While it seemed like a novel idea in the famous opening chords with their darkness and tragic connotations, the continued preponderance of timpani hits throughout the Allegro section became predictable after awhile and lost any potential impact they might have had if emphasized more sparingly. The conductor led a rather sedate and safe approach to the fame overture, though he had a habit of placing great emphasis on the timpani throughout, bringing special attention to that particular color throughout the piece. This was not aided by the man in the pit, maestro Cornelius Meister, in his Met debut. Yes, “Don Giovanni” is a dramma giocoso, which implies a melding of widely contrasting styles, but that doesn’t mean that some characters should look like they belong in a cartoonish farce while others look like they are in a greek tragedy.
The entire night it felt as if all the participants were in different works, their acting styles all so radically different as to make one feel like they were just left to their own devices to do what they pleased. It’s a staging that unfortunately offers little to Mozart’s opera (unless you just want to see some fire at one point) and likely one that no one would miss if this opera were simply set on a black stage or given in concert version perhaps the latter might even have more dynamism or aid in hiding the other big issue in this revival: there was no sense of direction or cohesion with any of the cast members. 30, 2019 in Michael Grandage’s anonymous production. Mozart’s “Don Giovanni” returned to the Metropolitan Opera on Wednesday, Jan.
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