Scene from Canadian Opera Company production
of Don Giovanni, 2015. Photo: Michael Cooper, Canadian Opera Company.
Reviewed by James Karas
***** (out of
five)
Some bomb.
Many do it well.
A few do it
terrifically.
A handful do
such dazzling work that it amounts to creating a masterpieces from a
masterpiece.
I speak of opera
directors and especially of Russian
director Dmitri Tcherniakov’s production of Don Giovanni for the
Canadian Opera Company. All of us have preconceived notions of the legendary seducer
including the way he is presented by Mozart. He is handsome, dashing, gallant,
quick of mind and foot, amoral and fearless. A heroic figure if there ever was
one.
Tcherniakov presents almost the opposite; almost a parody of the heroic
figure. His Don Giovanni is an older man, who goes through the mechanics of
seduction but is in fact a dried up drunkard to whom women are attracted but who has nothing to offer them.
Tcherniakov sets the opera in the Commendatore’s paneled library and
changes many of the relationships of the characters in order to justify their
presence in that house. Donna Elvira becomes Donna Anna’s cousin and Don
Giovanni’s wife. Zerlina is Donna Anna’s daughter from a previous marriage and Leporello
is a relative of the Commendatore.
Every scene contains an unexpected and at times surreal interpretation
of the opera. In the opening scene Don Giovanni is famously seducing, even
raping the Commendatore’s daughter. Not so. Donna Anna is trying to seduce him and when her father shows up Don
Giovanni simply pushes him away.
After Masetto gets a thrashing from Don Giovanni, Zerlina, ever the
master manipulator, comforts him with the soothing aria “Vedrai, carino.” She
is supposed to sing to Masetto, of course, and finish the aria by putting his
hand on her heart. In this production, she takes Don Giovanni’s coat from Leporello
and sings to it. The woman is in love irrationally and completely with Don
Giovanni.
In Act II Don Giovanni sings the gorgeous serenade “Deh! Vieni alla
finestra,” with mandolin accompaniment, to Donna Elvira’s maid. In this
production Don Giovani is drunk and alone as he sings and dances. He sings to
no one and his movements suggest the Dance of Death. It is one of many utterly surreal and
captivating scenes in the production.
Baritone Russell Braun has a pleasant if not big voice. It is well
suited to the spent and dispirited Don Giovanni. He is a womanizer on automatic
pilot, going through the motions but only a shadow of his former self. Braun’s
voice contrasted with Kyle Ketelsen’s rich bass-baritone voice in the role of
Leporello. Ketelsen gave us a Leporello with panache and devil-may-care
attitude and some of the best singing of the evening.
Soprano Jane Archibald was a finely done Donna Anna, a sex starved woman
who is trying to have sex with Don Giovanni and her hapless fiancé Don Ottavio.
She sang better than she was able to exude the lusty sexuality of her
character.
Don Ottavio is a wimp and is best if sung by a light tenor who is full
of promises but is ineffectual. He has some beautiful arias. Unfortunately
Michael Schade gave us an Ottavio who was more gruff than lyrical and his arias
floated when they should have soared.
Jennifer Holloway as Donna Elvira displayed some vocal beauty and
emotion but could not give us the anger that is inherent in a betrayed woman.
She may still be in love with Don Giovanni who seduced her and abandoned her
but her rendition of “Mi trade” (I was betrayed) needs some more punch.
Zerlina is not the sweet country girl but a smart teenager who becomes obsessed.
With Don Giovanni and her ‘Batti, batti” and “Vedrai, carino” arias are given
original and unexpected interpretations. Brava to Sasha Djihanian for superb
work.
The Commendatore comes in for special treatment by Tcherniakov but bass
Andrea Silvestrelli sings the last scene in a disappointing colorless monotone.
Michael Hofstetter conducted the Canadian Opera Company Opera.
This is a co-production with Festival Aix-en-Provence and Teatro Real
Madrid and Bolshoi Theatre Moscow. It was performed in Aix-en-Provence in the
summer of 2010 and 2013. One measure of the quality of the production may be
the fact that I saw both Aix productions and could not wait for it to arrive in
Toronto.
Tcherniakov’s take on the opera does not seem to arouse excitement in
everybody. The night I saw it Torontonians managed to mute their excitement
and the standing ovation that the production deserves. It was perhaps just a
display of Canadian reticence if the face of something extraordinary.
_________
Don Giovanni by W. A. Mozart opened on January 24 and will be
performed a total of ten times until February 21, 2015 at the Four Seasons
Centre for the Performing Arts, 145 Queen Street West, Toronto, Ontario. Tel: 416-363-6671. www.coc.ca
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