I've always considered James Levine one of the world's greatest conductors and had been saddened that a spinal injury had kept him from the podium in recent years. It was a very emotional moment for everyone at the Met Opera yesterday evening when he appeared in front of the orchestra. The entire audience stood as one and cheered and clapped for several moments to show their appreciation that he was once again there.
Mr. Levine soon demonstrated that he had lost none of his brilliance. For roughly three and a half hours he led the orchestra in a masterful performance that was thrilling to hear and as definitive an interpretation of Mozart's music as one could hope for.
The opera Mr. Levine chose for his return, Così fan tutte, is the third of the Da Ponte operas. Though it has never enjoyed the popularity of either Le Nozze di Figaro or Don Giovanni, perhaps because modern audiences find its plot is so artificial and implausible, it never- theless contains some of the composer's greatest and most beautiful music. And that's saying quite a lot. As Anthony Holden notes in his erudite biography of Da Ponte, The Man Who Wrote Mozart:
"The English conductor Sir Thomas Beecham described the score as 'a long summer day spent in a cloudless land by a southern sea'; and by the 1970s the musicologist Richard Rickett spoke for many, perhaps a majority, when he wrote: 'From a purely musical point of view, Così fan tutte is arguably Mozart's finest opera.'"
Mr. Levine had a great deal of assistance yesterday evening not only from the orchestra but from a very able cast as well. Susanna Phillips (Fiordiligi), Isabel Leonard (Dorabella), Matthew Polenzani (Ferrando) and Rodion Pogossov (Gugliemo) were all extremely accomplished in their roles and together formed a seamless ensemble that drew applause from the audience time and again. Maurizio Muraro was especially effective as Don Alfonso. In addition, Lesley Koenig's idyllic production displayed for the music the full respect it deserved.
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