Don Giovanni, DVD. Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, 2008. Production: Francesca Zambello.
Conductor: Charles Mackerras. Cast: Simon Keenlyside (Don Giovanni), Kyle
Ketelsen (Leporello), Joyce DiDonato (Donna Elvira), Ramon Vargas (Don
Ottavio), Marina Poplavskaya (Donna Anna), Miah Persson (Zerlina), Robert
Gleadow (Masetto), Eric Halfvarson (Commendatore).
I have
never really understood why Francesca Zambello has been invited and
re-invited to stage operas in virtually all the major opera houses: I have never
once seen a staging by her which I found exciting, or even interesting. Okay, once she was involved with something exciting: The Carmen with Jonas Kaufmann andAnna Caterina Antonacci. However, this was exciting despite Zambello´s best efforts to drown Carmen in dullness.
Suffice to say that I agree with all those who found
this Don Giovanni ugly and boring and I disagree with those finding the DVD
much better: A circular wall of glass, dark colours throughout. A death-scene
with live flames and then a bare-chested Simon Keenlyside in baggy pants, not
to mention the foolish wigs both he and Leporello wear – is this a comedy or
tragedy, really? The characterization seemed monodimensional as well with Don
Giovanni the rogue, Leporello the more anonymous, Donna Anna the elegant and Donna Elvira the desperate.
As to the
musical side, things look rather better. Best of all is Joyce DiDonato,
a strong-voiced clear Donna Elvira. Also Kyle Ketelsen, in strong voice, shows quite a comic talent as Leporello. Robert Gleadow (23 years old at
the time of the recording..) and Miah Persson are sweet. However, while Marina Poplavskaya as always inhabits her character more than 100% ,vocally she seems quite thin and overchallenged, especially in “Or sai chi
onore”.
Simon Keenlyside himself is clearly among the top choices of
any Don Giovanni production today, though I´d like to see him in a better
directed production, frankly. As always I almost forgot the Don Ottavio: Here Ramon Vargas, though I
do not really know what to say about him: He sings his arias well, but Mozart
did not give him much to work with in terms of characerization to begin with.
There are
many, many Don Giovanni DVDs out there, and off-hand I can without difficulty
name at least 5 better than this one. In fact, all the Don Giovanni DVDs I havereviewed are better than this one, though I admittedly have seen worse as well.
Much worse. The late Sir Charles Mackerras (deceased in 2010) was engaged, and
clearly masters the score, despite the fact that I largely disagree with the
ornamentations he asked the singers to perform, though they were in no way
offensive.
The masked trio:
The bottom
line (scale of 1-5, 3=average):
Simon Keenlyside:
4-5
Kyle
Ketelsen: 4-5
Marina
Poplavskaya: 3
Joyce
DiDonato: 5
Miah
Persson: 4-5
Robert
Gleadow: 4-5
Francesca
Zambello´s production: 2
Charles
Mackerras: 4
Overall
impression: 3