Gratuitous Musickal Posting (TM)

In the bad boy spirit in which I am living my temporary bachelorhood, I sat down last evening to watch the 1999 Metropolitan Opera production of Mozart's Don Giovanni, Netflix having graciously decided to send me the first act after all.

Care to hear about it?

Jolly good.

Over all, I have to say that although I'm glad I finally saw this production, I'm equally glad I rented the DVD instead of buying it. This is because, although I think the production had a great deal going for it, I was pretty disappointed with the overall quality of the singing. It struck me as the evening went on that this might have been due to the fact that it was a Met production: The Met is pretty damn big as opera houses go, and certainly much larger than anything Mozart ever contemplated. I think that its vast size encourages singers to shout and shriek in order to be heard in the back. And that's just what practically everybody did at one time or another here.

Bryn Terfel played the title role. I know what Terfel is capable of - I have a recording of him singing Figaro in J.E. Gardiner's staging of Le Nozze di Same and he is terrific, a solid but wonderfully nuanced bass-baritone. While that quality occassionally welled up here, he also did a good bit of barking and bellowing.

There's no denying Terfel's terrific stage presence either and his Don is practically Miltonian in his evil. I liked this a lot, but at the same time I don't really believe Terfel is cut out for the part: Giovanni, on top of all his wickedness, has a keen sense of pride and of his own nobility (however twisted), plus a malevolent charm that he turns on to seduce the ladies. To pull this off, I think the singer has to look the part - haughty, aristocratic and smooth or ferocious as necessary. (Rodney Gilfrey is a name that comes to mind.) Terfel just comes across looking loutish.

Ferruccio Furlanetto plays the Don's servant Leporello with a pretty nifty combination of alarm and opportunism. I understand from reading other reviews that he's made something of a specialty of this role and it shows.

Solveig Kringelborn plays Donna Elvira and she is really something worth watching, telegraphing beautifully the internal conflict between her desire for vengeance on the Don for abandoning her and hoping he'll take her back. At one point, Giovanni dismisses her with a simple "e pazza" - "she's crazy." The complexity of character that Mozart and Da Ponte manage to bring to this piece allow you to feel pity for Elvira while at the same time acknowledging that Giovanni is right about her - she is a little crazy. Kringelborn understands this perfectly.

Renee Fleming plays Donna Anna and frankly, I don't understand what all the fuss is about. Fleming's voice had enough vibratto in it to set my molars humming and of the entire cast, she was the most guilty of shrieking. Granted, Anna, who (at least somewhat unwillingly) lets Giovanni have his way with her and then sees her father murdered at the beginning of the story has plenty to shriek about. But this is no excuse to treat her with the kind of technique better suited to 19th Century pieces. Also, it didn't strike me that Fleming meshed that well with the other singers - she seemed to have "Diva" stamped on her forehead, belting out her bits and damning everyone else to keep up with her.

On the other hand, Paul Groves was excellent as Don Ottavio, Donna Anna's fiance. Ottavio, as is the case with most romantic straight-men, is a thankless role. But Groves brought a genuine nobility and decency to it that wonderfully counterbalanced Giovanni's malevolence. Further, he projected strength, which doesn't always happen with this part. During the party scene, he didn't back down an inch when confronting Giovanni with his attempted rape of Zerlina.

Speaking of Zerlina, she was played by Hei-Kyung Hong. I never really warmed up to her. In getting tangled up with the Don, Zerlina soon discovers she's way out of her league. But within her own boundaries, she's as street-smart as anybody. Frankly, I thought Hong put too much sweet innocence into her character.

On the other hand, I thought John Relyea looked far too smart for Zerlina's betrothed, Mazetto. Mazetto is a young bull, a country bumpkin full of passion but not too bright. This is why Zerlina is able to handle him so easily. Relyea's face was too quick, too intelligent to let him seem a believable fool, although he sang quite well, indeed.

Rounding out the cast, Sergei Koptchak did just fine as the Commendatore, solemn, dignified and, when in the form of the statue, suitably imposing and scary.

I don't have much to say about the production - sets, costumes and staging were very straight-forward and conventional and well done. My only real beef here was that the chorus of demons at the climax stayed offstage. I know the stage directions are vague on this point, but it has always struck me that having them pull the Don down into the pit is a very dramatic touch. Otherwise, as here, Giovanni's slide into the gates of hell sometimes seems, well, weak and anti-climactic. (Oh, and what was with Leporello getting pulled in as well?) Apart from that, all was well, although I thought a curtain call at intermission was a bit much.

Finally, let me highlight the very best aspect of this production: the music itself. James Levine conducted the Met Orchestra and it was pure pleasure from start to finish - crisp, neat and of a sound quality that really allows one to take in all of the parts - I was hearing things last evening that I'd never noticed before, despite having listened to this opera many, many times. Just supurb. In fact, I was quite puzzled as to why the orchestra shone so well and none of the singers managed to do so.

It was perfectly evident that Levine loves this opera, but I really think he'd have been better off with fewer camera shots. While I don't for an instant doubt the sincerity of his bobbing and weaving, his facial expressions and his happy pom-pom-pomming along, the effect is of Lou Costello's artsy brother, the one who went to Julliard instead of Vaudeville. On the other hand, if he can constistently produce such Heavenly sounds, I'll spot him all the mannerisms he wants.

So there you have it. Overall, worth watching but, at least in my mind, not really a keeper.