His voice was as strong as expected, charming and perfectly nuanced. Mattei went through the piece with really impressive confidence and great intelligence, showing an impitoyable but at the same time weirdly touching Don Giovanni. He was hilarious that night, grand, fearless and impetuous. The entire production really benefits from the energy of Peter Mattei, arguably the greatest Don Giovanni on the circuit nowadays. I must admit that even I find the previous description pretty boring, but this system is used with great intelligence and the different scenes unroll very seamlessly, notably at the end of the first act when the action moves between the street and Don Giovanni’s palace – always a struggle for stage directors. When the first wall rolls away, the action moves from the street to, Masetto and Zerlina’s wedding party, to Don Giovanni’s palace, to the cemetery.
Behind this first wall is another concave wall with the same doors and windows. Those parts are covered with large doors on the first floor and windows on the second and third floor, all with shutters. A sliding wall front stage can be divided in three parts, creating alleys in between each part so singers can come and go. Sets and costumes are from the story’s time period. I actually do not have that many problems with Grandage’s production and I even find it great at times. Still, this run of Don Giovanni is not drawing crowds to the Metropolitan Opera. One could think the cast should be helping: Petter Mattei as Don Giovanni, Luca Pisaroni as Leporello and beloved New Yorker Alan Gilbert in the pit sure make it sound like it could be a high quality performance.
There is of course the awfully cold February New York weather, no to mention the particularly unpopular Michael Grandage’s production – a large number of critics have described it as not daring enough and boring – that premiered here at the Met in 2011. It is always a bit sad when the curtain goes up in front of an half empty opera house.
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