[Met Performance] CID:11780

New Production

Don Giovanni
Metropolitan Opera House, Wed, December 27, 1893




Don Giovanni (27)
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart | Lorenzo Da Ponte
Don Giovanni
Jean Lassalle

Donna Anna
Emmy Fursch-Madi

Don Ottavio
Fernando De Lucia

Donna Elvira
Kati Rolla [Debut and only performance]

Leporello
Edouard de Reszke

Zerlina
Sigrid Arnoldson

Masetto
Agostino Carbone

Commendatore
Antonio De Vaschetti

Dance
Miss Santori


Conductor
Luigi Mancinelli


Director
Armand Castelmary





Don Giovanni received one performance this season.

Review 1:


It would be gross flattery to say that Mme. Fursch-Madi's voice possesses the same power and nobility that it did a dozen years ago, but it is still a fine one, and fairly equal to the demands of Mozart's music. No doubt a little more volume would have made "Or sai che l'onore" more effective, but in point of understanding and dramatic purpose, Mme. Fursch-Madi's treatment of this aria, as well as of her others, was commendable.

Mme. Kati Rolla was called upon at extremely short notice to sing Donna Elvira. It was stated semi-officially in the corridors of the Opera House that she had had no rehearsal and that she had not sung the part for three years. It would have been difficult if this statement had not been made to believe that she had sung the part for five years. Her performance was of that mediocre kind which is proverbially intolerable to both gods and men. The quality of her voice was not pleasant, and her vocalization was generally angular.

Mme. Sigrid Arnoldson was a very pleasing Zerlina. She displayed an excellent understanding of the dramatic meaning of the part, and her singing was, as usual, neat, if rather colorless. M. Lassalle was a good though not great Don Giovanni. The most acceptable performance in the opera was that of M. Edouard de Reszke as Leporello. His treatment of the part is already well known to this public, and it is only necessary to say that it was quite up to its standard last night.

The Don Ottavio was Signor de Lucia, a tenor who has a remarkable facility for jumping from very good to very bad. His performance of Don Ottavio was of the latter variety. Dr. Hans von Bulow once said that a tenor was not a man, but an illness. He must have heard Signor de Lucia sing "Dalla sua pace."

Signor Carbone was a competent Massetto. The chorus wandered through the opera with an exceedingly faint idea of its duties, and the stage manager distinguished himself by keeping refractory scenery on the move to the distraction of the audience. In the ballroom scene, however, the stage setting was extremely good. The two orchestras on the stage required by Mozart were there, and they undoubtedly played the country dance and the slow waltz in the score. But owing to the loudness of the main orchestra they could not be heard. The object of their presence was defeated by the failure of the assembly on the stage to divide itself into three parts and execute the three dances.

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