Mozart sings and Schoenberg sputters at the Philadelphia Orchestra

Nathalie Stutzmann planned to start her season with the Philadelphia Orchestra by conducting Mozart’s Requiem, but the lingering impact of Covid had other plans. Instead, the large choral work was replaced with selections from Don Giovanni, sandwiched between Schoenberg’s elliptical Verklärte Nacht and Wagner’s great contribution to the orchestral repertory, the Siegfried Idyll. The shift in programming allowed audiences a preview of Stutzmann’s perspective on the great Mozart opera before she conducts a new production at the Metropolitan Opera next spring, but the overall concert felt slightly uninspired. The piecemeal nature of the selections seemed unsuitable for the company’s principal guest conductor, who heretofore has been heard in great symphonies and concertos with exciting soloists.

Listeners acquainted with Stutzmann’s work in early music as a contralto and as founder of the ensemble Orfeo 55 might assume that she would bring the air of historically informed performance practices to Don Giovanni, but she offered a straightforward, big orchestra sound. After a fairly tame traversal of the Overture, bass-baritone Eric Owens entered conspiratorially to perform the first of Leporello’s two arias, “Notte e giorno faticar”. Here and in his Catalogue Aria – during which he expounded upon the Don’s corrupt conquests while reading from an iPhone – Owens was the only performer who brought a hint of theatricality to his interpretations. The veteran singer sounded more relaxed and refulgent than in Beethoven’s Missa solemnis earlier this year, although he avoided appoggiaturas entirely and sometimes struggled to maintain a legato line. Still, sovereign pitch and a true understanding of Lorenzo da Ponte’s text count for much.

Soprano Jacquelyn Stucker brought a richly textured voice to Donna Elvira’s arias, particularly plush in the lower range, but she sang with little emotional engagement. Often standing stock-still with a neutral impression on her face, she conveyed none of Elvira’s fury in “Mi tradì” or “Ah! che mi dice mai”. Tenor Kenneth Tarver made for a stylish Don Ottavio – he was the sole singer of the trio who freely ornamented – but the core of his voice has grown somewhat hollow. In a way, this suited his somewhat lily-livered character dramaturgically, but it didn’t always make for pleasant listening. Perhaps due to attenuated rehearsal time, Stutzmann largely avoided highlighting individual voices within the orchestra, and the selections progressed perfunctorily.

Verklärte Nacht should be a good choice for an orchestra renowned for its string sound, but playing it for the first time in 18 years, the Philadelphians sounded restrained and wan. Only in the fourth section of this programmatic work – in which an unnamed man forgives his lover for conceiving a child with another man, and the music turns warm and chestnut-colored – did the full forces fully hit their stride. The string players remained tentative in Siegfried Idyll, although the heavenly woodwinds and perfectly tuned horns added depth and dimension to the performance. Still, it seemed like Stutzmann, who has teased out exciting ideas in Brahms and Schubert in recent seasons here, hadn’t settled on what she wanted to say with this familiar piece.