Ivo van Hove’s Jack the Ripper with music by Mozart and sets by Jan Versweyveld masquerading as Le Corbusier was telecast this afternoon from the stage of the Metropolitan Opera House. The screen and the program said the opera was Don Giovanni, but Mozart’s dramma giocoso had all the giocoso removed by director Hove. The staging played against everything that makes Mozart and Da Ponte’s opera a masterpiece.

The set consisted of stark concrete blocks mostly in the dark except when the Don and Leporello changed identities. Then the lighting was so bright that the rest of the cast must have been blind not to see through the subterfuge. The action was set in the present and both wore the same style and colored suit. The only distinction between the two was a trench coat. The set was so stark that Chandīgarh looked florid by comparison. For some reason unknown to me Donna Anna, Donna Elvira, and Don Ottavio wore 18th century gear during the ball scene that concludes Act 1.

The title character was portrayed by Peter Mattei, I’m sure at the director’s insistence, as a serial rapist rather than as a great seducer. The Don was rough, crude, and generally uncouth. Why Mattei went along with this deranged staging is a mystery. That Mattei is closing in on 60 (58 on June 3) added to the general sense of menace that clouded this new production. Other directorial miscues were the semi-automatic handguns that littered the stage. The Don doesn’t kill the Commendatore in a duel, rather he whips out his pistol and shoots an unarmed man dead. In Act 2 Masetto appears with guns – one on each hip. There’s also no statue. The Commendatore reappears in Act 2 as a bloody zombie that only Leporello can see. When he shows up for dinner the Don can see him. He doesn’t drag the Don down to hell. He walks off stage right while the Don is lost in smoke and darkness.

This was the third time that Don Giovanni had been on the HD series. The previous production was fine. The Met would gain by junking this one and bringing back the older one. Okay, the production wasn’t a triumph. How as the singing? Very good.

Mattei, age aside, still has the vocal goods to make a vocally convincing Don. Adam Plachetka as his put upon servant was in fine vocal form but was hampered by the production from realizing the full dimensions of one of opera’s great characters.

The young Italian soprano Federica Lombardi made her Met debut in 2019 as Donna Elvira. This production was her first go at Donna Anna. Anna requires a more robust voice than does Elvira. Lombardi had no trouble with the difficult part. Her voice will likely broaden with further experience in this and similar parts.

Ana María Martínez has been absent from the Met since several performances in 2016 as Madama Butterfly. Her lyric soprano was up to the demands of the longtime victim of the Don’s absent affections. Gary Halvorson’s closeups were not kind. Ying Fang’s Zerlina was as pleasant as circumstances permitted. Within seconds of meeting the Don she was on the ground with him on top of her.

Don Ottavio was very well sung by tenor Ben Bliss. His voice seems to have more weight than the tenorinos usually assigned then part. I suspect he could sing some of the bigger lyric parts in the Italian repertory. Alfred Walker was up to Met standard for Masetto. The staging had him covered in blood after the Don beats him up in Act 2. Alexander Tsymbalyuk voice was a little thin as the Commendatore. This is a small part that an up-and-coming bass can do a lot with.

Conductor Nathalie Stutzmann made her Met debut in the first performance of this run. She will also conduct the last HD performance of The Magic Flute in two weeks. She got a vigorous sound from the Met’s superb orchestra.

In summary, a performance, better listened to than viewed. If Francis Ford Coppola ever decided to make The Godfather IV he might enlist Hove as an aid. Not the worst staging of this opera I’ve seen. That distinction goes to Calixto Bieito’s assault on the Mozart masterpiece done several times by the English National Opera.

Metropolitan Opera House
May 20, 2023

DON GIOVANNI
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart–Lorenzo Da Ponte

Don Giovanni…………….Peter Mattei
Donna Anna………………Federica Lombardi
Don Ottavio……………..Ben Bliss
Donna Elvira…………….Ana María Martínez
Leporello……………….Adam Plachetka
Zerlina…………………Ying Fang
Masetto…………………Alfred Walker
Commendatore…………….Alexander Tsymbalyuk

Continuo
Fortepiano………………Jonathan C. Kelly
Cello………………….. Kari Jane Docter
Theorbo…………………John Lenti

Mandolin Solo……………John Lenti

Conductor……………….Nathalie Stutzmann

Production………………Ivo van Hove
Set and Lighting Designer…Jan Versweyveld
Costume Designer…………An D’Huys
Projection Designer………Christopher Ash
Choreographer……………Sara Erde
Video Director………….Gary Halvorson