Metropolitan Opera Archives

While meriting the most hearty praise for the reverent spirit with which they approached Mozart's masterpiece, it must be said that the German artists at the Metropolitan Opera House did not achieve a success in the representation of "Don Juan" last night at all comparable with that which crowned their efforts in the great German operas that they have given us. "Don Giovanni" is essentially Italian and it loses much of its spirit and nearly, if not quite, all its elasticity when translated and put into the hands of German singers?The dialogue and many of the recitations and arias demand a flexibility of utterance which is not native to the German tongue, and as much of the humor of the piece ("Don Giovanni" is in spite of its tragic conclusion an opera buffa) lies in those portions, there is naturally a lack in a German perforrnance of the work.

Review 2:

Review by W. J. Henderson, New York Times:

The largest share of the honor of the evening was born by Frau Schröder-Hanfstängl, whose Donna Anna, from a dramatic as well as a lyric standpoint, was an admirable performance. The prima donna is one of the few artists of the age in whose style the grace and beauty of Italian methods are combined with the sincerity and accent of singers of the German school. From this it may be infrerred that the lovely numbers of Mozart's score, in which the influence of Italian masters and memories is perceptible in every measure, lost none of their honeyed sweeetness in her hands. Commencing with "Or sai che l'onore," in which expression and purely sensuous beauty of progression and tone are so happily united, Mme Schröder-Hanfstängl's singing and acting may be described as of the very highest order. Fräulein Brandt was of course a capital Donna Elvira.

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