The programme for Bernard Haitink's farewell performances at the Royal Opera House, his own choice of material, consists of Act II of Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro, the Study Scene from Verdi's Don Carlo, and the last hour or so of Wagner's Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg. This is no flashy gala with a line-up of party turns, in other words, but a thoughtful retrospective of Haitink's aims.
Mozart's Figaro and Verdi's Don Carlo are major humanitarian statements, characterised by psychological understanding and deep moral probing. Wagner's Meistersinger asserts music's potential for self-renewal in the face of forces that would undermine its integrity. Whatever the controversies surrounding Haitink's music directorship, his tenure has been characterised by a seriousness of purpose, and a political willingness to fight for the survival of the Covent Garden orchestra when it was threatened with disbandment.
There were moments, however, when Haitink's chosen format did not ideally work. His brilliance as a conductor lies in his often perfect judgment of the cumulative ebb and flow of a work as a totality. Extracts, however long, do not always suit him. The second act of Figaro, hampered by sluggish recitatives, took a while to settle, while Haitink's understanding of the opera's balance between comedy and pain sits uneasily with Johannes Schaaf's embittered production, which had been unearthed for the occasion.
Don Carlo has always been one of Haitink's finest achievements, but you do not get an ideal sense of the richness and power of his interpretation from the Study Scene alone. It is not until we get to Meistersinger, that the full measure of Haitink's skill becomes apparent, and we are finally able to appreciate his ability to shape a vast musical span and probe every facet of its meaning.
The orchestral playing was at its finest here, as was the singing, with Haitink redeploying several members of his cast from the first outing of Graham Vick's production in 1997. John Tomlinson, visibly moved by the whole evening, was a nobly intense Hand Sachs, opposite Thomas Allen's prissy, yet oddly sympathetic Beckmesser.
Nancy Gustafson was a gorgeous Eva, while Ben Heppner sang the Prize song with astonishing ease and beauty. Elsewhere, the singing was more uneven, particularly in the extract from Don Carlo, in which Anthony Michaels-Moore's and Robert Lloyd - excellent as Phillip and Rodrigo - had to contend with the Kurt Rydl's unsteady Inquisitor and Nadja Michaels's unremittingly loud Eboli. Ultimately, however, this was Haitink's evening. · Further performance tomorrow night. Box office: 020-7304 4000.
