“ Figaro ‘from Mozart and “Magic flute” at the Metropolitan Opera

The size of the metropolitan opera can even intimidate experienced artists. From the podium to the scene resembles a mile, and the proscenium is the width and the height of yawning. No opera has chaos, but some parts need a particularly precise discipline to have their impact – so they need drivers who can correct great forces through these sprawling distances.

It’s impressive when a veteran baton makes everything work. Even more, when it is a newcomer like Joana Mallwitz, who made his debut at the Met this month, leading “Le Mariage de Figaro” by Mozart, the kind of wacky comedy that quickly descends from rails without firm hand on the reins.

Friday, halfway through the long term of this season – duration, with casting changes, until May 17 – Mallwitz was in a calm and elegant command of the lively opening. Throughout the evening, she kept the orchestra that sounds with light and silky, which allows her to mix (instead of competing) with the charming singers.

The winds of desire that play for aria de cérubino “no so più” are the echo of the desire of the teenagers of the character, and Mallwitz guided these winds to hover more than usual, bringing out the true sweetness and a hint of evils. The second large number of cherubino, “Vo Che Sapete”, was accompanied by elegant clarity, each pizzicato note picked in the ropes present and unified without being overestimated.

There was a spirit and a forward movement in this “Figaro”. But Mallwitz did not fall into the classic trap of young conductors to push the performance to the extremes of tempo and dynamics (strong and fast, mainly) to transmit the intensity. In the long and wacky final and the lighting of the second act, she patiently punctuated the action, releasing the tension and then strengthening it again, for a global effect much more zest than if she had simply kept her foot on the gas.