[Met Performance] CID:2210



Don Giovanni
Metropolitan Opera House, Wed, March 12, 1884




Don Giovanni (11)
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart | Lorenzo Da Ponte
Don Giovanni
Giuseppe Kaschmann

Donna Anna
Emmy Fursch-Madi

Don Ottavio
Roberto Stagno

Donna Elvira
Christine Nilsson

Leporello
Giovanni Mirabella

Zerlina
Marcella Sembrich

Masetto
Baldassare Corsini

Commendatore
Achille Augier


Conductor
Auguste Vianesi







Review 1:

Review in the Herald:

METROPOLITAN OPERA HOUSE

Among the many things which will keep Mr. Abbey's operatic administration in fragrant memory, hereafter, will be the earnest efforts put forth by him to present the great works in the literature of Italian and French opera in a thoroughly meritorious manner. The record has not been one of unalloyed pleasure, for the brighter the moonshine the deeper the shadows, and an admirable performance in one scene raises the standard of all that follow. And so it has happened that the very fact the Mr. Abbey has presented some of the masterpieces with an equipment the like of which has not been seen here before, has challenged a standard of creation the need of which has not been felt before. Cuts in the scores of works which have heretofore excited no comment have this year been condemned, and the superior excellence of the majority of the artists has caused the shortcomings of an individual to be severely criticized. There is no occasion for regret in this, for it has been a healthy experience which can only result in the advancement of public taste. But the pleasures have so greatly outnumbered the disappointments that no doubt in the future the season of 1883-84 will be a frequent basis for comparison for all the things that go to make up an operatic performance.

Only the new standard of judgment would pick flaws in such a performance of "Don Giovanni" as was given last night. Those that must be enumerated are the consequences, for the greater part, of organic troubles. The orchestra, generally most praiseworthy in the spirit of its performances and the precision and promptness with which it has followed the firm, decisive leadership of Signor Vianesi, has not been healed of the infirmities which have heretofore been pointed out. It has the common fault of a discordant wind choir. The fact was never more fragrantly apparent than at the first performance of "Don Giovanni" in the fall season, when Signor Vianesi attempted to give the finale of the first act in the style which has become traditional. In London - with an arrangement of the triple rhythms for wind instruments. The result was such an assault upon all ears that the experiment was never repeated, and we have had to put up ever since with what is little better than a perversion of the most thrilling of all operatic finales. An ideal performance of Mozart's masterpiece, however, will not be seen until that finale is given with all the pomp of scenic decoration, and all the strength of musical forces contemplated by Mozart. The suite of rooms, the balconies with the separate orchestras, the minuet, contra-dance and waltz, the numerous company of gaily dressed merry-makers, and an excitement of the stage as feverish as that which seizes the dramatic orchestra when Zerlina scream is heard.

We must yet wait for such a performance of the first finale and be cheered, meanwhile, by the reflection that when it becomes possible it will unquestionably be given with the appropriate spectacular d?nouement which is even more uncommon abroad than a worthy musical representation of the end of the first act.

In the d?unemont last night lay the only difference between the representation and those of the fall season. The tableau disclosed by the withdrawal of the curtains in the rear, after Don Giovanni has met his fate, was omitted. It was easily spared, for it was but a sorry makeshift. "Don Giovanni" was constructed for the sake of a lurid end; it might as well have it, ridiculous red devils and all, until a stage manager comes who will invent a tableau worthy of the dramatic situation and the music. The characters were distributed among the same persons as before; Mme. Nilsson sang the part of Donna Elvira and attested to the depth of her artistic nature by her moving declamation and the beautiful manner in which she sang the two great airs of the first act; Mme. Sembrich was the same piquant, arch, graceful Zerlina as before, and sang her music to the delight of all; Mme. Fursch-Madi was a model Donna Anna, stately and commanding in voice, action and demeanor. Don Giovanni had a buoyant representative. Herr Kaschmann and Signor Mirabella's Leporello, when not overburdened with buffoonery, was good. The audience was more numerous than on Monday.



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