By Megan
Link: https://stream.roh.org.uk/packages/don-giovanni/videos/don-giovanni-1
Available until: 15th August 2021
Don Giovanni is not like Mozart’s other main characters. There are some who do things which aren’t the best idea like the characters in Così fan tutte. There are characters who get themselves into really serious difficulties like the title character in Idomeneo (who makes a promise he really regrets) and Tito in La clemenza di Tito (who expects his best friend not to want to kill him). Even in the lighter operas, the characters get themselves into serious trouble. But we like all these main characters and we hope for a happy ending for them.
Don Giovanni is a bit different. He is not such a good man. At the start of the play, he really likes Donna Anna, even though she is engaged to Don Ottavio. Later, he arrives at the wedding of Zerlina and Masetto and decides he likes Zerlina. His ex Donna Elvira is also in the opera. She wants revenge but she also loves Don Giovanni.
This is not a good way to treat women (or anyone of any gender) but Mozart and his librettist Lorenzo Da Ponte are very clever. They know how to keep us interested in what Don Giovanni does next, even if it is really evil. The script is really good and funny and it has good characters.
The music is obviously brilliant and it’s very varied too. Some of Donna Elvira’s music is in a Baroque style like she is stuck in the past, which she is because she kind of believes it could still work out with Giovanni. Donna Anna’s music feels like it’s already looking towards bel canto. Then there are romantic lyrical arias from Don Ottavio, comedy arias from Leporello and quite naughty arias from Zerlina which I’m quite surprised I’m allowed to listen to.
Constantin Trinks conducts the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House really amazingly. He brings out all the colours in the music and I am glad there aren’t things going on onstage all the way through the overture because it is a brilliant overture and the orchestra deserve to have their moment. They are brilliant later on too, in all the romantic bits, the sad bits and the dramatic bits where they create a real sense of danger.
Mozart and Da Ponte have made Don Giovanni into a really interesting character who we want to keep watching but we also like his servant Leporello. Leporello is involved in all the terrible things Don Giovanni does but there is something which binds them together even though Leporello hates a lot of what Don Giovanni does. (This is very different from Moliѐre’s play Dom Juan where the servant who is called Sganarelle and appears in a lot of his plays and was usually played by the playwright in the original productions, is only really interested in money.)
That is how Don Giovanni usually works anyway. Kasper Holten’s production which is revived by Jack Furness focuses much more on Don Giovanni. Don Giovanni is quite happy with the way things are going with Donna Anna but then her dad the Commendatore catches them and he is not very happy. They fight and the Commendatore dies. Don Giovanni doesn’t usually care that much but this Don Giovanni is really shocked by what he has done. He throws himself into having fun with other women but things mostly go very wrong.
All these things happen in every production of Don Giovanni but they don’t usually focus on how bad it is for Don Giovanni. I think this is interesting and it really works well.
Es Devlin’s set is multi-storey and divided into lots of sections. This looks really striking especially in the shots where you can see the whole stage. Luke Halls’ video designs have the names of Don Giovanni’s conquests. One of the first names you see looks like ‘Susanna’ and that is a very interesting name for Mozart fans as that is the heroine of Le nozze di Figaro. (But I’m sure it’s not her. Susanna’s nice.)
Erwin Schrott has been playing Don Giovanni since before I was born but in 2003 my mum saw him playing Leporello at the ROH in a different production. The Don in that production was Gerald Finley who made his debut as Leporello in this production. This makes the opera even more interesting especially as there is a bit where they pretend to be each other.
Mr Schrott is really brilliant as Don Giovanni. He is a really good actor so he is really good at showing this different Giovanni who is really quite upset about what he’s done and his performance also makes you wonder how much of the opera actually happens and how much is his imagination. Mr Schrott has a really beautiful voice which he makes really lyrical when he is trying to make the women like him but he can also be very dramatic.
The focus on Don Giovanni is a shame for Leporello but Gerald Finley is brilliant like he always is. His characterisation is on point, his comic timing is perfect and his voice is gorgeous. He can bring darker bass-baritone qualities to his voice which is ideal for Leporello. He is a really brilliant actor and if he was in a production where the focus is more on Leporello and his emotions, Mr Finley would totally steal the show.
I would usually mention the women next but first I will say how good Michael Mofidian is as Masetto. I’m not surprised that he already sings Leporello and he has the vocal qualities for Don Giovanni too. Masetto doesn’t get the best music in the opera but Mr Mofidian sings so beautifully and you get to hear a bit of buffo style that would be perfect for Leporello and also some really lovely lyrical bits which made me think how well he’d sing the Window Aria.
The female characters are all played by sopranos but they are all very different. Adela Zaharia is a powerful and passionate Donna Anna, her arias are so dramatic and her duet with Don Ottavio is so sad. Nicole Chevalier who has a lovely slightly darker soprano gets the balance just right with Donna Elvira, giving her just enough comedy to make her slightly amusing but not too amusing. Zuzana Markovà seems very sweet and innocent as Zerlina but she is actually quite clever and sneaky. She has sung a lot of Verdi and Donizetti but she sings with a really nice light tone as Zerlina. Adam Palka completes the cast as a creepy Commendatore.
This is a very interesting
production which shows the story in a different way and it works really well.
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