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OperaNotes Review
Metropolitan Opera House
March 16, 2004
By Charlene Frank
Don Giovanni
Music: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Conductor:
James Levine
Libretto: Lorenzo da Ponte
Production: Marthe Keller
Set Designer: Michael Yeargan
Costume Designer:
Christine Rabot-Pinson
Cast:
Don Giovanni: Thomas
Hampson
Leoporello: René Pape
Donna Anna: Anja Harteros
The Commendatore: Phillip Ens
Don Ottavio: Gregory Turay
Donna Elvira: Christine
Goerke
Zerlina: Hei-Kyung Hong
Masetto: IIdar
Abdrazakov
Another home run in the season 2003-3004 for Jimmy Levine and Joe Volpe! You go boys! They came out strong in the beginning of the season with La Juive and Tristan and Isolde, kept hitting them out of the park through the middle of the season with Barbiere, Werther, Traviata, Tosca (with Pavarotti), and L'italiana (just to name a few)and now that the end of the season is nearing, the home runs are still flying with Mozart's dark comedy Don Giovanni, and the Ring is a guaranteed Grand Slam! I can't imagine that there is another opera house in the world having a season like this! It's been so incredible that I want to fill this review with baseball analogies! Where is that coming from? I never do that! Well, I have to say it. The season hasn't been perfect. There was a strike-out with Rigoletto. But they get to close with Ramon Vargas in the new Rigoletto cast next month. So after tonight's Don Giovanni, (your production is a real winner Marthe Keller - you go girl!) if there were an Opera World Series, it would be the New York Mets (hey, don't confuse that with the guys from Shea, I'm talking Met Opera here) all the way!
Thomas Hampson (Don Giovanni) was an incredible slime. I hated him. I wanted him to pay for his sins. Even with his strong, beautiful baritone and his very good looks, I hated him. Perfect. I was supposed to hate him, love him, hate him, and I did! What a great team he and René Pape (Leoporello) make. Add Christine Goerke (Donna Elivra) and Hei-Kyung Hong to that team and it is unbeatable. Top it off with Anja Harteros (Donna Anna) and Ildar Abdrazakov, (Masetto) and, well, you have a production that excels to the degree of tonight's superb performance of Don Giovanni.
René Pape's incredible bass boomed throughout the Met. But he didn't just boom, he boomed perfectly. That's what makes him so unique. Everything good that has ever been said about him is true. The audience adored him. He may be known for his Wagnerian repertoire, but as Leoporello he is a natural comedian. He can act, he can sing and he's good looking. Not bad. And he was no mere accompaniment to Mr. Hampson. He may have been playing the Don's disgruntled sidekick, but he was a star in his own right on the stage. I hope we'll be seeing lots more of René Pape.
I have seen Christine Goerke before in some not so memorable performances, but in her role as Donna Elvira, the jilted lover of Don Giovanni who wants to kill him, marry him, kill him, marry him, Ms Goerke hit gold. I was surprised that she is billed as a soprano, because I really thought she was a mezzo, and a darn good one at that. But like they say about a Rose - no matter what it is called, it still smells as sweet. So, soprano or mezzo, it doesn't matter, she still sounds as sweet.
This is the second role Anja Harteros (Donna Anna) is performing at the Met this season. She's having a very good year. She began the season with Le Nozze di Figaro, and made it to the top with this role as Donna Anna. Her splendid soprano rang with emotions. Don Giovanni climbed into her bedroom and raped her. He then murdered her father. You could hear and you could see that she was barely hanging onto her sanity. She was as vulnerable as Don Giovanni was unrepentant. The man who loves her, Don Ottavio (Gregory Turay) was the weakest link in this cast, but he wasn't so weak that he brought the cast down. His voice was shaky when it began to climb, but once it got to the top, he was clear and quite good. We didn't get to see much of baritone Phillip Ens (Commendatore), but both times he was on stage he presence was poignant.
IIdar Abdrazakov (Masetto) is a baritone to keep your eye on. He can act, he too is good looking (a night full of good looking men), and his full, strong baritone was yet another reason that trudging across town, or driving into Manhattan to go to the Met on this freezing, slippery, snowy night was well worth it. Patrick Carfizzi will have major shoes to fill when he takes this role on March 20th. The large Abdrazakov and the tiny Hei-Kyung Hong (Zerlina) with her sweet, light soprano were an excellent match. And those red shoes, well, they may not have been in the style of 17th century Spain, but she surely knew how to use them.
You have two more chances to see this incredible gift the Met is giving us. Even with the crazy weather we are having this month, get out and see this opera.