A Night at the Opera

[aeolium]

I liked Nuccia Focile's Donna Elvira which was both almost clownish at moments, but at others very poignant. I wouldn't agree that she was miscast in the role but it might not have been everyone's idea of Elvira.

It wasn't mine, ff. I don't think Elvira ought to be comic in herself - people on the outside (Don, Leporello) make fun of her but I think of her as a Spanish noblewoman torn between hatred and revenge on the one hand and pity and love on the other. Those don't fit easily with comedy, and the style of her arias - all classical with strong echoes of Handel, and in the major key - is not in the least associated with comedy. I also thought Focile's voice was shrill and a bit hysterical on the night I saw her. And I thought Donna Anna sung very powerfully - I don't think hers is a role demanding dramatic subtlety. Koenigs and the orchestra were the real stars for me.

I was surprised you found this quite a light production. Don't you think the Rodin-style sets made the whole rather Stygian (and those curious 'guardians' who hovered around a lot) - even the dance scene?

[french frank]

I was surprised you found this quite a light production. Don't you think the Rodin-style sets made the whole rather Stygian (and those curious 'guardians' who hovered around a lot) - even the dance scene?

I found it 'light' in the sense I described: 'inventing more humour than is usually seen'. One of the things I thought didn't work was when one of the guardians/spirits played (apparently) the mandolin to accompany Giovanni's Deh, vieni.

I think I accepted this interpretation because I've never quite liked the opera, which has something unsavoury similar to Cosí. It seems at times to be making fun, inviting laughter even from the audience, about aspects of the plot that I find faintly frown-inducing to (almost) repulsive. That goes beyond Giovanni and Leporello having a laugh at the antics of that incorrigible, devil-may-care nobleman. If the whole story is slightly lifted up to a different plane (Elvira as Katisha? - wash my mouth out!) with the Don as being, in fact, thwarted in his designs (a bit like the Count in Figaro), I find that easier to accept. The only serious crime then becomes the murder - and no one jokes about that anyway. The victim comes to avenge himself.

[aeolium]

I've never quite liked the opera, which has something unsavoury similar to Cosí.

You and Beethoven both

I think there is sometimes, in DG as in Cosí, something of a disconnect between da Ponte and Mozart. I don't mean that Mozart doesn't set the words appropriately but that the music is more serious than the libretto. That's only a personal view and some would disagree. But having Elvira as a comic character - as I think E T A Hoffmann thought - imo doesn't tie in with the music she is given. I much prefer her as a Fury.

the Don as being, in fact, thwarted in his designs

But that's what seems to happen pretty well all the time. I know it's become fashionable to believe that he did rape Donna Anna, but the evidence in the opera is that it was a foiled attempt. His attempt to seduce Zerlina is also foiled. So is his mandolin seduction of Elvira's maid, and the encounter with Leporello's wife. But I bet they went into the book anyway The only seduction which we know was successful was the earlier one of Elvira.

[french frank]

I think there is sometimes, in DG as in Cosí, something of a disconnect between da Ponte and Mozart. I don't mean that Mozart doesn't set the words appropriately but that the music is more serious than the libretto.

Da Ponte was reportedly a bit of a Don Giovanni himself, so perhaps he was more light-hearted about the Don's exploits.

I know it's become fashionable to believe that he did rape Donna Anna, but the evidence in the opera is that it was a foiled attempt. His attempt to seduce Zerlina is also foiled. So is his mandolin seduction of Elvira's maid, and the encounter with Leporello's wife. But I bet they went into the book anyway The only seduction which we know was successful was the earlier one of Elvira.

And perhaps you have to put the worst interpretation on his deeds for him to merit his fate. Demanding that he should repent for being a flirt and dragging him down to Hell because he refuses seems a bit over the top

Funnily enough, as I was lying awake the night before thinking about the production, I had the idea of having Ottavio wearing spectacles. Nothing new, is there? And I see Robin Tritschler is singing Benedict next spring.

[gurnemanz]

I would probably pick Don G if I was only allowed one opera. (Yes even above Parsifal which is not great for ensembles and Gurnemanz does go on bit ---- like me). In German culture it ties in strongly with Faust's "live now pay later" hankerings (I remember a performance on TV where the Don sings Finch'han dal vino while shooting up some drug) and, of course, Goethe's Das Ewig-Weibliche which zieht uns hinan (woman motivate men above all else). Gretchen/Zerlina/Molly Bloom - "vorrei e non vorrei" says it all. Deciding between what we want to do and what we know we should do is surely the most omnipresent human dilemma. Hamlet has that problem (we greatly enjoyed Michael Sheen the other night at the Young Vic with Elsinore as a psychiatric clinic). Both men seem to will their own destruction (Pentiti!--- No!!!!)

Fresh in my mind is another of these self-destroying philanderers in Osborne's Inadmissible Evidence which we saw at the Donmar last week. Douglas Hodge as Bill Maitland in a bravura performance is almost unwatchable as he takes himself down into his own private hell.

[french frank]

It's also interesting to compare and contrast DG with Figaro which I kept being reminded of. Not just about the pursuit of pleasure, but also about power and the abuse of power. This is stronger, perhaps, in Figaro where there's no 'Vorrei e non vorrei' with Susanna. Leporello could be considered as much a victim as Zerlina, being made to do what he thinks is wrong and being punished for the misdeeds of his master. This points up the difference between the 'dramma giocoso' and the comedy of Figaro: you can't imagine the Don being outwitted by his servant and made to look ridiculous. This is still the ancien régime rather than 'the revolution in action', and everything is contributing to the final climax, unlike the more episodic Figaro.

Is there an aria of Donna Anna which is very similar to one of Belmonte's (?) in the Abduction? The orchestral introduction sounded very familiar but I couldn't place it.

[Chris Newman]

Hi, ff. For a few notes the intro to Belmonte's "Ich baue ganz auf deine Stärke" sounds slightly like a very much faster version of that to Donna Anna's "Non mi dir". "Ich baue ganz" is often cut.

[aeolium]

Good spot, Chris - I couldn't think of anything of Belmonte's that resembled any of Anna's arias, but I'm familiar with recordings in which that Belmonte aria is cut.

ff, re the comparison between DG and Figaro, I think the feeling of the abuse of power is stronger in the former. The Count is reasonably forgiving with Cherubino, and there's no real feeling that he would take Susanna by force - as DG certainly would with any of his servant girls, and attempts with Zerlina. In fact the Count abolishes the droit de seigneur tradition, hardly the act of a tyrant. And as to the 'revolutionary' elements in either opera, it's true that the Count is made to appear outwitted by his servants, but in DG Masetto and his colleagues combine to assassinate a nobleman - I don't think that would have gone down too well at court after 1789! But I think the 'revolutionary' aspect can be overstated in both operas: after all, at the end of both of them, the natural hierarchy is reasserted.

What imo is mocked by da Ponte are the conventions of nobility, the way that DG thinks nothing of inviting the dead Commendatore to dinner as he would other noblemen, and the way the avenging Commendatore returns the compliment. Though according to these conventions, is the Don being punished for his killing of the Commendatore (which after all was in a properly conducted duel) or for his other sins?

I agree with gurnemanz that this is the one opera I would keep if allowed only one. It is the extraordinary power of the music, from that amazing Introduzione to Act 1 to the finale of Act 2 with the strange unearthly music of the Commendatore. I think Figaro palls in Act 3, and Despina is a weakness in Cosí.

[Chris Newman]

I agree with gurnemanz that this is the one opera I would keep if allowed only one. It is the extraordinary power of the music, from that amazing Introduzione to Act 1 to the finale of Act 2 with the strange unearthly music of the Commendatore. I think Figaro palls in Act 3, and Despina is a weakness in Cosí.

I agree that Don Giovanni is Mozart's absolute best. He comes pretty close IMO in the Finale of Die Zauberflotte from the moment that the Spirits discover Pamina about to commit suicide:the whole end of the opera is wonderfully through written. Not only do the Spirits stop the suicide but they prevent Papageno doing the same. The downfall of The Queen of the Night, Monostatos and the Ladies is very dramatic. Not only that Mozart manages to throw in the lovely Pa-pa-pa duet, that miraculous music when Pamina describes her father making the flute and the earliest ever Viennese waltz that I know of.

[french frank]

Thanks, Chris. It was Ich baue ganz (which is on my Böhm/Dresden recording).

I might dispute some of your comments, aeolium, but, of course, Giovanni comes from much earlier sources than Figaro. Even Molière's Dom Juan (ou Le Festin de Pierre) was 1665 and the original goes back a bit further, and to Spain, which takes it away from the pre-revolution ancien régime. Molière's play, like Beaumarchais's, was banned shortly after it was first performed (not exactly sure on what grounds; morality?) so Mozart and da Ponte were dealing with controversial texts with both the operas.

[Il Grande Inquisitor]

All this makes me sorry I'm unable to make the WNO Don Giovanni when it comes to Southampton now.

Last night saw the opening of Deborah Warner's new ENO production of Eugene Onegin - a traditional production, but one which didn't entirely 'click'. It may do so during the run, so worth looking out for:

http://www.opera-britannia.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=603:eugene-onegin-english-national-opera-12th-november-2011&catid=8:opera-reviews&Itemid=16

[aeolium]

Thank you for the Eugene Onegin review, IGI - why can't more reviews be like that, with photos of the set and descriptions of specific aspects of the staging and characterisation?! The production does look visually very good, as you say - though I so much prefer it sung in Russian.

[Il Grande Inquisitor]

Another Tchaikovsky opera given in English - The Queen of Spades from Opera North at a rather un-northerly Barbican Centre last night:

http://www.opera-britannia.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=606:the-queen-of-spades-opera-north-22nd-november-2011&catid=8:opera-reviews&Itemid=16

[aeolium]

Thanks again for another review, IGI. I'm very keen on this opera, and Onegin (pace some anti-Tchaikovsky feeling on another thread). The Barbican is a pretty soulless (and cramped) place to stage an opera and it sounds as though Opera North were not much helped by the location.

I would have wanted to see this not just to hear the music but also to see the great Josephine Barstow, such a wonderful performer in her prime.

I am off to Malvern to see ETO's Xerxes on Thursday - I don't suppose you caught this when it was on in London?

[verismissimo]

The Barbican is a pretty soulless (and cramped) place to stage an opera and it sounds as though Opera North were not much helped by the location.

It's in the Barbican Theatre, not the concert hall. No idea what the acoustic is like in it. May discover tomorrow.