Second cast provides comparable rewards in Met’s “Don Giovanni”
The monotonous Ivo van Hove staging remains the same, but the cast is new for the final performances of Don Giovanni at the Metropolitan Opera. With one of the great opera scores and another group of superb singers, the music making is still a compelling reason to see this show.
This new cast is different in interesting ways from that on opening night, but no less accomplished. There may be lower individual peaks but as an ensemble this group is vocally and dramatically rich, with a balance and interaction that made Tuesday night’s performance engrossing and satisfying.
Don Giovanni is bass-baritone Kyle Ketelsen and Leporello is bass-baritone Tommaso Barea. The two make an excellent, natural pairing, with a real doppelgänger quality, as if Leporello is a younger version of the Don. With strong, resonant voices very close in timbre, this made the tricky relationship between the two characters solid and clear. Ketelsen was haughty, his malevolence a kind of smug, mocking condescension to both Leporello and everyone around him, while Barca was loose and leaned into the comedy with an assured and almost casual “Catalogue” aria.
Soprano Guanquan Yu is Donna Anna and tenor Paul Appleby is Don Ottavio, another fine pair. Not as immediately dynamic as the first cast of Federica Lombardi and Ben Bliss, these are two elegant singers who brought a classic feel for line and phrasing to their performances. These were interpretations that built over time, and accumulation of expression that primed the ear for gorgeous and affecting singing, with a sensational “Il mio tesoro” from Appleby and a fabulous “Non mi dir” from Yu in Act II.
There were surprises with Zerlina and Donna Elvira. Soprano Andrea Carroll sang Zerlina. She doesn’t have the ingenue quality one is used to in the role, her voice is indeed youthful but with a touch of worldliness instead of remnants of childhood. This made her both innocent and also a touch seductive in an effective way. “Là ci darem la mano” with Masetto—the solid bass-baritone Brandon Cedel, with his own effective bluntness and comedic charm—had a lovely sound and was sweet and also teasing. Like with the Don and Leporello, Carroll had the exact balance between Zerlina’s inexperience and self-assurance.
Soprano Anita Hartig is Donna Elvira, and was perhaps the star of the evening. Her sound was full of rounded beauty, floating above the music, and her phrasing was as simple and sensible as can be. As good as the whole performance had been from the start, her “Ah! Chi mi dice mai” was so elegant and expressive that it moved everything to a different level. The standard in this brief aria is a quasi-vengeful vehemence, with Hartig it was an uncommon wounded dignity and pathos. She kept this even in the character’s moments of deepest anger. This was deeply musical and deeply artistic.
In his first assignment since being named principal guest conductor, Daniele Rustioni conducts these performances, and he elicited smooth though sometimes stolid playing from the orchestra. There were times when the singers, clearly feeling something, tried to push the intensity and tempo—Ketelsen did this frequently and with energy—but Rustioni refused to go along. That said, his pacing of the penultimate scene, with bass Soloman Howard his commanding self as the Commendatore, was exquisite.
Don Giovanni runs through November 22. metopera.org
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