|
|
 |
|
Conducted
by
David Parry
Directed
by
Calixto Bieito
Designed
by
Alfons Flores
Performers
Don Giovanni
Mark Stone
Donna
Anna
Linda Richardson
Leporello
Iain Paterson
Donna
Elvira
Mary Plazas
Don
Ottavio
Barry Banks
Zerlina
Victoria
Simmonds
Commendatore
Hans-Peter
Scheidegger
Masetto
William Berger
|
|
| |
|
|
|
Coliseum
30
September - 5 November 2004 |
|
If Mozart
could see this raunchy, wild,
spirited version of 'Don Giovanni'
he would be delighted. By
the end of the evening the
stage looks like the aftermath
of several weddings and bomb
explosions combined; and in
an imaginative twist to the
usual last scene, this production
has the Don stabbed to death
by those he has wronged, as
they sing their closing tutti
about the penalties for evildoing.
A story about erotomania,
murder, sexual betrayals and
careless immorality does well
to bar no holds. This Don
is going to hell in a handcart
and enjoying the ride; his
servant Leporello, caught
between venality and self-interest,
only narrowly escapes the
final plunge; and there is
something psychologically
accurate in Donna Elvira's
fluctuation between desire
and her relentless pursuit
of revenge, and in Donna Anna's
attraction to the Don and
parallel determination to
have her father's killer punished.
And indeed no holds are barred.
There are blow-jobs and orgasms,
drugs, booze, floods of blood
and gore, mayhem, smashing
bottles, chaos and calamity,
all happening at breakneck
speed. The sheer velocity
of the action reveals something
new about the vigour of the
music that carries it; it
is a mark of an imaginative
staging that it offers such
unexpectedly fresh perspectives.
Not for one moment does either
the pace or the tension slacken
‚ nor the humour, which is
sometimes rollicking, and
often grim. Taken all in all,
this production has commandeered
a familiar classic and launched
it into an entirely new dimension.
Both musically and in theatrical
respects the performance is
hard to fault. Some of the
singing reflects the physical
demands of action on the stage,
but that has nothing to do
with the quality of voices
on offer. The clarity of Barry
Banks's tone as Don Ottavio,
the richness of Hans-Peter
Scheideger's voice as the
Commendatore, and the passionate
accents of Mary Plazas as
Donna Anna, are very enjoyable.
Iain Paterson as Leporello
almost steals the show, and
Mark Stone is utterly convincing
as the Don. Handsome heroes
(or anti-heroes) and beautiful
heroines have now thoroughly
supplanted their adipose and
superannuating predecessors
on the opera stage: this is
more like Hollywood than old-fashioned
opera ‚ or, given the raw
sexuality of this production,
more like X-rated cinema than
either.
Given the sheer amount of
mess generated by the action,
the successive invasions of
the stage space by objects
and artefacts needed for the
drama have to be carefully
planned ‚ and were. The dinner
to which the Commendatore
is invited is cooked on stage,
though the Don prefers to
eat cornflakes by hand while
lying upside down on his couch.
Cans of beer are liberally
cracked open only to be flung
from one end of the stage
to the other. And the drama
begins and ends with a car
appearing on stage ‚ in the
last scene, fittingly. in
reverse, its baleful red lights
like the Commendatore's eyes.
In brief: this whirlwind Don
Giovanni is an event not to
be missed.
AC Grayling |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
