After all, in Mozart, the score's thing thing--and what a score this is.

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Photo: Kate Lindsey as Zerlina, Peter Mattei in the title role, and Emma Bell as Donna Elvira.

Photo by Marty Sohl/Metropolitan Opera.

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