New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1889-12-08
MUSIC.
don GIOVANNI AND DON JUANI'

"DON GIOVANNI" AND DON JUAN
The representation Of Mozarts dramatic masterpiece
at the Metropolitan Opera House last Wednesday even
inc furnished much more food for reflection than tho
ordinary run Of performances at the noble
Enlistment in upper Broadway. In many respects
the representation the most satisfactory that We
can recall as having been given In America In flll
score of years yet audience whose keen interest In
the opera was manifest in the fact that there was noe
An unsold seat in the theatre remained for the greater
norton of the evening In state OF apathy, warming
into enthusiasm only half dozen Individual enors
by Madame Lehman and Herren helchmahn anu
Fischer That the greatest opera Of the greatest
opera composer that ever lived, presenter WIN
painstakng regard for the vertes OF DOCK anu s.o'
which we have never seen equahed shoulu '
only a respectable success prompts 10 reflection con-
corning the work and its relation 10 the PUBIC. As
has been intimated it will not do TO lay the osns
wholly upon the performance. When MT. AooeS n~S
his notable effort present Don Giovanni siA 'o~
ago. he succeeded I'm doing justice where noS' msa'
ayers come to grief by entrusting the paris oi ns
principal women singers to Madame fursch-Msa
donna Anna, Madame Nilsson Donna biVira ana
Madame sembrich (Zerina Here was an enlistment
of forces worthy OF almost as much admiration a. wa
compelled years ago by the best Oh MI nap''"
Tondon casts: Madame Tietjens, Madame Nilsson and
Madame Patti; but the singing OF the 'hiee "onHA
was the sum of all the representations eAceheneeA
The principal men were DuL Intupo'ip' ''''N'
cbestra were execrable and English traditions ont
followed some Of the most striking and org
nal of Mozart's purposes in the score were either
nored or defeated by trumpery makeshfts' OohpA~
with that performance as an exposition OF me com
poser's Intentions, Wednesday nights reprseh'a"0
was a model Recollections of the effort TO perio'@
the work IN the first German season with schroec'f
Hanfstaengl as Donna Anna, Mariana Brandt
Donna Elvira and Hermine Belly as zerhna a"
mostly painful and are best dismissed with word OF
grateful recognition for that beautifu Spit. Vi re'
erence which German artists have always felt TOT the
ripest fruit of Mozar's genius.
II would probably be no more than the truth to |
saw that from dramatic point OF view wednesda!
nights performance with all its defects came nearer
realization of the musical intentions OF Mozart than
the hest italian representation ever given here from
Garcias day to this. This statement Is not mas
careIessy and should neither be accepted nor reec@
hastily 1t Is not intended TO imply that Germans
are better fitted interpret Don GIOVANNI tnsa
Italians or that the opera benefits in any way ron
the use Of the German tongue. The reverse OF ooa
of these propositions is the truth. There ss
many features of beauty in the opera which cannot
receive fun Justice when it is performed In German
The character of the language IS against II. Inefe
scarcely opera in the list in which the union
between words and music is closer or more suo"e'
Let the book be translated into any language and some
of the beauty which exhaes from this music WIZ
the score deeply or listened Discriminatory to soOd
performance without discovering that there is ~
mendous chasm between the conventional ~"
of the Italian poet In the Dooh
the opera and the work which eineFp
from the composers profound Imagination ia ron.
contemplated "dramma gocoso' Mozart huho"
him until his Imagination came "ithin the shSlO'
cast before by the catastrophe ana ,neh ho US. .,
formed the poets comedy into tragedy OF crnshlo.
mower The climax of Da Ponte's ideal is reach"
in n plcture OF the dssolute Don wrestling IN Ns
desneration with a host Of spectacular devils, I'm
finally disappearing through a trap While NE Vuiss
ont on all sides the thunders roll, and Leporelo s"
on tho scene crouched In a comic attitude OF e''O'
under the table such picture satisfied the "s'e'
nj the pubc of HIS time and that public found noa
ing inconcrous in a return to the scene immedisen
afteruard OF all the characters the repooae WV
had gone TO his reward, to hear description ~ ~
c,tastronhe from the buffOon under the tsoie' II
platitudnously to moralize that the perfdous ~
having been stored away safely IN the realm w ~"
and Proserpne, nothing remained for tem !, \
except TO raise their voices in the words OF w, II
songn Thus do the wicked find their ena' ~ "'
they had lived:
Lep. Mas. e Zerl.
Resti dunque quel bIrbon
Con PrOserpna Pluton'
moi tutti, buona gen'e'
Rlpeiiap alleGremeIndte
Tutti.
Ouesto II fin al chi IA mh'
Fdei perfd la morte
Ala vita o scmpie ugus' n.,A l.
Tbis snale was long ago discarded aDa N,rh j
,,oz,r+ co, q m music. he did IL in manhet II
tolls more MAINLY than the situation ina. ~ "A.
., - ,hat rho opera reached its end WIN ~
death OF its hero. ..s n, Don
Tho universal difficulty with performances VI "a,
,,n1, y ,b,t Mozart's ideal and WORK s" ~
49, ,na STABILITY Of the italian to apprsei'o
.an,orsress with which the composer address "a !
10 =, tho task which his poelcsl mind iou"u -
,i,an, hook the trouble with all the represeh ,s.
- and English. OF " Don Juan > when w "A
s.en has been that both poet and composer etecs
- ,ho inability OF the words 10 float WIN ,,h i
tno~.rcv in the musical current or bep' P .r,sl
:, thousand touches of descriptive hu"o o ..0t,a 4
,,h ,be Italian text and the current i'sei :, ina
~, tho sluggish consonantS and guuuisS .sds
.r,,opic tongues. Leporello's bufo muse io-,st
all NJ rs flavor unless IL Is suns by h'"' eorn
Trscan. TO whom the parlando Is nstNo s.mand
.eures OF Elvlra old fashioned but sia"p' nea
~ soft bastard Latin for perfect Wv hsys
A.. deal performance of the opera wo"a n,nv
AXE u.o OF the Italian words, but ai'o ~ -ym
- which the deeper insight and poioun''s .s N
IL ~ the Germans have helped them T" I'm. 4
Mozsrts Music. Tn, terrific power Of the mus .n,rL
-, cana WAS nrohaby never felt az an n
' r.r,orr.n.s "a ~ was last wednc day ms .,s
80 ,hs voice 10 a retrIbuton so terrible ma AS
'..,, on,y ,,s,an with a feeling OF awe i u
,,,o 80 a,,zs or critscise which nso F,xn
- ,.r,oru,nce from the first rising OF ' no II.
. - ,.a On. nv the performances Oh "