Weekend at the Met, Part II: Lucia and Don Giovanni
For the second weekend in a row, I spent both my Friday and Saturday nights at the Metropolitan Opera. Whereas last weekend was SALOME and LA GIACONDA, this weekend was LUCIA DI LAMMERMOOR and DON GIOVANNI. I will not be back again until DOCTOR ATOMIC in two weeks.
This marked my second time seeing Mary Zimmerman's LUCIA, following its fabulous premiere last fall with Natalie Dessay in the title role. It is, to date, one of the most dramatically compelling and haunting productions I've seen at the Met. I am also very fond of Donizetti's score; the Act III "mad scene" is like the "Rose's Turn" of bel canto opera.
Diana Damrau, who now plays Lucia, showed incredible nuance and emotionality in her Act I meetings with her character's secret beau. Their duet ("Verranno a te sull'aure") was absolutely gorgeous. However, she lacked the young, almost childlike, occasionally zombie-like quality that Dessay brought to the role. As a result, I never believed in Damrau's madness. Her portrayal of the mad scene was self-conscious and unnecessarily erotic. Nevertheless, she was excellent vocally.
Saturday night marked my first time seeing Marthe Keller's 2006 production of DON GIOVANNI. Erwin Schrott, who played the title role in the premiere, is again present. It's no secret that DON GIOVANNI is one of the best operas of all time. All around me, audience members kept commenting not so much on Mozart's score, but Da Ponte's extraordinary book. Surrounded by the brick walls of Michael Yeargan's towering set, Keller's production is traditional for opera but highly theatrical, fitting in nicely with the new wave Peter Gelb Met.
The ensemble of principals was uniformly excellent. Schrott, who was shirtless for much of the show, was handsome and commanding as Don Giovanni. Susan Graham, as the whiny, wronged Donna Elvira, tore into the character's passionate emotions. However, the singer that really stole my attention was Isabel Leonard, a gorgeous Juilliard graduate who shined as the young peasant Zerlina.
