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In past years, the mid-winter disappearance of the Metropolitan Opera's artistic director has left some feeling about the house that now the mice can play, but this season the first month of James Levine's annual leave gave the Met a remarkable parade of excellence. In no small part this general good cheer could be traced to the quality of the conductors Levine had engaged for the period. Myung-Whun Chung, David Atherton and Valery Gergiev - you can't do much better than that.

For me, Chung's leadership of "Don Carlos" was the special revelation, for I had never heard him before, and the work - movingly described in Andrew Porter's notes as "the noblest and most ambitious of Verdi's operas" - depends so heavily for its achievement on the quality of the conducting. Chung is a true Verdian, shaping the piece as a drama without sacrificing the expressivity of the individual tunes, always accommodating the musicality of his singers. This makes his tempos just a touch slow, as he listens to what his artists wish to do, but the benefits are substantial.

On December 8, Chung had the unexpected advantage of a debut by a real Verdi soprano, Marina Mesheriakova, appearing in lieu of Michele Crider, who had cancelled for reasons of pregnancy. Mesheriakova has it all - the piano in alt, the fast vibrato for the top line of the soaring ensemble, the spinto concentration for the big aria. James Morris's Philip was also on that level, most notable, perhaps, for the deep regret conveyed in "Ella giammai m'amo." In the big duet that ends the second act, he was matched both vocally and dramatically by the splendid Posa of Thomas Hampson, who also sang the farewell aria in the jail with wrenching beauty. Dolora Zajick was just a touch tentative in the Moorish fioritura of the Veil Song (it's hard to do when you're still warming up), but she sang a brilliant "O don fatale." Among other luxuries in the casting were Vladimir Ognovenko as a terrifying Grand Inquisitor and Jane Bunnel as the faithful Tebaldo; Hei-Kyung Hong, who is no longer that light a lyric, was miscast as the Voice from Heaven. An indisposed Fabio Armiliato, substituting for an actually sick Luis Lima, sang Carlos, and got through the evening creditably. Paul Mills directed a taut recreation of the John Dexter production, now almost 20 years old.

Search by season: 1997-98

Search by title: Don Carlo,

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