The Don of this production is Peter Mattei, certainly more in his element than when last seen, as Rodrigo in Don Carlo. I discussed his work in this part (as seen on video) in “Don Giovanni Then and Now,” Part One (6/22/18), and there is not much to add here, save to remark on the voice’s presence in the theatre. It is sufficient—a basically pleasing one of the warm/grainy, modern Scandinavian type, closer to the format of Hagegård’s than of Wixell’s or Hynninen’s. For me, if we’re to have that calibre of baritone in this role, it needs more Italianate clarity and dash to be satisfying. But Mattei’s remains in good condition, and he sang well with it except for his lapses into poking at the music rather than sustaining a true legato, as in, regrettably, the Serenade. He is an alert actor who does physical agony well, so his contribution to the final tableau was compelling. As Second Thug, Adam Plachetka did better than he had with the Figaro Count. But, while I’m fine with avoidance of buffo shtick, if there isn’t some awareness of Leporello’s response to the situations he finds himself in as a comic character, and some deftness in the playing of that, he’s simply dull, and that proved to be the case.

After finding not much beyond a pale, generic prettiness in Ying Fang’s Ilia, I was happy to see that when given an actual character to play, she revealed considerable theatrical savvy and charm as Zerlina. The voice is still (sorry) light for the role, so she didn’t quite nail “Batti, batti;” but her performance had life. Federica Lombardi, the Anna, had some things going for her: a large, beautiful tone in the top segment of her voice, and, in the unsurpassed accompanied recitative before the “Or sai chi l’onore,” close contact with the emotional content of her music. This was more veristic than Mozartian in style, but it, too, had life. Ana Maria Martinez sang through Elvira’s music securely with a narrow, slightly astringent voice a size too small for the role. She made a serious effort to follow through on the production’s dowdy take on the character, but that did not really lead us through the woman’s story. And for the other male characters: Ben Bliss sang an efficient Ottavio; Alexander Tsymbalyuk a covered-sounding but strong, steady Commendatore; and Alfred Walker a vocally adequate but inflectionally and behaviorally uninteresting Masetto.

These were two of the best-sold houses I’ve seen since the onset of the pandemic. The end of each performance was greeted with high-pitched, indiscriminate cheering of a kind I would associate with a rock concert or a high-school sporting event. It suggested the advent of a new genre: YA opera.

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NEXT TIME: I will be taking a summer hiatus from scheduled postings, and will designate September 29 as my next target date. The subject will be one of two or three I have in mind, not directly related to our local opera scene. Do watch this space from time to time for an announcement or two. Best wishes till then,

CLO

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