parterre box

62 comments

• Lucky Pierre says:

  la cieca, how can you call the esther score “virtuoso” when you just spent the 2 previous paragraphs hating it?

  on November 10, 2009 at 12:56 PM
  • La Cieca says:

    That was JJ, but what he meant was, it’s intricate and difficult to play, requiring virtuosity.

    on November 10, 2009 at 1:02 PM
• Will says:

  I may be a minority voice here, but i watched Alden’s direction intensively and found that virtually every choice was firmly based in da Ponte’s libretto.

  Giovanni and Leporello engage in at least one palindromic conversation and each shadows the other’s fears and thoughts throughout the opera–in a manner common to 18th century plays and libretti (see also Sarastro and Monostatos) each contains and reflects part of the other. The top half/bottom half suit costume (reversed on stage when they impersonate each other for Elvira’s benefit) fits this relationship exactly.

  Other ideas work thematically through the score–the splash of blood on the wall from Giovanni’s shockingly violent slamming of the Commendatore’s head against it remained for the whole performance–something he had to confront for the rest of the evening. Da Ponte sets it up in a dialog with Leporello when he says that his servant can speak to him about anything–EXCEPT the murder of the Commendatore, something that clearly bothers him greatly in a way his serial seductions and abandonments do not.

  Aldon has taken a stand on what really happened between the Don and Anna–we see the seduction, to which she initially responds positively, only eventually realize this isn’t something she should be doing. There is a huge critical legacy of comment that consciously or unconsciously, she wants him back but in a mnore repressed way than Elvira does.

  I found the directing very true to the psychology of the characters. La ci darem la mano turned into a passionate make-out session and the audience got the joke later when Zerlina told Masetto that the Don didn’t even touch her fingertip. Again there’s a long critical tradition that Zerlina is, as Conrad L. Osborne once put it, a much smarter little cookie than she’s generally given credit for.

  The main thing that rang true was the finale, where Alden shows that being dragged down to hell supernaturally isn’t what the Don really fears most–it is his own death. For a man without a soul, that would be the big fear and I think Alden nailed it.

  As to the acoustics, I sat for both Esther and Don Giovanni in the third ring dead center. The two sets were polar opposites: Esther’s soft curtains and gauzes versus Don Giovanni’s tall, solid walls. In Esther, there seemed to be a point about halfway upstage where sound definitely began to be swallowed up. Jimmy Maddelena was clearly and at times forcefully audible downstage, but other appearances upstage, while not INaudible, were definitely less present and vivid.

  The Don Giovanni set with sounding boards all over the place supported voices better on every part of the stage. Overall, in both operas, I felt that vocal sound had more vibrance and impact than formerly. Given the way theaters and acousticians work, my sense is that there will be some adjustments and that designers may be encouraged to back their designs with solid surfaces as the company works out the kinks. On the whole, though, I think the changes are all in the right direction.

  on November 10, 2009 at 12:57 PM
  • cosmodimontevergine says:

    I agree wholeheartedly. An awful lot of the criticism here sounds like sour grapes. Too many opera directors manqué? I saw the Don Giovanni and found it insightful, intelligent and just plain entertaining. I’ll see it again.

    on November 10, 2009 at 4:47 PM
    • scifisci says:

      I saw it and loved it. And most of the voices weren’t half bad either. Bravo City Opera!

      on November 10, 2009 at 11:55 PM
      • Regina delle fate says:

        Alden is often a brilliant director, as is his brother. Surely it would have been a fantastic artistic coup to appoint them joint directors of the NYCO – they are both New Yorkers, widely acclaimed in Europe – which may count against them chez vous, I suppose – and they would offer a radical alternative to the Met and keep Gelb on his toes regie-wise. Christopher and David’s productions have been the best shows at ENO in the last five or six years – controversial but always stimulating. ENO has just replace Christopher’s Turandot with a pile of doggie-do set in a Chinese restaurant, and David brilliant Bluebeard’s Castle has been jettisoned in favour of a production which sees analogies between Bluebeard and psychopaths like Fritz and the serial-killer Fred West. This Don Giovanni sounds fascinating.

        on November 11, 2009 at 6:14 AM
• operabitch says:

  Okulitch has a seriously marvelous upper torso as depicted in the photo above; can’t tell much about Hardy’s body except that those legs need serious work. I see better legs at the senior citizen center where I work out.

  But Okulitch can come home with me anytime. Yummy!

  on November 10, 2009 at 5:26 PM
  • MontyNostry says:

    Isn’t Okulitch the one with the jacket on and the trousers off?

    on November 10, 2009 at 5:52 PM
    • CruzSF says:

      That’s what I thought. Comparing the men to the other photos from the production, I thought the man on the left (above) sang Leporello.

      on November 10, 2009 at 6:00 PM
    • Will says:

      Yes, operabitch has confused the two men. Hardy is the one with the lovely torso and Okulitch the one with exposed legs–when he had the jacket off and the pants on, his own torso was quite presentable.

      There was quite a bit of sexual contact in the Alden production, all of it quite appropriate to an opera about a legendary sex addict.

      on November 10, 2009 at 6:00 PM
      • operabitch says:

        Thanks for clearing that up since I have never seen either man I guess I thought the guy on the left was Okulitch. Either way the guy on the left has a seriously hot upper torso; the guy on the right needs work on those chicken legs!!!!

        This is not my grandmother’s opera. Thank god!

        on November 11, 2009 at 6:51 AM
  • Alto says:

    “I see better legs at the senior citizen center where I work out.”

    May I please have the contact info for that center? Those legs are the stuff my dreams are made of.

    on November 11, 2009 at 11:12 AM
• fidelio101 says:

  Did anyone see the dress for From the House of the Dead?
  I know there are people who love this type of art but I just found it too grim and really got little from it. As for the quotes that the Met is using to promote it like “100 minutes of sheer perfection” financial times
  well I just don’t know what to say to that LOL

  on November 10, 2009 at 7:26 PM
  • Baltsamic Vinaigrette says:

    Well, so long as the Met is not making up (mis)quotes then you need say nothing at all, thanks – your have already ventilated your own, perfectly valid, view in the previous sentence, and anyway it’s been quite some time since I recommended the increasingly jaded FT for anything other than Jancis Robinson’s wine column. Bottoms up!

    on November 11, 2009 at 6:29 AM
• chiusosciopero says:

  Actually, Hardy had the chicken legs. They did not live up to the chest, which got mine heaving. Okulitch’s legs are actually quite spectacular — long, lean, masculine. Much better than his chest.

  This was a very interesting production and I liked the concepts but not necessarily the execution. Except for the “sex”, there was very little interaction between characters and I really disliked the stylized movement. Kind of reminded me of The Green Table when everyone is following Death.

  Also it seemed that the most interaction between characters (when they were NOT involved in sexual activity) were between characters who should not be interacting (ie, they are not in the scene and should have exited stage right.) That bugged me a bit. Oh well. What worked, worked. I loved the opening (which quickly deteriorated by the time it got to the wedding), the beginning of act 2 with the two men shown above but it quickly deteriorated once Elvira came on the scene, and the ending that mirrored the beginning.

  Voices were good, singing not as good. No one seemed to be with the conductor. (But I am no expert and have no musical background). I also thought it rather unfair to have Zerlina singing for the first 10 minutes or so behind her veil (and Elvira muffled behind a huge fur collar for that matter). I hate when Elvira is made to be a really pathetic harpy as she was in this production and I hated Anna’s Non mi dir staged like a mad scene complete with plucking the petals off the flowers. (Actually all of the women turned into sex-crazed/starved creatures bugged me) Greg Turay’s Ottavio was tedious. Actually whole stretches of this Don G were tedious and this is one of my top 5 favorite operas!

  It was dark and drab without being “dark”. I kept thinking that if only Don Giovanni took himself into his own hand (right or left, I’ll leave it up to him), then everything would be solved. He’d be happier, he’d probably be more satisfied too, less lives would be ruined, etc.

  I didn’t think the variations/ornamentation added anything to the opera. They were too sucessfully executed. They almost seemed like afterthoughts or mistakes.

  All in all, I enjoyed it and might see it again another season when the production might be rethought out. It could have and SHOULD have worked. I liked the general outline. It also needs a stronger Don. Okulitch is cute, sexy at times, decent voice but he’s not too compelling (at least to me)and he lacked a certain adrenaline rush that I’ve come to expect in his opera. I don’t know. Great legs though.

  Back to lurking . . .

  on November 11, 2009 at 9:50 AM
  • Alto says:

    That has to be the most confused few paragraphs we’ve had here in a long while. Attacking people’s work should at least be done in some coherent way. Otherwise it’s just destructive carping.

    Item: The singers were weak musically, but I don’t know anything about music?

    And ending with:

    “All in all, I enjoyed it …”

    WTF?

    on November 11, 2009 at 11:17 AM
    • Will says:

      Gee, I seem to have been at a different performance–I saw interaction between and among characters all the time! The whole point of Don Giovanni is that the Don CAN’T “take himself into his own hand” either physically or metaphorically. That’s what it’s all about.

      And the opera is full of sex–again, we have the Don’s compulsions, Elvira chasing him all over Spain to get him back in her bed, Anna’s situation being highly ambiguous toward the Don, Zerlina capitulating before the end of their duet together, women world-wide seduced–yeah, there’s sex in Don Giovanni all right!

      A close reading of the libretto will show that everything on the stage Sunday afternoon grew right out of da Ponte’s text.

      on November 11, 2009 at 1:26 PM
    • No Expert says:

      I think chiusosciopero was trying to say that he/she may be no expert but still has a sense of what works or doesn’t work for him/her in this production. As far as, “voice good, singing not so good” isn’t there a certain People’s Diva, who often shows that distinction can be correct?

      on November 11, 2009 at 2:18 PM
      • CruzSF says:

        Totally OT: No Expert, did you see the Met HD of Aida a few weeks ago?

        on November 11, 2009 at 2:28 PM
• figaroindy says:

  As opposed to your serious criticism in #10 above?

  “they look hot.”

  Hmmm, that’s hard to beat!

  Actually, I thought it was interesting that the comment was made that the voices were good but the singing “not so good.” Interesting to be able to separate the two.

  In one of the reviews of the production, it seems the location is vague….but someone suggested a court room….which made me think, I could totally buy a production of Don Giovanni set in a courtroom, with the Commendatore as judge perhaps, and everyone testifying against Giovanni (Leporello as attorney for the defense perhaps?….Ottavio as prosecutor?)

  on November 11, 2009 at 1:18 PM
• Harry says:

  Don Giovanni must be ranking beside La Boheme as the most performed opera anywhere. God I have at least 16 or 17 versions of the damned thing on my shelves. Hasn’t some clown of a director got to the truth yet? What Don Giovanni really IS about is the fact that if 2000 women cannot satisfy him,then ask yourself WHAT would? No prizes for the obvious answer, which most directors will not truly allude to. Just like they shy away from the gay love story of The Pearlfishers. where the chick is the annoying fly in the oinment. One laughs when on radio, with request programs , old dears request “In the Depths of the Temple” supposedly one assumes, thye think it is devout and holy since two men are singing and they mention ‘a temple’. JEEEEEZZ!

  on November 11, 2009 at 2:05 PM
• No Expert says:

  Howdy, CruzSF. I didn’t see the live AIDA, but I’m going to the rebroadcast tonight! I did see the live Turandot HD Saturday.

  on November 11, 2009 at 4:09 PM
  • CruzSF says:

    Hi No Expert,

    I’m debating whether to go tonight. I’m leaning toward yes but it’s 4 hours long! If I go, we’ll compare notes afterwards. You’re 3 hours ahead of me, I think, so you’ll see the rebroadcast first, and when I leave the theater, you’ll probably be asleep. More later!

    on November 11, 2009 at 4:22 PM
    • CruzSF says:

      Oh, one more thing: who sang Turandot on Saturday? Should I check it out on the rebroadcast?

      on November 11, 2009 at 4:23 PM
      • kashania says:

        Apparently, Guleghina sang on the broadcast. And I’ve read a couple of very positive comments about her Turandot elsewhere. Anyone here see the broadcast? There was a lot of talk about Guleghina before she sang the role but not much since.

        on November 11, 2009 at 4:53 PM
      • No Expert says:

        It was Guleghina. She was OK. In the interview between acts she told Patrica Racette that the hardest thing about performing Turandot is that everyone hates her. I thought the Liu was a little tentative to begin with but really won me over in the torture/death scene. I have to tell you I was blown away by the production. I’ve never seen a live Zef production before. The richness of detail, colors, textures etc were incredible. But, that being said, I don’t require all of that to enjoy an opera performance.

        on November 11, 2009 at 4:54 PM
      • CruzSF says:

        I guess I’ll check out the Turandot, then. I’ve seen it once here in SF, but the production didn’t do much for me and as it was in my early days of opera, so I didn’t pay more than the most superficial attention. The production wasn’t lavish, at all, just a suggestion of a ramp, down which Turandot walked to sing her numbers (then walked up and away when she finished). I was really disappointed.

        on November 11, 2009 at 5:10 PM
• kashania says:

  CruzSF: If you like extravagance, you won’t be disappointed in Zeffirelli’s production. It’s breathtakingly opulent and appropriately kitsch, considering the subject matter. Some find it too distracting (there are just so many people on stage) but I fell in love it ever since I first saw the video with Marton/Domingo/Mitchell. Zeffirelli’s approach really works for this piece because it’s a grand opera with very few intimiate moments. In a piece like Traviata, the human element gets lost in all of the exravagance. But it works fine for Turandot. And the scene change in Act III is impressive.

  on November 11, 2009 at 5:30 PM
  • CruzSF says:

    I should probably see at least one Zeff production, just so I can see what all the hoo-ha is about. I don’t need extravagance, but I was very disappointed to see a ramp as the main bit of scenery. Haha. Looks like I’ll be attending the Turandot broadcast …

    on November 11, 2009 at 5:34 PM
• schweigundtanze says:

  As others have already said, the Zef production for this is simply fantastic. If you were disappointed by seeing little more than a ramp previously, then I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised here. It’s a literal feast of excess…something so over the top that Turandot is the only opera it wouldn’t look garish representing. I did not see the simulcast, but the Marton/Domingo DVD of it gets played often in my house. I trust they did as good or better of a job filming it this time around.

  on November 11, 2009 at 7:15 PM