Carnegie Hall: James Levine Conducts Rossini, Mozart and Beethoven

Yesterday afternoon's performance by the Met Opera Orchestra was a long one, over two and a half hours of music by a variety of composers.  It opened with maestro James Levine conducting Verdi's powerful overture to I vespri Siciliani.  Though confined to a wheelchair, Mr. Levine has lost none of his ability or stamina as a conductor. From within a specially constructed box like podium, he presides with complete authority over the orchestra he built over decades into one of the foremost in the world. Each work he leads is carefully thought out and perfectly articulated by the orchestra.

The next piece on the program was Variations for Orchestra (1955) by Elliott Carter. Growing up, Carter was a protege of Charles Ives, whose Concord Sonata I heard for the first time on Friday evening.  Later, Carter himself became a proponent of atonal music.  The program quotes Carter's own words on this piece:

“In this work I was interested in adopting a more dynamic and changeable approach: The general characteristics of the form are maintained—one pattern of material out of which a diversity of characters come, but the principle of variation is often applied even within the scope of each short piece. In some, great changes of character and theme occur; in others, contrasting themes and characters answer each other back and forth or are heard simultaneously."

The first half of the program ended with the performance of a little heard work by Rossini entitled Giovanna d'Arco (1832) that he wrote after he had given up composing operas at age 37.  It is a solo cantata that could really be an excerpt from an unwritten opera.  It was composed for Olympe Pélissier whom Rossini later married.  Though the program refers to Pélissier as an "artists' model and socialite," she must also have been an exceptionally fine singer to have sung so demanding a piece of music.  Mezzo soprano Joyce DiDonato, who will be appearing later this season at the Met in Rossini's La Cerentola, was completely convincing in her portrayal of Joan.

The second half began with Ms. DiDonato singing two arias from La clemenza di Tito, the opera seria written by Mozart in 1791 for the coronation of Leopold II of Austria.  Although not Mozart's best opera, it does contain two affecting arias sung by the conspirators as they await death.  What is most interesting about these two arias is that each was written for a different character.  The aria Deh, per questo istante solo was written for the character Sesto, a role originally intended to be sung by a castrato, while the aria Non piu di fiori was written for the character Vitellia.  It is a tribute to Ms. DiDonato's versatility to that she was able so effortlessly to switch roles.

The program closed with a striking interpretation of Beethoven's Symphony #7, Op. 92.  This is one of the composer's best known works.  Wagner famously referred to it as "apotheosis of the dance" and Beethoven himself referred to it as "one of my best works."