Netrebko contributes the performance’s one consistently reliable vocal performance that is also a fair match with her role’s archetypal vocal expectations. She is even less a dramatic soprano than Bampton was, though she gives an imitation of one by way of a darkened vowel structure. But within this framework she has a polished command of range, line, and dynamics, and her native timbre remains a beautiful one. As always with her, there is also the effort to stay in contact with the emotional life of her character. She doesn’t find much more light and shade in Anna than do most sopranos—the emotion remains a rather generic seriousness—but under the circumstances, let’s follow the folk wisdom with respect to gift horses.

Who wants to spend time with these personae? Why is there an opera about them (by Mozart, of all people), and about Him, a sort of anti-Pinza? Apart from Prohaska’s Zerlina, there’s no character here I wouldn’t cross a busy street to avoid, and they occupy a world of pointless technological awesomeness I need a long vacation from. But I mustn’t give up on the 21st Century—Courentzis & Co. await, and while I haven’t yet heard their recording, I’ve read what he has to say about it, and am looking forward to how it all plays out.

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NEXT TIME: Don Giovanni Then and Now, Part 2, 1936-2017, Glyndebourne-Perm.