Hey all! So how have you all been doing? I’m pretty
good, I'm great actually, I have lost so much weight it's insane! After I post this I'm actually going to take my new found hot bootie shopping because everything is sort of baggy and weird on me now. YAY!
But anyways, this post is actually about opera for
a change. You see a couple of months ago I went to the movie theater to watch the
Royal Opera House’s new production of Don Giovanni. This one was actually in my
home town, it wasn’t live (obviously) so they had 4 different times for the
opera, Saturday and Sunday at 11 in the morning, Monday at 3 in the afternoon
and Tuesday at 7 in the evening, not very good ones but I’ll take what I can
get.
I went to the mall all by myself driving my bike.
As I’ve said sometimes here I do enjoy going to the opera alone. When you take
a friend there’s always that feeling of “Oh my God I hope he likes it.” “Should
I explain this part?” “Did he understand that part?” “Is he bored?” and also
the apologetic mode comes on automatically for me “Don’t worry, the first act is just
about to end. Only 2 more arias and a quintet.” “The interviews are funny, the
singers are very nice, trust me.” And if I go alone I can immerse myself in the
piece, sit back, relax and watch the whole opera in peace.
But of course that didn’t happen right? I did go
alone but as for the uninterrupted bliss line of operatic experience, well, it
didn’t happen. But I’ll get to that in a second. So I get to the movie theater
and am faced with my first problem, the old people. And I don’t mean to be
rude, it’s just old people in Brazil and especially in this town are a special
breed of impolite and have an inflated sense of self. That’s because there are
some pretty stupid laws here that give older people the idea that they can cut
in line in front of everyone. According to law every establishment should have
an exclusive cashier for senior citizens, pregnant women and handicap people.
But the thing was, that cashier was closed and only one girl was selling the
tickets, so the old people simply made another line in front of the actual line
and cut in in front of absolutely everyone. And every single old person that
would show up would prompt their derrières right in front of me.
Anyhow I got to the cinema and they were playing
some trailers which made me kind of uncomfortable because there were only old
people in that movie theater and the trailers were filled with sex. It’s like
watching Game of Thrones with your parents. Trailers aside I really did like
what the Royal Opera House came up with for this evening. Because in my very
little experience, that was this one time I saw their new production of Les
Troyens at the movie theater, it wasn’t very dynamic, there’d just be the opera
and nothing playing during the intermissions. But this couldn’t have been more
different.
They had this great montage with interviews with
all of the singers and showed the rehearsal process and how Kasper Holten, the
stage director, came up with the concept for this production. It was about 15
minutes long and it was really cool and very informative. Then we had our host
for the evening, none other than the legendary Bryn Terfel! And he was such a
great and charming host, as he filled everyone in with the story he also
absolutely and completely charmed me. But the overture starts and YAY, it’s
Mozart time!
Now I love Don Giovanni, it is hands down my
favorite Mozart opera. So I almost know the whole thing by heart and let me tell
you I was not disappointed at what I saw. The wonderful orchestra of the Royal
Opera House took us away from reality with that astounding overture and before
it was over the curtains went up. The set was very interesting, it was a
construction with some stairs and some doors with two stories, very simple, all
white but add to that some truly remarkable projections and you have magic.
During the overture some names started appearing of the walls and later we find
out that there were 2065 female names by the end of the overture projected on
stage.
We see Leporello in front of a door on the second
floor and he sings his mini aria complaining how the boss always gets all the
fun and he, well, doesn’t. Leporello was played by Alex Esposito, I had never heard of
him before but he gave a fine performance, very funny and very hands on in making
this role physically believable. During his aria he took a chalk from his
pocket and started writing ‘Anna’ on the door and there was this perfectly
synchronized projection following his hand writing. VERY COOL.
Don Giovanni opens the door quite literally zipping
his pants up and Donna Anna follows him and she’s not the face of one who has
been bedded against her will. And you know what? I truly prefer productions
that portray Anna as a woman who was seduced and did have mind-blowing sex with
Don Giovanni and now wants a second round or something. They flirt and kiss and
this was turned into a very hot scene actually. The lady playing Anna, Malin Byström,
was absolutely spectacular! She had this gorgeous darkish soprano voice that I
would think was too heavy for Mozart but she proved me wrong and delivered
vocal heavens! Plus she looked gorgeous!
Taking the role of the Don by storm was my personal
favorite baritone for the job, Mariusz Kwiecien. Now you all know I’m a huge
fan of Mariusz, apart from being a top notch performer he is one of the
sweetest and nicest singers I’ve ever had the pleasure of meeting (and also one
of the most attractive ones). He is just so good as the Don! He was my first
Don Giovanni back in 2011 at the Met in HD. I do actually remember the first
time I went to NYC going to Lincoln Center and seeing a picture of Mariusz as
the Don and thinking “Holy shit, this man is perfection”. Anywho Anna’s dad
arrives and kinda ruins the party, she flees. Don Giovanni kills him but again,
I’ve seen so many endless versions of this opera all with different takes on
how the Don feels about killing the Commendatore. The one I like the most was
the one they actually used for this production, he kills the Commendatore but
not because he wants to but because he has to and does not feel so great about
it afterwards.
After that we have that funny recit to break the
ice “Leporello, ove sei?” and the two men flee the scene of the crime. Then
Anna arrives with her fiancé, Don Ottavio, the guy looked like he was barely
30, which I find kind of risky when it comes to this role. I’ve seen time and
time again young tenors screeching this role thinking it’s right for them
because “It’s Mozart!”. I actually had a pretty enlightening conversation about
that with Gerry Finley (God bless his heart what a wonderful guy!) a couple of
months ago and he pointed out that even though it’s easy to read the music it
doesn’t mean that it’s easy to sing it. Well this guy looked young and VERY
nervous (you would be too if you were being streamed live to all over the world
from the stage of the ROH) but he managed to sound ok, although his nervousness
blocked the whole character thing and all I could see was a nervous tenor
singing the notes just right. But I’m not a very big fan of tenors as a rule so
I might be picking on him too much because he’s the only one in the production
for me to pick on.
Anna gave an absolute show during the duet, such a
beautiful voice! Her type of voice is one of my favorite kinds of female
voices, I cannot abide super light high sopranos (maybe just Diana Damrau, but
she’s a lyric coloratura, right?). Also when Anna comes back she’s sporting
this GORGEOUS black overdress that is, excuse the pun, to die for! Ottavio,
looked a bit lost and Anna completely torn between processing her feelings
towards her midnight stranger to acknowledging her father’s death.
After that my favorite character in Don Giovanni
(and maybe one of my favorite characters in all opera) makes her first
appearance. Véronique Gens was playing Donna Elvira, she looked kind of beat up and wet
but since she was wearing a sort of rain coat I guess that’s what they were
going for. I had never seen this singer before this production and I gathered
she’s a mezzo since she was doing the mezzo version. Although her voice wasn’t
as powerful as Anna’s she did make up for it with her amazing acting. And again
this production read another character just the way I liked it, because some
might treat her as a recent conquest of Don Giovanni who is still smitten with
him but is able to overcome her feelings by act 2. This one is so not the case
and I love it. One of my favorite moments in the first act is when Elvira
realizes Giovanni is calling on her (“Signorina”) and she promptly replies “Don
Giovanni! Sei qui, mostro, fellon, nido d’inganni!” and in normal productions
she would either throw something his way or just hit him. But as this Elvira
approached him with her insults it seemed as if his presence drugged her and
right after she finished her recit she grabbed him and kissed him. SO COOL! I
must confess I’m a fan of passionate stuff and passionate characters so there
you go.
And as we all know she’s so taken with him to trust
him again and off he goes away from her. Then we have one of my favorite arias
that I actually know by heart and by the way by this point I was
mouthing/singing softly along to everything. Damn I love this opera! The little
book aria is just so hilarious and I love the way every singer who plays
Leporello has their own special way of delivering it. Like Luca Pisaroni who is
one of the best Leporellos ever has a very personal way of playing this
character that is just so amazing. He’s already said that it is one of his
favorite roles (if not THE favorite), he was also my first Leporello back in
2011. But Esposito did a fantastic job and I laughed as he stressed new things and
used and abused of his acting chest to bring Leporello to life.
The couple sitting next to me would not stop
talking, they were talking about the opera but still it was SO IRRITATING and
their comments were SO ridiculous. At this point they were arguing that they
thought Leporello was a part of Don Giovanni’s imagination, his conscious. They
were basically saying that the Don was Pinocchio and that Leporello was Jiminy
Cricket. Plus they saw that I was mouthing along so they started trying to
guess the next lines based on the subtitles which was rather pathetic since A-
that translation REALLY sucked and B- they clearly did not speak Italian, at
all.
Anyway after they leave we are brought to Zerlina’s
and Masetto’s wedding. Zerlina was played by Elisabeth Watts and Masetto by Dawid Kimberg and they
looked so adorable together. Zerlina was much shorter than him but she had
feisty air and Masetto was one of those big guys that really can't hurt a fly, kind of Ron Weasley, they looked so cute together.
Did I mention that the stage actually spins? And
it’s so amazing how much change they can inflict by simply spinning and
changing the lights. The Don spots the party and instantly has his eye set on
the girl in the white dress, I think he must think it amusing to seduce a girl
out of her engagement on the day of her wedding. Bet he has a special list for
those, as well as for nuns. It’s cheerful party and as soon as Zerlina spots
the Don she’s intrigued, I mean, who wouldn’t be with a guy that attractive
undressing you with his eyes, especially when you have an over seized Ron
Weasley for a fiancé.
Anyways, Don Giovanni invites everyone over to his
place for a super duper party just so he can be alone with her Zerlina, you
gotta give the guy credit for not measuring expenses in order to bang her. Of
course Masetto won’t leave quietly and I think it’s so Amadeus Mozart the bit
when he says “Faccia il nostro cavaliere cavaliera ancora te”, like he will
ride you like a horse. Wow, ok, slow down cowgirl. Sorry about that, I just
love the sexual connotations in this opera and they are so ALL over the place!
Then we have that recit followed by “La ci darem la
mano” which was one of the first duets I ever sang (said every single female
opera singer in the world). I love this duet and it can be done in so many ways
and I have to say that again they brought out the exact take on it that I liked.
Zerlina is not stupid and gullible, she knows what’s going on and the prospect
of being married to a nobleman beats the love and care of peasant Ron Weasley,
it just does. The duet was filled with soft touches and promises in part A but
as soon as Zerlina cries “Andiam” it escalates real, real quickly and by the
end he’s already lifting up her skirts.
And it would have totally happened if Donna Elvira
hadn’t walked into them and started calling him names like a crazy person. I
love it how the Don is not the least affected by her outburst and promptly
makes up an excuse as to why she’s making such accusations that A- seem
plausible and B- make Zerlina fell great about herself. What a freaking player,
hun? And I know I’m getting a little bit out of production here but the last
one they did with Joyce as Donna Elvira when she says “Io sono a tempo di salvar
questa misera, innocente dal tuo barbaro artiglio” I just loved the way she said
‘misera’ and ‘innocente’ and the way she looks at Zerlina because she kind of
spat it as if saying that Zerlina was everything but miserable and innocent.
Gotta love Joyce!
Another small song I really like is “Fuggi il traditor”, Gens did pretty well and I particularly liked her coloratura they
were very well treated. She leaves like the mad woman she is but is sure to
take Zerlina along with her. The Don is starting to get uneasy about not being
able to finish the deal with the peasant bride but his focus in quickly drawn
to the couple Ottavio and Anna. Now this whole scene was done in the most
interesting way, while Ottavio wasn’t looking the Don made sure he would hit on
and flirt as much as he could with the very willing Anna. Very cool because
Ottavio is so darn slow and boring in this production anyway. Well, he is slow
and boring in most productions anyways.
After they’ve had their trio and the Don gives Anna
one last hot kiss on her knuckles and departs. Now for her "Don'Ottavio, son morta" Donna Anna has a real interesting moment because only a moment ago she was
quite willingly melting under Don Giovanni’s touch and all of the sudden she’s
conflicted for the first time. She gives into her more lustful feeling leaving
Ottavio with a ‘I pity you look’ while he wails away one of the most irritating
songs ever.
I know, it’s Mozart, and I know its Don Giovanni
aka my favorite Mozart opera, BUT, MA, "Dalla sua pace" irritates me thoroughly. Maybe
it’s because since it’s a Mozart aria many tenors from my school thought it was
ok for them to try and screech it and that kind of traumatized me. Maybe Mozart
wrote this aria like this to really mess up with the tenor because it’s a very
difficult piece.
I say this because it wouldn’t be the first time that Wolfie
did that, you know that great aria called Come Scoglio from Cosi Fan Tutte?
Well, Wolfie wasn’t a big fan of the soprano who played Fiordiligi and he knew she had a habit of
rising her head up for high notes and lowering it down for the low notes.
That’s why he wrote phrases like "Far che cangi affetto il cor" like this: Far (in middle voice) che (one octave up) can (goes down again) gi (goes up again) affe (down) tto (up) il cor (normal). Just to see her
make a fool of herself, and people still ask me why I love Mozart! The guy writes something to fuck up with someone and it still sounds like a goddamn master
piece! Mozart is DA man!
Anyways, that’s why I find that A - Dalla sua Pace was
created to haunt and torment tenors. This tenor in particular as I’ve said
before appeared to sweat a lot and was very nervous. Adding to the fact that
Ottavio is a total idiot and in this song you can hear how absolutely blind
Ottavio is. Although that depends on the production, in this one he looks like
a complete fool. And if I'm being totally honest here I don’t think this guy
was old enough to be playing this character. There I’ve said it.
After that we go back to the Don who is kind of
annoyed by the fact that he hasn’t gotten laid in the past… 8 maybe 12 hours. I
do love this little exchange Leporello and the Don have of telling each other
the news of what’s happened. They really did seem like best buddies in this
production which I find quite good. They get each other and the Don knows that
if he wants to get laid he’ll have to throw a party or something. Lucky for him
there’s already one happening in his estate as he speaks! This next aria
(commonly known as the Champagne Aria) is one of my personal favorites and many
people’s favorite I guess. They did this AMAZING effect where the Don is standing in a doorway and the projections start appearing and spinning, it was
quite impressive to see in the movie theater and I can only imagine it was even
more striking in the opera house. Luckily, there’s a video!
After they leave we meet up with the soon to be
married couple Masetto and Zerlina. And here she’s trying to apologize because
she almost ditched him for a sexier, healthier and wittier dude. In this
production Masetto is also kind of daft, a little slow and Zerlina who is quick
and witty takes complete advantage of that to seduce him during her aria Batti,
batti o bel Masetto. Although it’s a lovely tune I’ve grown quite tired of it
because I’ve been singing it for what it seems like forever but what I think
ruins it for me is the fact EVERY SINGLE SOPRANO IN THE PLANET sings this aria.
When she finishes the aria it’s all good until they
hear the Don’s voice and she kind of freaks. He’s having the so talked about
party! Interestingly enough in this scene in which the Don is supposed to make
Zerlina feel ashamed she actually turns the tables around and trick him. I found
that most refreshing for when the dance music starts and people start to dance
Zerlina takes the Don up stairs. Then our good (slightly boring) trio of
Avengers appears all masked up, Donna Anna, Donna Elvira and Don Ottavio, they
plan to crash the party and expose the Don for what he truly is. They sing
about it for about 5 minutes and I must confess that’s not one of the opera’s
high lights for me. Leporello spots the trio of masquerades and invites them
in, they come in and everything is running as the Don wants. Leporello is
distracting Masetto, 99% of the party is drunk and Zerlina is heading upstairs
with him with a malicious smile on her face. When she starts to take her
clothes off the Don does believe he’s won the lottery until she cries “Gente,
aiuto! Aiuto, gente!” and the Don is like “WTF?” and flees.
The boring trio takes this opportunity to reveal
their true identity and starts throwing insults all over the place directed at
the Don. But he is too clever and quickly grabs Leporello saying he was the one
who was trying to have his way with Zerlina. At this point everyone is singing
insults to the Don saying his mask has finally come off ,traditore, scellerato
amongst other names are used and seeing that there’s no way out the Don flees.
End of act one. I didn’t comment more about the
couple sitting a few chairs from me who insisted in talking throughout the
whole thing but let me just make it clear that they wouldn’t shut it for a
minute. People in the movie theater were quite mad. But anyhow, at intermission
we had this wonderful interview with Kasper Holten and even more wonderful
because Bryn was conducting it. It was really a shame that this wasn’t live
because live stuff does give me butterflies in my stomach knowing that it’s
happening at that moment but I guess I should be thankful that it had reached
me somehow in Brazil, nonetheless in my home town.
The interview was again very fun and lighthearted.
I do LOVE Kasper’s work and especially when he’s given the opportunity to work
in a piece he truly LOVES like last year with Eugene Onegin that he did a
masterpiece and now with Don Giovanni. You can see that the guy knows the piece
inside out and has been thinking about each of those characters for years and
now he’s given the chance to show his view and his take on the Don Juan
masterpiece.
They took some questions from twitter and since
it’s been almost two months I don’t really remember them. But I do remember one
directed to Bryn asking if he would be tempted to play the Don if he did this
production and he said “No”. But not because of the production but because he
never felt he was the right person to play this role, he felt much more
comfortable playing Leporello.
Well act two and I find myself another seat away
from the talkative couple. But as soon as they start their chitchat this man
turns around and raves at them to shut the fuck up. It was so glorious! I loved
that man! Even though I heard him say, “Oh, I don’t know. I like this opera but
I like operas that have more orchestra like La Traviata. This one has barely
any orchestra” and “Oh yes, Anna Netrebko and Elina Garanca are both from
Russia”. I always say that if you don’t know stuff don’t say anything, you will
sound STUPID.
Anyhow, this first part of the second act is one of
my favorites! So the Don is now having to persuade Leporello to stick around but
Leporello won’t have any of it. The Don then offers him some money and
Leporello is quickly back to his side. But he does plead to the Don to “Purché
lasciam le donne” (So long as we leave the women alone) and the Don’s response
is one of my favorite line in the whole opera “Lasciar le donne! Pazzo! Lasciar
le donne! Sai ch’elle per me son necessarie più pan che mangio, più dell’aria
che spiro!” (Leave the women? Idiot! Leave the women! Don’t you know they are
more necessary to me than the air that I breathe or the bread that I eat?) to
which Leporello replies “E avete core d’ingannarle poi tutte?” (And still you
deceive all of them?) and the Don simply says “È tutto amore. Chi a una sola è fedele verso l’altre è
crudele: io, che in me ento sì esteso sentiment, vo’ bene a tutte quante: le
donne poi, che calcolar non sanno, il mio buon natural chiamano inganno.” (I do it
becaue I love them! Who is faithful to one is cruel to the others. I’m a man
whose heart is so large that I love all of them, Women simply don’t understand
me. They think that my natural generosity is some sort of deceit.)
And even though I laugh and go “son of a bitch”
every time I hear that recit, I also get it. He is the kind of person that
can’t really compromise to only one person and I get that because one of my
best friends is just like that. She grows bored of having the same person and
needs to constantly change, in today’s world that’s really ok, but back then
things were more complicated. And the Don had to lie in order to get what he
wanted, do you know how many girls he would have bedded if he’d been honest and said he only wanted to spend the night with them? A lot of women still but
certainly not 2065. I know I might sound like a horrible person defending Don
Giovanni but whatever, I don’t care!
Anyways,
the Don now needs Leporello to pretend that he is in fact the Don to distract
Donna Elvira while the actual Don seduces her chamber maid. This trio is truly
hilarious, it consists in Leporello being out there dressed as the Don mouthing
what the Don is saying to Donna Elvira and her in the balcony having an inner
battle as to what to do, should I stay or should I go? I think the music
written for this is so gorgeous. The clash between Donna Elvira’s melancholy
doubts, the Don’s false declarations of affection and Leporello’s attempts to
restrain his laugher is truly the work of genius. Mozart, God bless his heart!
One thing
that did disappoint me a little bit was the recit right after this trio when
Leporello pretends to be Don Giovanni to a very willing Donna Elvira. He hid
more than he hit on her and that frustrated the scene for me a little bit
because along with the trio it’s one of my favorite moments in the opera.
After
Leporello and Donna Elvira leave the Don is alone by the balcony and starts to
serenade. Seriously, if a guy like that ever sang “Deh viene alla finestra” to
me I don’t even dare to think what I would do. It’s one of my favorite arias in
this opera, my favorite for the Don DEFINETLY. It’s smooth and it’s full of
promise and contained passion. And Mariusz is like utter perfection singing
this, he IS the Don. Charm and charm and charm and you’re lost! What was most
certainly unnecessary was that the chamber maid came down the stairs
while he sang to her and at the end of the aria she took all her clothes off
and was stark naked on stage. That did win some gasps from the audience and God
why make the lady take her clothes off? Just to show how persuasive Don
Giovanni can be? If she’s grabbed him and kissed him or made some sort of let’s
do it gesture it would have sent the same message. I don’t know, I think that
since this is set in Spain I just don’t see any Spanish woman doing that. Maybe
the Italians would do that but not Spanish women, they are very proud and far
too self-certain to have to resort to taking their clothes off to attract the
attention of a gentleman. Italians are more careless in that matter and I don’t
mean it in a bad way, what I mean is that Italians would have totally have been
carried by the heat of the moment and take their clothes off like that in front
of him on the street. But the Spanish women would have probably gestured for
him to come up and THEN taken her clothes off.
Anyways as
we all know the Don’s rondevu is cut short by the annoying Masetto and the naked
girl is kept in the corner covering herself with her own dress. Anyways, the Don
pretends to be Leporello and to be fighting for Masetto’s cause to kill the
Don. But the moment he turns around the Don beats him up and flees. Zerlina
finds her poor, poor, stupid fiancé and tell him he’ll make him feel better
with her magic medicine (aka I’ll let you touch my boobs and I’ll kiss you
wherever you want). Vedrai Carino is another lovely aria that I know back and
forth and am oh of tired of listening to because everyone thinks it’ alright to
sing it. But anyways…
Then we go
back to Donna Elvira and Leporello who undoubtfully have been having their fun.
But Leporello is quite tired of her and is eager to be free of her affections.
This is one of those Mozart things that starts off as a duet, then another duet
and before you know it it’s a huge sextet with complicated lines for everyone
involved. And as more characters appear each one has a door and the projections
come in a way as if they are all walking in hallways, it’s really quite amazing.
You see as Leporello is trying to escape Masetto grabs hold of him and Donna
Elvira starts to plead in his defense. But the other members of the sextet are
not as forgiving and want “Don Giovanni” dead. Seeing no way out Leporello
reveals his true identity to everyone’s surprise and to Donna Elvira’s misery.
I do pity her, poor woman. Sometimes I’m even led to believe that she knew that
it wasn’t Don Giovanni all along but living a little fantasy for a bit is
better than sitting alone in her room. Well that really depends on the
production.
After this
fun sextet everybody comes at Leporello with fifteen hundred stones accusing
him of doing the things the Don did as well as the other things the Don did discussed
as Leporello, quite a lot of stuff. But Leporello wouldn’t be working for a man
such as Don Giovanni if he wasn’t cunning and before you know it after uttering
some confusing excuses he flees like the wind.
Then we go
back to tenor terror. I’m sorry I might be sounding rather mean and the guy
wasn’t all that bad but I felt he was not ready for this kind of job. Not ready
for such a role in such a house in such circumstances. I’m not even gonna
comment on the aria, let’s just skip that because that’s also not my favorite
piece of music ever.
After that
we do get some juicy singing from Donna Elvira and she did such a marvelous
job. This aria is absolutely heart breaking, a woman clearly so in love with a
man she knows will never feel the same for her. And still she loves him and seeks
him, it’s very sad and when translated into music absolutely gorgeous. This is definitely
one of those arias I would LOVE to sing.
When Donna
Elvira leaves Leporello appears to meet Don Giovanni next to a cemetery. As
they tell each other what’s happened they can hear a sinister voice coming from
the graveyard. While Leporello wets his pants the Don is quite intrigued. In
this production they have a bust of the Commendatore as the vessel from which
he communicates with the Don in this scene. Even though Leporello is scared
half to death he does as his master commands and invites the Commendatore for
dinner in the behalf of his master. The Don isn’t half amused by all this and
actually throws the bust from the second floor it comes apart in a million
pieces on stage.
On the
original libretto the Don and Leporello leave so Donna Anna can come in and
deliver her big aria. But in this most intriguing production the Don stays
behind and watches the exchange between Anna and Ottavio. While Ottavio I trying
to persuade her to think about their engagement Anna is resolute in not thinking
in anything but her father’s death. But in this production it’s quite different
because even though she’s indeed thinking about her father she’s also still pondering
on her encounter with the Don. So after he shoos Ottavio away and starts singing
her aria the Don appears and yet again wants to draw her near to him. But it is
at this point that she realizes he is not what she needs, he is not what he
wants. He was necessary for her to open up her eyes to see that there’s so much
more out there and that she could make her choices herself. I find this one of
the best interpretations of this aria/moment and yet this is the first time I’ve
seen it used. And by the way, the singer was amazing. What a magnificent voice, she was simply DIVINE!
She got quite an ovation and well deserved!
Finally
last scene and we are back at the Don’s estate where he is dinning. We have
that whole scene where he eats and Leporello is starving and he boasts at all
life’s pleasures etc… Donna Elvira appears, she wants to give him another
chance, she’s so in love but he’s rude and kind of an ass to her. And again,
she can’t really change him because she feel for who he is, if he does change
he will not be the man she feel for therefor she is condemned to suffer. She
leaves just in time for the Commendatore to arrive. From the many, many
interpretations of this scene that I’ve seen this has to be one of the best.
They don’t
even come face to face, the Don is on ground floor while the Commendatore is right
above him on the first floor. They have their exchange and Leporello pleads and
pleads for his master to stop. The idea of this was that in this end the Don
wouldn’t be sent to hell by a ginormous fireball but would go to his personal
version of hell, to be alone. As the scene proceeds all the projections of
names start to fade, Leporello leaves and even the Commendatore. At the end he
is in hell, he is alone, nothing around him but plain white from the stage. He
gets to his knees and cries out in the moment where he should be engulfed by
the fires of hell but nothing happens and he is alone. He looks at the audience
and you can see that this loneliness is worse than any other punishment for the
man who has broken the hearts of 2065 women. The End!
Holy shit,
that was the very BEST production of Don Giovanni I’ve ever seen! So incredible,
the crowd went wild and I was delirious! It was really quite an experience. I
love the ROH, after the Met it’s my favorite Opera House. Wow, this post is SO
ENORMOUS! It took long enough to write I can tell you that. Well I’m gonna be
off now, thanks for reading!
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