[Met Tour] CID:1740



Don Giovanni
Haverly's Theatre, Chicago, Illinois, Thu, January 24, 1884




Don Giovanni (6)
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart | Lorenzo Da Ponte
Don Giovanni
Giuseppe Kaschmann

Donna Anna
Emmy Fursch-Madi

Don Ottavio
Roberto Stagno

Donna Elvira
Alwina Valleria

Leporello
Giovanni Mirabella

Zerlina
Sofia Scalchi

Masetto
Baldassare Corsini

Commendatore
Achille Augier


Conductor
Auguste Vianesi





In response to ovations, Roberto Stagno repeated "Il mio tesoro" and Sofia Scalchi repeated "Batti, batti" and "Vedrai carino." The duet, "L? ci darem la mano" was also repeated.

Review 1:

Review in the Chicago Evening Journal:

DON GIOVANNI: Last night's performance at Haverly's

The great composer Gounod said that his first musical impulse and inspiration came from being taken by his mother to hear Mozart's "Don Giovanni." So profound was the impression that from that hour his fate was fixed. It also gave him a standard toward which forever to aspire. "When I was young" he added, "I used to talk of "I and Mozart. Later I said Mozart and I; now I say Mozart!" If Theodore Thomas is asked who is the greatest of composers, without wholly committing himself he will answer, "If any one, Mozart," and such tributes might be gathered from among musicians small and great, by the score. Of this (by so many esteemed) greatest master "Don Giovanni" is the greatest work. In music it is simply what "Hamlet" is to literature.

But whether from disgust at its four disappointments of the week, or because the greatest singers never condescend to appear in "Don Giovanni," or because Mr. Arnold offered a strong counter attraction to "the best people" at the Music Hall, certain it is that a sadly-diminished audience greeted a very smooth, evenly-balanced and enjoyable performance of the greatest opera in the world. The only unpardonable feature was in the failure to carry out the finale as the composer ordained, and as we have never heard of it otherwise - viz: by causing the heaven-defying libertine and rebel to sink into the abyss which flames up around him! To deny its legitimate climax to this mighty work, and substitute a simple rolling of Don Giovanni dead on the floor, is a pitiful economy in a great enterprise so much heralded as was Mr. Abbey's company that is simply an outrage. Except for this unpardonable negation, the only weak feature of the performance was the orchestra. It was not a masterly Thomas orchestra, or a delicate Damrosch one that we heard in those rough and crude accompaniments, but even inartistic playing could not subtract from the wealth of that ceaseless stream of noble ideas or greatly mar their deep and delicious beauty.

It is a sad comment of the musical immaturity of the public that most of them were conspicuous by their absence last night, and that, of those that were present, only a few knew enough to applaud where applause was most abundantly due. The two sopranos, Mme. Fursch-Madi and Mlle. Valleria, with the contralto Mme. Scalchi, made a trio as delightful in the solo parts as it was harmonious in the concerted ones. All these artists acted admirably. Mme. Fursch-Madi, as Donna Anna, with warmth and sentiment, and a "coloratura" truly remarkable. Mme. Valleria as the wronged Elvira with passion, while Mme. Scalchi's Zerlina was irresistible in its charming grace, good nature and coquetry - was the sweetest little peasant bride in the world. Her singing of her famous arias was ravishing and gained her all the encores of the evening, with one exception, viz, the delicious trio by the tenor and two soprani toward the end of the first act. Strange that the impassive audience had even sense enough for that as the magnificent sextet and chorus which soon followed, in which, the victims are all imprecating the brazen and unrepentant Juan, and which was a grand dramatic and musical climax passed almost unnoticed!

Kaschmann's Don was excellent, as he always is, though he is somewhat too German - i. e. heavy in appearance and style - for this "gilded youth." Fired with reckless Southern blood and flushed with aristocratic insouciance, his lovely duet, "La ci darem la mano," with Zerlina, and his serenade were much enjoyed and applauded. Signor Mirabella as Leporello, sang well, and was very spirited, but was hardly rollicking enough. As Don Ottavio, Signor Stagno was charming, the celebrated solo "Il mio Tesoro" richly deserving an encore. Corsini sang and acted Masetto extremely well, but his makeup for Zerlina's husband was absurd. Why should he have made himself such a clown, when of course, like Zerlina herself, he must have been one of those brilliant and picturesque Spanish peasants that one knows by heart? The Commandant was the only inadequate presentation. Signor Novara should have taken the role - and why, as the statue, did Signor Augier appear as if dressed in gray india rubber, with face and beard also of a dirt grey, instead of being all white, like marble? There was simply no ghostly effect whatever. He might have been a coachman in a rubber overcoat as well as anything.



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