[Met Performance] CID:306010



Don Giovanni
Metropolitan Opera House, Tue, September 24, 1991

Debut : Carolyn James, Ruth Ann Swenson




Don Giovanni (414)
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart | Lorenzo Da Ponte
Don Giovanni
Ferruccio Furlanetto

Donna Anna
Carolyn James [Debut]

Don Ottavio
Stanford Olsen

Donna Elvira
Judith Forst

Leporello
Timothy Noble

Zerlina
Ruth Ann Swenson [Debut]

Masetto
Julien Robbins

Commendatore
Dimitri Kavrakos


Conductor
James Levine


Production
Franco Zeffirelli

Costume Designer
Anna Anni

Lighting Designer
Gil Wechsler

Choreographer
Norbert Vesak

Stage Director
Lesley Koenig





Don Giovanni received eleven performances this season.

Review 1:

Bill Zakariasen in the Daily News
Grand Old Opening at the Met

[first] week of the Metropolitan Opera's 1991-92 season coincidentally began just as a puff piece on the Met Orchestra was printed in the current issue of Newsweek The piece reiterates the claim that only recently has the orchestra been playing on an international level, when the truth is it has always sounded fine when led by a first-rate conductor.


However, this goes mainly for the orchestra's collective efforts — now, as then, solo players have often been a truculent lot regarding intonation. A case in point was Wednesday's performance of Verdi's "Un Ballo in Maschera," in which the extensive solos by cello and English horn were largely painful to hear.


Yet, there were some interesting things to experience in "Ballo" and in Mozart's "Don Giovanni" the previous night. "Don," excitingly conducted by James Levine, benefited from a strong male lineup.


Ferruccio Furlanetto was convincingly seductive in the title role, while his velvet-textured bass recalls Cesare Siepi — a good role model, indeed. Tenor Stanford Olsen played a rather wimpy Don Ottavio, but he sang with lovely tone and model control. Though his low notes tended to dry up, baritone Timothy Noble played a most likeably crafty Leporello, reminiscent of Alan Hale in the Errol Flynn "Don Juan" movie. Basses Dimitri Kavrakos (Commendatore) and Julien Robbins (Masetto) were, likewise, very satisfactory.


Soprano Ruth Ann Swenson, making her Met stage debut, delivered a pert, limpidly sung Zerlina, and though soprano Carolyn James (another debutante) sang accurately, she didn't have enough vocal heft for Donna Anna.


Also, mezzo Judith Forst's effortful singing above the staff proved the soprano role of Donna Elvira is not yet for her.



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