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[Met Performance] CID:252840



Don Giovanni
Metropolitan Opera House, Mon, April 3, 1978

Debut : Anna Tomowa-Sintow









Review 1:

Donal Henehan in The New York Times
Opera Met’s “Don Giovanni”
Several Key Roles are in Hands of Newcomers as Company Gives 8th Performance of Work

"Don Giovanni," like other Mozart operas, demands a level of ensemble work and staging coordination far beyond the normal operatic requirements. Perhaps that partly explains why last night's performance at the Metropolitan, the season's eighth for the work, failed to come together in spite of several strong individual contributions.

An almost complete change of cast left only two singers from the earlier performances. John Macurdy as the Commendatore and Allan Monk as Masetto. Several key roles were in the hands of newcomers. John Pritchard was conducting his first Metropolitan "Don Giovanni," Elizabeth Harwood was singing her first Metropolitan Donna Elvira, and the Bulgarian soprano Anna Tomowa-Sintow was making her Metropolitan debut in the role of Donna Anna. This adds up to a lot of changes for a Mozart production to swallow in one gulp.

Fortunately, the two leading male roles were handled by two of the company's most trustworthy singing actors, Sherrill Mines as Giovanni and Donald Gramm as Leporello. They kept the performance glued together with some success even when Mr. Pritchard's pedestrian conducting with its determinedly undramatic approach threatened to induce sleep. The Commendatore scenes, which are difficult to make dull, were just that, and some unsteady singing by Mr. Macurdy was no help.

Mr. MiInes's Giovanni, a strenuously athletic portrayal, lacked great nuance but certainly exuded the necessary sensuality. There was an interesting undercurrent of anger and frustration in this aristocrat, with his overbearing manner to everyone, high and low, and his total lack of reliance on charm. Mr. Milnes, at any rate, is one of the few males in opera who can look virile while wearing knee britches and pink stockings. Mr. Gramm's Leporello, although a bit more suave than the loutish but shrewd retainer usually is made to seem, was a treat vocally and a welcome source of humor.

Miss Tomowa-Sintow is a spinto soprano with one of those clear, cool voices that seem to grow best in Slavic soil. In dramatic pages such as "Or sai qui l'onore" she tended toward a metallic head tone, but elsewhere, as in her gentler "Non mi dir," she proved capable of a more velvety quality. Like many singers who make careers in Germany, Miss Tomowa-Sintow sings in a fluttery, instrumental style that is nicely suited to ensemble work but lacks the individual timbre that an interesting soloist must have. Nevertheless, the Bulgarian soprano impressed one as a reliable artist, if not one of flaming temperament.

Miss Harwood's Donna Elvira was a remarkably pallid character with whom it was hard to sympathize even though Mozart's music plainly asked us to do so. Vocal quality came and went unpredictably, a few good upper notes ringing out well but middle and lower ones often being swallowed or passed over lightly. Stuart Burrows, dramatically a cipher as Ottavio, sang with good taste, though effortfully at times. Roberta Peters, whose voice is still in good shape but has lost most of its beauty, was the aggressively pert Zerlina.

Search by season: 1977-78

Search by title: Don Giovanni,



Met careers

• John Pritchard [Conductor]
• Sherrill Milnes [Don Giovanni]
• Anna Tomowa-Sintow [Donna Anna]
• Stuart Burrows [Don Ottavio]
• Elizabeth Harwood [Donna Elvira]
• Donald Gramm [Leporello]
• Roberta Peters [Zerlina]
• Allan Monk [Masetto]
• John Macurdy [Commendatore]