The Warner Theatre in Torrington, CT is showing a series of operas filmed live in European opera houses. Here are my thoughts on two of the productions.
It's never too late to learn something new. I found that out recently when I attended a live-filmed production of Mozart's Don Giovanni at the Warner Theatre in Torrington, CT. The stage director, Claus Guth, had the brilliant idea to put the story into a contemporary setting- and in a woods????? What ever happened to castles in Spain? This became a sort of combination of Don Giovanni versus A Mid-summer Night's Dream, but without Bottom.
But we saw a lot of bottoms since most of the cast spent a lot of time taking their clothes off and rolling around on the ground while singing difficult arias. Peter Sellers! Where are you when we need you?
The cast was headed by Christopher Maltman, an excellent British baritone who was the 1997 winner of the Lieder Prize at the Cardiff Singer of the World Competition in Wales. Anatoly Kocherga sang, or tried to sing the role of the Comandatore. He just doesn't have those low notes the Comandatore needs to be authentic. Annette Dasch sang Donna Anna. She is a beautiful woman with a good voice who appeared to enjoy being raped by the Don. I'm not sure, Herr Guth, that this was da Ponte's original thought. Mathew Polenzani was the Don Ottavio, complete with cell-phone and plastic rimmed spectacles. Dorothea Röschmann sang Donna Elvira and seemed to enjoy lying on a bench in a corrugated metal bus stop while singing some of her arias. When Leporello sang 'The Catalogue Aria', he pointed to the bus schedule hanging on the back wall of the bus stop to enumerate the Don's conquests. 'Mil' e tre'. Erwin Schrott who sang the role is from Uruguay. Ekaterina Siurina, from Russia, was the Zerlina. She may have had the best of the female voices. Alex Esposito sang Massetto. The bass-baritone is from Italy.
Claus Guth should have spent a little more time reading the libretto and stage directions. In the beginning, when Don Giovanni and the Comandatore are fighting after the Don has attempted to seduce Donna Anna, the Don kills him with a large stick rather than stabbing him, whereupon the Comandatore then shoots the Don in the abdomen with a gun. In this translation the Don sings 'His blade has pierced me!' Ouch! (I added that bit) What blade? The Don continues to bleed on just about everyone, including himself, throughout the rest of the three hour opera. Where is triage when we need it?
Since we are in the forest, and not a palace, the singers roll about on the ground having wild and crazy sex and wind up covered in mud- as well as quite a bit of the Don's blood. I'd like to see the laundry bill for this production!
In the last scene it begins to snow. A combination of La Bohème and I don't know what. This, by the way, is all taking place in southern Spain where the average year-round temperature is 74 degrees.
When the Comandatore is supposed to come back as a talking statue, the basso comes strolling through the woods wearing the same clothes he had on when he was hit with the stick, but with a bandage around his head. Low budget, I guess. We he sings his famous accusation: "Don Giovanni" the low note just ain't there. Then, the Don, instead of being dragged into the flaming bowels of Hell, merely falls to the ground and writhes about, thereby getting more mud mixed with his still bleeding wound. Talk about flaming!
While some opera stories can have their time frame moved into a different period, this one obviously can not. The over-all singing was fair to good by the semi-naked cast. Fortunately, they all looked pretty good with their clothes in disarray.
The moral of the story: If it ain't broke, don't fix it!
