Los Angeles Opera's
Mozart's "Don Giovanni": Pleasing and Puzzling
Reviewed and written by Earl Schub
I could hardly wait for my Sunday, December 2, 2007, matinee performance of the Mozart masterpiece, one of the three gems he wrote with his brilliant librettist, Lorenzo da Ponte. Of the three, Don Giovanni is the most complex, the most challenging because it deals with a mythic "hero" or, if you prefer, "anti-hero." Whether the antics of the libidinous nobleman please or repulse, there's no getting away from the fact that this fictional womanizer is for the ages. If the singers are right and the conductor has a firm grip on his/her Mozart and the orchestra is up to the challenge, conventional wisdom holds that even the most iconoclastic directors and bizarre stage settings cannot do in this 3-hour potpourri of Mozart's most dramatic ensembles and intense arias. Conventional wisdom isn't always right.
Director Mariusz Trelinski does us the service of explaining his concept of "timelessness" in a lengthy program note. He warns us that, "While trying to leave room for our imagination, I try to avoid building specific settings pretending to be a house or a palace." No question about it - in this he and his set designer, Boris F. Kudlicka have succeeded admirably. There is nothing even remotely resembling a house or a palace or a street or a cemetery for that matter, all traditional settings for the action in Don Giovanni. And as for the placement of a huge hourglass far downstage to remind us that this opera is timeless - - - please give your audience some credit. But, in spite of the many distractions, glitzy lighting, costumes that defy description and human figures meant to symbolize everything that Freud could have imagined in his or our wildest dreams, there is still something not so disarming or so displeasing as to make us chalk this up as another failed exercise in updating a classic and doing irreparable damage. You can't dismiss it; you can't forget it. And just maybe that's what Mr. Trelinski had in mind.
If the ultimate challenge of any opera is to suit the music to the action, the action to the word, this one is at the top of any "must-see" list. Premiered in Prague on October 29, 1787 and set in some unspecified year in the seventeenth century, "Don Giovanni" has been the signature role, in our time, of such primo bass-baritones as Ezio Pinza, Cesare Siepi, Samuel Ramey and today's rising superstar, Erwin Schrott, who is the current Don at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion and performs the role with demonic dash if not a wished-for bit of suavity. Alexandra Deshorties is a "Donna Anna" of distinction possessing a bright, cutting soprano, perfect for portraying this high-strung vengeance seeking latest victim of the lecherous title character. Maria Kanyova is a solid "Donna Elvira" and Lauren McNeese a fetching "Zerlina" who is surely more wanton in this director's concept of the role than in any other production that I (and, I'm sure, Mozart) ever saw. For pure beauty of voice and interpretation of an extremely difficult role, that of "Don Ottavio." tenor Charles Castronovo was nothing less than sensational. His first act aria, "Dalla sua pace" and the second act, "Il mio tesoro." displayed a flawless technique and a nuance of expression that I have rarely seen. He's worth the price of admission. Kyle Ketelson's "Leporello," the Don's indefatigable but always-complaining sidekick, the "Masetto" of James Creswell and Kang- Liang Peng's "Commendatore, he of stentorian tones, all performed ably and compellingly.
Performances run thorough December 15 and while the production will surely not suit everyone's taste, the singing and, most assuredly, the timeless music of "The Titan of Salzburg" demand your attention.
Mozart's "Don Giovanni": Pleasing and Puzzling
Reviewed and written by Earl Schub
I could hardly wait for my Sunday, December 2, 2007, matinee performance of the Mozart masterpiece, one of the three gems he wrote with his brilliant librettist, Lorenzo da Ponte. Of the three, Don Giovanni is the most complex, the most challenging because it deals with a mythic "hero" or, if you prefer, "anti-hero." Whether the antics of the libidinous nobleman please or repulse, there's no getting away from the fact that this fictional womanizer is for the ages. If the singers are right and the conductor has a firm grip on his/her Mozart and the orchestra is up to the challenge, conventional wisdom holds that even the most iconoclastic directors and bizarre stage settings cannot do in this 3-hour potpourri of Mozart's most dramatic ensembles and intense arias. Conventional wisdom isn't always right.
Director Mariusz Trelinski does us the service of explaining his concept of "timelessness" in a lengthy program note. He warns us that, "While trying to leave room for our imagination, I try to avoid building specific settings pretending to be a house or a palace." No question about it - in this he and his set designer, Boris F. Kudlicka have succeeded admirably. There is nothing even remotely resembling a house or a palace or a street or a cemetery for that matter, all traditional settings for the action in Don Giovanni. And as for the placement of a huge hourglass far downstage to remind us that this opera is timeless - - - please give your audience some credit. But, in spite of the many distractions, glitzy lighting, costumes that defy description and human figures meant to symbolize everything that Freud could have imagined in his or our wildest dreams, there is still something not so disarming or so displeasing as to make us chalk this up as another failed exercise in updating a classic and doing irreparable damage. You can't dismiss it; you can't forget it. And just maybe that's what Mr. Trelinski had in mind.
If the ultimate challenge of any opera is to suit the music to the action, the action to the word, this one is at the top of any "must-see" list. Premiered in Prague on October 29, 1787 and set in some unspecified year in the seventeenth century, "Don Giovanni" has been the signature role, in our time, of such primo bass-baritones as Ezio Pinza, Cesare Siepi, Samuel Ramey and today's rising superstar, Erwin Schrott, who is the current Don at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion and performs the role with demonic dash if not a wished-for bit of suavity. Alexandra Deshorties is a "Donna Anna" of distinction possessing a bright, cutting soprano, perfect for portraying this high-strung vengeance seeking latest victim of the lecherous title character. Maria Kanyova is a solid "Donna Elvira" and Lauren McNeese a fetching "Zerlina" who is surely more wanton in this director's concept of the role than in any other production that I (and, I'm sure, Mozart) ever saw. For pure beauty of voice and interpretation of an extremely difficult role, that of "Don Ottavio." tenor Charles Castronovo was nothing less than sensational. His first act aria, "Dalla sua pace" and the second act, "Il mio tesoro." displayed a flawless technique and a nuance of expression that I have rarely seen. He's worth the price of admission. Kyle Ketelson's "Leporello," the Don's indefatigable but always-complaining sidekick, the "Masetto" of James Creswell and Kang- Liang Peng's "Commendatore, he of stentorian tones, all performed ably and compellingly.
Performances run thorough December 15 and while the production will surely not suit everyone's taste, the singing and, most assuredly, the timeless music of "The Titan of Salzburg" demand your attention.
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