This post was submitted by t

Don Giovanni is a true crowd-pleaser incorporating jealousy, murder, deceit, and sex. Mozart’s beautifully crafted score gives life to the hyper-masculine protagonist (Don Giovanni), his devoted attendant (Leporello) and three swooning maidens (Donna Anna, Donna Elvira and Zerlina).

Claus Guth, the Director of this performance, chose to have the Commendatore (the angry father of one of Don Giovanni’s conquests) shoot Don Giovanni before Don Giovanni murders the Commendatore in the opening scene. For the rest of the opera, Don Giovanni limps around the stage clutching at his bleeding side. In addition to this artistic freedom, Guth also decided to depict the story in an entirely modern context, complete with guns, cell phones, cars and drugs. Although Don Giovanni is one of Mozart’s more vulgar operas, I found much of this interpretation to be gratuitous. It is one thing to have a half-naked Don Giovanni ripping clothes off a barely clad Donna Anna, but quite another to have Leporello shooting heroine and twitching throughout the show; it’s a bit much for a play that takes place in the 1600s and reminded me of Baz Luhrmann’s take on Romeo and Juliet. Additionally, Guth depicted the entire opera on one set, a rotating forest with 3 different regions (a bus stop of sorts, a swing, and Don Giovanni’s “lair” – a broken tree trunk). I will say, however, that while this backdrop didn’t always jive with the script (which at times calls for opening doors – of which there were none on stage, etc), it cast a consistently eerie tone that offered a unique take on an old classic – hearkening A Midsummer’s Nightmare, if you will. The fact that Don Giovanni was shot in the beginning, coupled with all of these dark elements and the complexity of the characters well-supported by the actors, made it seem as though much of the events were a figment of Don Giovanni’s imagination – hallucinations brought about by his loss of blood and delirious state. This concept climaxed in the final scene when Don Giovanni invites the dead Commendatore’s statue to dinner. Much to the audience’s surprise, the statue accepts and then promptly summons the protagonist to hell with a chilling final aria. A fitting end for a character who, while dying, courts three women, ruins marriages, murders an old man, and manages to have his innocent servant beaten.

All that said, the performance itself was outstanding. This opera sports a relatively large cast, and for the first time of three that I’ve seen it, each singer was equally strong vocally and most were excellent actors, which used to be a rarity on the opera stage. They brought depth to the characters as well as the music, making the production incredibly enjoyable.

Also contributing to the positive experience was the venue. The Atlas Performing Arts Center in NE DC was renovated about 4 years ago. The theater is spacious but intimate with great HD picture quality and an excellent sound system – which is especially crucial to an opera screening. There was a 15 minute intermission, during which snacks are available for purchase, and the usher waited until we had all returned to our seats before resuming the show, which I felt was a particularly nice touch.

Bottom line: a beautifully performed opera in an intimate and casual setting – it just doesn’t get much better than that!

You can purchase tickets online at: www.atlasarts.org – make sure to get the special 20% off discount for TNG readers by entering the promo code opera20 when ordering online.

---

First time here? See what we're all about... Get involved... Send us a tip!...

---