The Waterbury Democrat., 1934-01-20
|Metr0p0litan Presents Don Giovanni
Popular Ope Will Be Broadcast This
 Afternoon

acterized by the music allotted to l him-the gay, ruthless Don; the
 servile and cowardly Lepodello; the averaging Donna Anna and her
 milk-sop of 8 lover, Ottavio; the | unfortunate Donna Elvira; the
 country lass, Zerlina; her be- trothed. Masettofi and at the end
 comes the truly awe-inspiring music
 written around the fatal supper
 where the statue of the Commenda- tore is the guest.
 In nothing else that he has writ ten does the genius of Mozart shinei so brilliantly. With the very sim-
 ple means of his time at his dis posal he is able in Don Giovanni"
 to go through the entire gamut Of human emotions so that his music reacts as yividly upon the audience
 of to-day whoseears are used to the
 sonorities of Wagner and Verdi as
 upon his own audience for whom
 he was almost an "ultra-modern.
 A Distinguished Cast
 Always is the music melodiously
 eautiful-boautiful in it's simplic-
 ity. truth of expression and periec-
 tion of characterization.
 As an artist I willingly testify | that Mozarts music is quite tha
 most difficult to sing. that the final | test of q singers art is her, or his,
 ability to convey to the auditor the | beauty of this music which secn,a
 to be so simple and yet is so exact- ing. And I know of no opera cone
 pany in the world which can st successfully meet the test of Mo-
 zart as the Metropolitan.
 Since the days of Maurice Grau,
 "Don Giovanni has always bcen sung at the Metropolitan by ~ group of most dist nguished artists and to-day's cat is no eaceptioh
 Ezio Pinza will be Don Giovanni:
 Rosa Ponselle, Donna Anna; EditlA l Fleischer, Zerlina Tito Schipa, O;. | tavio; Virgilio LaZzari. Leporello; Louis D'Angelo. Masctte: and Leon Rothier, the Commentators. Tuil;o Serafin will conduct.
 As performed at the Metropolis tan the opera is in it's original two acts, each having five scenes, with no pauses between the latter Opera Filled with Familiar Airs Many of the airs have been fa- miliar to you from childhood. even | if you did not know they belonged to this opera.
 There are, for example. La ci darem," the duet between the Don and Zerlina; I'll mic tesoro." sung by Ottavio; "Batti, Batti." and "Ne- drai carino," sung by Zerlina; the Don't serenade and his drinking song: Donna Anna's beautiful air toward the end of the opera. Non mi tir"; the melancholy lament of the deceived Elvira; Leporello's res cital of his masters conquests; anu the magnificent sextet which brings the opera to an end, sung by Don- m Anna, Donna Elvira, Zerlinas Ottavio, Leporello and Masetto. There are many other mOmensa of great beauty. not forgetting the brilliant overture written by Mos zart after supper on the eve or tho first performance, tbe charms ing mlnuet at the ball played by three stage orchestras and the bit from "rhc Marriage of FignroH played by n stage orchestra nt the fatal supper.
 "Don Giovanni" had It's first pers formanco in Prague in t7S7. Forty years later it was ferformed in tho Park thenter of Now York. tue secs ond opera to be sung in Italian in this country. Lorenzo da Ponte. the l librottiHt, was for twenty years q resident Of New York. during a
 part Of which time he was profess s0r Of Italian literature ID coium< bln college. Ho lies here ln Rll uils known grave, hH Mozart Iieb ill nft unknown grave ln Vienna. | (lOpgriRht inBl, bg H5eieDp0iiinu Opern Ass0'aation INSTRUMENTATION