Don Giovanni in Los Angeles [updated with cast and creative team lists--- I forgot to post them before!]

[Erwin Schrott as the Don]

Two years ago, Los Angeles Opera tried to kill me with a wretched production of Parsifal. A Wilson Abortion that was boring and careless of the hapless audience who was left to wonder what the heck the story was about, as is usual with Wilson productions. One needed to already know the plot or study the synopsis carefully. To be fair the conducting by Nagano was a) as TRH says “ravishing” or b) as I might say “really really good”. Domingo was sick and did not sing either. It was, in short, a long long afternoon.

This year, however, the company redeemed itself with a truly excellent and engrossing Don Giovanni. We saw the closing performance of the run. This was one of those surpassingly rare performances where it all comes together. The staging served the piece beautifully and the musical values both in the pit and on stage were superlative. Myself, TRH, the charming FS, and DR were all so enthused. It was great.

The production first. The abstract and raked set was striking and the use of different colored lighting was dramatic and articulated the various scenes well. The constumes matched the lighting (and were stylized 18th-century). The opera was never trivialized by this production. The production was witty AND mindful of the deeper issues in play and, quite frankly, of the movement of the plot. People as animated trees or the use of mirrors in the second act--- so simple and so effective. And when the Don becomes a giant peacock at the end of act 1 (how odd that sounds) that was just great---and then this jawdropping metamorposis was followed by transmogrification into a devil, which, naturally, only increased our enjoyment. At the end of the opera there is great visual pun. The Don is done, he is spent (spento). An hour glass containing some or other glittery substance is broken open and there is a long smeary line of it spread across the stage. It suggested to me a great big smear of semen and it looked liked it shape-wise (he is spent; the action of the opera is consummated; get it?). And then, at the conclusion DO, DA, DE, Z, L, and M all get on their knees in front of it and gather up some in each hand. As the curtain falls it is catching the light from their open palms and it is beautiful. All the characters could not get enough of him, btw. And this Don was a little homo too. He mounted M and L at different points in the opera.

The Singers were uniformly excellent in my opinion. In TRH’s case, he did not think the Zerlina was top-notch. I wonder if TRH is resistant to a mezzo Zerlina. He says that that is unfair and “that she just did not have it; as opposed to the other singers.” I like the rustic quality that the strength that she showed in the lower register brought to her characterization. The Masetto was strong. When was the last time you said that? DG and L were really really really in command and I and TRH are certain that you could not find better exponents of these roles on other stages right now. DA and DE both gave me and TRH considerable enjoyment. TRH feels though that they were not as good as the boys. My thought on all of this is that the comparisons are somewhat invidious because if you transplanted the DA or the DE into another production, I, for one (TRH may feel differently), would be admiring the DA’s nicely focused timbre and her clear and penetrating top and the evenness of the DE’s voice through all the registers and the acting skills of both. The Don Ottavio had a nice lyric tenor with a solid core that insured that this DO was no eunuch (in spite of the plot). Both of his arias were sung without the straining tone one can so often encounter in this role. There was instead a manly tone and a sense of phrasing that was natural and communicative. In sum, as regards the singers, we were free to enjoy the opera as EVERY role was capably filled.

The conducting. Haenchen chose moderate tempos which added immensely to the enjoyment of the production. When the Don tempts Zerlina with coffee and chocolate toward the end of the first act, the tempo was one the slowest I have ever heard (without being perverse, of course) and this allowed us to appreciate the amazing grace of Mozart’s writing for the violins here as never before.

Conclusion: A truly excellent production with capable singing and high values all around. It is really a treat to attend the opera when it is done to this standard.

CAST LIST
DON GIOVANNI Erwin Schrott
LEPORELLO Kyle Ketelsen
DON OTTAVIO Charles Castronovo
DONNA ANNA Alexandra Deshorties
DONNA ELVIRA Maria Kanyova
ZERLINA Lauren McNeese
MASETTO James Creswell
COMMENDATORE Kang-Liang Peng

CREATIVE TEAM
CONDUCTOR Hartmut Haenchen
DIRECTOR Mariusz Trelinski
CHOREOGRAPHER Emil Wesolowski
SET DESIGNER Boris F. Kudlika
COSTUME DESIGNER Arkadius