You won’t find Don Giovanni on the list of operas of the 2004/2005 season on Lyric Opera of Chicago’s home page. I suppose that should tell you something. I did find a page for it on Lyric’s web site by prowling around a little. Here it is. It takes some ingenuity to find it.
Last night my wife and I attended the second opera of our subscription to Lyric’s 2004/2005 season. I was a little disappointed by Lyric’s new production of Mozart’s Don Giovanni. Cartoon sets. More-or-less-realistic period costumes. Rather haphazard-appearing lighting and effects. The blocking we’ve come to expect from Lyric (lousy—particularly in crowd scenes).
The voices were, by and large, good, particularly Ildebrando D’Arcangelo’s Leporello. This is as good a Leporello as I’ve ever heard. The only real disappointment was Karita Mattila’s Donna Anna. She consistently dropped or swallowed her descending phrases. I recognize that sustaining a descending phrase is more difficult, but really! I waited for the lovely “Non mi dir” aria from Act II, Scene 5 with some trepidation and I was not disappointed (or, rather, I was). Not only did she continue to drop her descending phrases but she was reaching for—and not quite hitting—her high notes. She neither struck them nor did she vibrato up to them. She seemed tired. I’ve heard Ms. Mattila before and I don’t recall her having these problems.
Don’t get me wrong. This production has all the elements of a good production. And it’s not a bad production. But there doesn’t seem to be any composition or design. Have you seen those art works composed of “found objects”? Bits of flotsam and jetsam glued to a board or what have you? This production seems less to have been designed than to have been found.
As I’m sure you know the great Italian operas of the 19th and early 20th century combined the elements of two differing Italian opera traditions: opera seria, solemn, formal works for the nobility frequently using mythological or heroic themes and opera buffa (or as Peter Schickele calls them opera funnia), broad comic works for the lower classes. Mozart’s great works in the common repertory like Nozze di Figaro or Magic Flute (probably my favorite opera) juxtapose these elements within the single work.
Most of the productions of Don Giovanni I’ve seen have been rather on the opera seria side. This was by far the the most opera buffa Don Giovanni I’ve ever seen. But the interpretation of the Don as brutal and thuggish—rather than the more conventional sensualist seducer—was completely discordant with buffa. I don’t think it worked.
Bryn Terfel brings an enormous amount of vocal energy and vigor to all his roles. He brought considerable physical energy to his Don as well but there was quite a bit of extraneous motion and pacing back and forth, particularly in the second act during the Commendatore’s entrance to the banquet. Why was Terfel shouting during Act I? Was this interpretation of the role or is this his new vocal style?
Another vocal jewel of the evening was Susan Graham’s Donna Elvira. She has a truly lovely, controlled voice. But, once again, she was not well-served by the very buffa treatment of Donna Elvira.
The remaining performers were quite strong. Kurt Streit’s arias as Don Ottavio probably got the most enthusiastic reception of the evening from the audience (except for some puzzling ovations for Mattila). His Ottavio was wooden and suitably noble. What can you expect from Don Ottavio?
All-in-all, in my opinion, a barely adequate production. No bottles, but no bouquets, either.
So far this season: Das Rheingold, Don Giovanni. Advantage Das Rheingold.
