10/17/2011 Don Giovanni

Donny G and I are actually kind of sick of each other.  I saw like 6 of them the last time at the Met because each of the many casts had one singer I really wanted to see.  And when I was in college I took “World of Opera” (best class ever) and we had to study this and memorize every single aria; so I know the thing like the back of my hand.  And it’s just so damned long with so many characters and so many arias and ensembles. 

Marius K____ was out, Peter Mattei was in.  Neither of them was Erwin Schrott with Fabio hair and no shirt, so whatevs.  Leperello was way hotter than Donny G, as seems to always be the case.  Peter Mattei’s singing was excellent (isn’t it always – he’s too reliable!).  His acting seemed fine.  Production was fine, but really boring.  I mean, the last one had the crazy swordfight on a flight of stairs, and an excuse for Erwin to pour wine on his chest trying to seduce Donna E one last time.  Well, really every excuse for Erwin to declothe as often and much as possible, so on that front, this production failed.  Voice only takes us so far Peter, take note! (i.e., get buff and take off your shirt.  Maybe Marius will for the HD movie – we can only hope).

Donna A, Marina Rebeka, sounds like a firetruck.  Not the pitch-altering siren, but the scary get-the-hell-out-of-the-way horn that they blow as they slam down 9^th Avenue.  Her voice is crazy loud, in a Radvanovsky kind of earthy way.  She gets the notes.  She can sing soft, but it’s still firetruck soft.  When she was mad, like the recitative before her first aira, it was great.  The aria itself was quite spectacular; fearsome, almost.  But after that, any time she opened her mouth it was just too scary and loud.  Why Mozart?  Sing some Verdi or angry bell canto please.

Donna E, Barbara Frittoli, was, as always, great.  I’m still angry that she canceled Donna Anna a few years ago; that would have been a pleasure to hear.  But her Donna E is pretty moving. Pretty singing, voice nearing tatters but well managed.

Zerlina just always sucks.  And they always seem to put sopranos in the role, which is totally mezzo.  Why waste them?  This one at least acted and convinced us she wasn’t the two-faced slut she usually is.  Her fiancée was appropriately bumbling and sweet. 

Ramon Vargas, recently singing beautifully after a couple years of scary, didn’t get to do much in the wimpy Mozart tenor role, but his big aria was the nicest part of the night.  Beautiful phrasing, perfect ping, just great.

And just when things were starting to get way too long and sleepytime was approaching, there was fire.  Actual real fire.  Not just wimpy Aida torches, not even Nabucco temple scroll-burning, but actual blazing fire.  Like an an airshow when something blows up when they do the mock paratrooper skits and you feel the flame heat on your face – that kind of fire!  They’d better be careful or one night they might BBQ a Don.  It was pretty cool. 

And then, what was my favorite part of the last production, the annoying crap that happens after he’s dead (which I believe should be cut- it’s stupid and happy) was staged less brilliantly than before.  Before, champagne glasses and a bottle came magically out of the prompter’s box, Donna A poured everyone some, and they toasted.  And you got to see which of the singers actually drank, which fake drank, and which ones knocked it back like a drinking match in a Wild West movie.  Here, they just sang, champagneless.  Overall, good fun, but if you’re going to do a new production that brings nothing that the old one didn’t, why bother?