[Met Performance] CID:155270



Don Giovanni
Metropolitan Opera House, Tue, December 5, 1950




Don Giovanni (153)
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart | Lorenzo Da Ponte
Don Giovanni
Paolo Silveri

Donna Anna
Ljuba Welitsch

Don Ottavio
Eugene Conley

Donna Elvira
Eleanor Steber

Leporello
Virgilio Lazzari [Last performance]

Zerlina
Patrice Munsel

Masetto
Hugh Thompson

Commendatore
Nicola Moscona


Conductor
Fritz Reiner







Review 1:

James Hinton Jr. in Musical America

A great artist – in the most considered use of that abused phrase – returned to the stage of the Metropolitan when Virgilio Lazzari made his season debut as Leporello in the fifth performance of  “Don Giovanni.”

 

Leporello is not a role in which Mr. Lazzari has had a chance to become very familiar to New York audiences, which have more frequently experienced the imperiousness of his Ramfis; the kindly bewildered nobility of his Lothario; the sturdy humanity of his Bide-de-Bent; and, above all, the majesty of the sorry and inflexible retribution and the final aloneness of his Archibaldo. He is not a buffo bass; but then Leporello is not in any complete sense a buffo role.

 

There are subtleties in Mr. Lazzari’s conception that preclude a buffoonish impersonation. His Leporello is the common man, the observer. Ever present, he remains largely outside the mainstream of the action, performing his function as commentator and as an insouciant foil for the tragic involvements of the other characters. He is part of the story only through his connection with Don Giovanni –  a connection he is unwilling to terminate, however much he may complain, because of his plebian fascination with the Don’s amatory prowess. When the end comes, this Leoprello’s only concern is with finding a new master. Seeing no contradiction with his past behavior, he joins in whole-heartedly with the others: “E de’ perfidy la morte, all vita è sempre, sempre ugual.” He has been a faithful servant; now it is all over. He, of all the major participants, has come through unaffected.

 

This intelligent, fundamentally self-effacing view of Leporello was superbly projected by Mr. Lazzari in his expertly pointed molding together of text and musical line and in his unwavering command of all the devices of operatic acting. Nothing he did was aimed at mere self-display, yet his characterization came across the footlights clear, incisive and perfectly integrated. He is indeed an artist to be honored, and if in his sixtieth year (his 32nd on the American opera stage) his voice lacked some of its former magnificence, only the most superficial scale of values would permit criticism.

 

Patrice Munsel made her first appearance of the season as Zerlina, and sang and acted with a great deal of charm. The rest of the cast was as before – Paolo Silveri, a Don Giovanni of excellent stylistic qualities and solid accomplishments, and Ljuba Welitsch, Eleanor Steber, Eugene Conley, Nicola Moscona  and Hugh Thompson. Fritz Reiner again conducted.



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