Word: ottavio
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Screenplay by SALVATORE SAMPERI, OTTAVIO JEMMA and ALESSANDRO PARENZO...
...speed and precision that puts to shame the student orchestras in the vicinity, which this definitely was not. The violin section was outstanding, playing presto sixteenth-note runs with a remarkable unity. The strings never covered wind solos, among them the beautiful clarinet and bassoon accompaniment to Don Ottavio's Il Mio Tesoro Intanto. An important detail was the size of the harpsichord: mercifully, it was large enough to cut through the heavier scoring, avoiding the distracting jangle that is the fate of a small instrument pushed to extremes...
...Bass Tom Weber, while rather dry-sounding and somewhat strained, made the most of Leporello's varied moods and tasks, though perhaps not with the same hilarity of his Don Alfonso (of last year's Cori). Less satisfactory were the nasal tenor of August Paglialunga, a peculiarly huge Don Ottavio, and the half-sung Masetto of Don Meaders...
...further poems by Whitbread are successful within their own limitations. "Don Ottavio" is a very tight little tale treated with a light touch and and a shrug--amusing and bemused. "Notices" entertains...
NICOLAI GEDDA, 31. born in Stockholm of Russian-Swedish parents (his father was a baritone in the Don Cossack Chorus), did well in his Met debut as Faust, outdid himself as Ottavio in Don Giovanni, Anatol in Vanessa. Tall for a tenor-his pressagent, measuring with a basketball coach's rubber ruler, claims 6 ft. 3 in. -Gedda offers a clear, sweet voice that may lack warmth ("Champagne rather than Chianti," says one critic), but has strength and purity. His acting is intelligent, his pronunciation unusually correct for the opera stage; he is a linguist, speaks seven languages...