Don Giovanni - Seattle Opera 2014 Production

Maybe it's high time I break the mold of reviewing movies with a form of entertainment that seems to get less and less respect in this modern age of mass communication. A form of entertainment that, whenever I bring it up in conversations, I'm usually laughed at for it, even when I was younger, I usually was made fun of for saying I enjoyed it.

I'm not sure what else to say but this:

I love opera.

Ever since I saw "The Marriage of Figaro," I've always adored Opera. It's a form of entertainment and music that just doesn't get the same level of respect Broadway musicals do now. The amount of hard work performers put themselves through to project their voices to sing all the words in a language that is not natively spoken (unless you live in Italy and then it's about annunciating the words you sing.) But whether the performer is a tenor, a soprano, a mezzo soprano or even a baritone singer, it takes intense hard work to put that much emotion into your voice as you perform on stage for millions. Just look at the video above of the late Luciana Pavarotti performing the famed Vesti La Giubba from Ruggero Leoncavallo's "Pagliacci," a scene in where the main character must put on his clown costume despite having the knowledge his wife is cheating on him. Just the emotion Pavarotti brings to this is heart-breaking, even if you can't understand what he's saying.

So, as someone who enjoys opera, it's probably why I'm no stranger to the Marion Oliver McCaw Hall's Seattle Opera House and have been going there for opera performances since 2007 where I have seen some of the greatest operas there; "The Barber of Seville," "Carmen," "La Bohéme," "Porgy and Bess," "Madame Butterfly," and my absolute favorite opera of all time, "The Magic Flute" with plans in progress to see "Tosca" this coming January.

But lately, I've been skipping shows for financial reasons, but also, the Seattle Opera House went under new direction and lately, their shows have been trying to blend these old operas with contemporary images, making them lack-luster and unimaginable in contrast to the shows I've seen years before. Unfortunately, this meant I sadly missed out on seeing "Rigoletto" this year. The only show this season had that had my attention was an opera my mom and I had wanted to see for years because of the movie "Amadeus."

That opera?

"Don Giovanni."

Premiered in 1787 and composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, "Don Giovanni" is widely regarded as Mozart's darkest opera for it's subject matter on rape, adultery, rampant sin and condemnation.

And yet I'm sorry to say with this production I saw, I have not been as disappointed in the Seattle Opera House' since their last production of Beethoven's "Fidelio."

The story follows playboy debutant Don Giovanni (performed by Nicolas Cavallier) who is in the midst of attempting to seduce Donna Anna (performed by Erin Wall making her Seattle Opera debut) while Giovanni's faithful yet abused servant Leporello (performed by Erik Anstine) stands guard. Donna Anna rebuffs Giovanni's advances, forcing him to flee into her father, the Commendatore (performed by Jordan Bisch), who fights Giovanni only to be killed in the ensuing sword fight. Shocked by her father's death, she makes her fiance Don Ottavio (performed by Lawrence Browniee who also gave a splendid performance in 2011's production of "The Barber of Seville.") swear to find her father's killer and avenge him. As that goes on, Don Giovanni attempts to seduce a random woman when he realizes the woman is Donna Elvira (performed by Elizabeth Caballero, who was the lead in the 2013 performance of "La Bohéme"), hurt and vengeful after Don Giovanni wooed her over and promised to marry her before ditching her for another woman. Scornful of Don Giovanni's ways, she does everything in her power to get in between him and any other woman he sets his eyes on, especially Zerlina (performed by Cecelia Hall), who is recently married to the easily jealous Masetto (performed by Evan Boyer making his Seattle Opera debut). All of this culminating with Don Giovanni's final decision to repent his evil ways or pay the price for his ways.

Story-wise, it's straight-forward enough. It takes place in the course of 24 hours and, because of certain songs that seemed to drag the running time of the show. But those sort of criticisms are just nitpicks and for opera, songs like that are expectant, it'd be no different than if it were a musical sung in English. 

My my criticisms are not relegated to the music or the actors, for they all did fine jobs, especially one moment early in the show where Nicolas dropped his prop dagger when he's supposed to stab Jordan. He quickly put his hand around Jordan's neck to look like he was trying to choke him at the same time he picked up his dagger to put it back into place, which Jordan then reacted as though he had been stabbed again. A mistake quickly fixed through quick-thinking improvisation; in most shows, that would be the end of it since the illusion was ruined, but they kept the illusion going, bravo to them.

My problem, however, is the direction this production took. I had read the Seattle Opera House had taken on a new director, the website names Chris Alexander, whose previous credits included 2011 productions of "Porgy and Bess" and "The Magic Flute," again, both great shows that kept to their respective time periods, another note-worthy name worth mentioning is set designer Robert A. Dahlstrom, who made the admittedly impressive sets for the 2012 production of "Fidelio." I originally thought these two were at fault, but looking back on their track records, I was mistaken in assuming there was a single person responsible. 

Well, whoever was responsible, the staging for this show was a mess.

The stage's backdrop looked like something out of Terry Gilliam's "Brazil," the way doors would open just felt out of place in a story that takes place in the time period the opera was written. I would have been more willing to accept the change in time period if it made sense and, regrettably, these decisions here do NOT make any sense.

Why is there a motorcycle in the opening scene of the opera? Especially since this motorcycle is never seen again for the remainder of the opera. Why do some of the servants have candlesticks when we can see electric lights illuminating during scenes at Don Giovanni's party? Why does Don GIovanni have a remote control to a portrait that shows off paintings of women? And the big question, what time period is this? The costuming suggests a 1920s look yet the majority of the technology implemented during the show is completely anachronistic of it's time period, really taking me out of the story overall.
What comes to mind was this opera being marketed as "Mozart's bad boy." I hold issue with that concept as, typically with a character described as a "bad boy," there is still a layer of heart hiding within that gives them redeeming qualities. If you want examples, take James Dean from "Rebel Without a Cause," Harrison Ford's role as Han Solo or more obviously, Johnny Depp's role from "Cry-Baby."
The character of Don Giovanni has no heart. The character has no redeeming qualities, he's a jerk and he has no true purpose to be labeled "a bad boy" when he is a pure scumbag of a character. Probably why performing as the character is a reward for many performers; everyone wants to play the bad guy, it's why actors are treated with high regard to perform as Richard the III for the Shakespearean play of the same name. No one ever labeled him a "bad boy" and there is a good reason why.
So why Seattle Opera went out of their way to market and label him as such along with the set design, is truly baffling.

The best thing this backdrop did was break open and produce a heavy smoke effect during the famous climax with the ghost of the Commendatore, an outstanding climax that's elevated by the actors' performances, but made nearly under-whelming by the lack-luster set (the ending of the scene just have projector fire on the background and red lights. Even the 1990 TV Movie with Samuel Ramey, which was just a single performance at the Metropolitan Opera House had more imagination and creativity with it's production sets than this particular production did.

I hate harping on this production like it did something wrong, but when you have this fantastic cast of outstandingly talented performers with amazing music from a master; there is this expectation to give the story the respect it deserves to do it justice. The anachronistic decisions done for this production's sets and costumes are baffling to me and they constantly kept pulling me out of the opera, a problem i never have when an opera can keep me engaged in it's illusion.

This production, felt like it didn't want to hide the illusion.

Still, all things considered, it's still a great opera. The music is great and the Commendatore climax is both chilling and empowering, both of which are done great justice by it's great acting troupe, I just wish the people behind the scenes had that much passion going into opera's set design.

But if "Don Giovanni" happens to come around your town, I say check it out, expand your horizons a bit.