If you’re reading this, you’ve probably already heard that Don Giovanni, which encompasses the entire interior of the auditorium, is a wonder. And that’s absolutely true. I’m a middling opera fan – by nature more theatrically oriented than music oriented – and so librettos like Don Giovanni’s in which the principals sing the same lines for ten minutes while one short line of English translation sits gathering dust on the superscript screen (is there a word for this?) generally drives me nuts. I’m sitting there thinking, Can we get the freakin’ narrative going again? But Kramer’s production had me mesmerized, because there was as much theatre going on as there was opera. The singers utilized every inch of the performance space; they meandered through the audience, took photographs of us, played with conductor Emmanuel Villaume and the musicians, stopped the opera altogether to gab with those of us watching, and generally broke all the rules of traditional western opera in a most entertaining fashion, all in a spectacular setting and costumes. Too bad it’s sold out.
May 31, 2005
The Donald at Memminger
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Projected titles in opera houses are often also called surtitles (a word like subtitles, but so-called because they usually appear above the stage). I believe that the word surtitles is not always used because the Canadian opera house which first used them extensively still has a trademark or copyright on the term (but the not the concept). In the Spoleto Don Giovanni they have translated much less than most productions: it is less distracting, and they don’t want a jolt between a literal translation and the changed action and emphases that you see. Sneaky, but effective. On the other hand, someone who had not studied the story in advance was quoted in some blog with totally inaccurate connections between the characters (Donna Anna is not Don G’s wife) which had been gleaned form this present production. My main objection to it is that in the original all of the men are impotent–Don G never really seduces a woman that we know for sure; Don Ottavio never revenges the murder of his fiancee’s father as he promises; Masetto lets Don G take Zerlina away; Leporello is too busy standing in for Don G to have a love life of his won. Beethoven (of all people!) thought the opera immoral since Don G never repents.
Comment by Bill Gudger — June 1, 2005 @ 5:32 pm
Me bad typist: in the above comment read “from” for “form” and “own” for “won.”
Comment by Bill Gudger — June 1, 2005 @ 5:34 pm
[…] 8217;s wonderful Amadeus. With two of Mozart’s operas in this year’s festival (Don Giovanni in Spoleto and The Abduction from the Seraglio in Piccolo), plus a host of other pres […]
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