Don Giovanni drinks your milkshake
Squirrel was expecting boobs! People, there were no boobs, and for that, I was a little disappointed.
Pentiti!
I finally had a chance to see the new Don Giovanni at City Opera, which closed today. Since Ercole Farnese wrote an excellent review of the premiere for parterre, I’ll be brief.
What I did encounter, though boobless, was rather a surprise: a rigorous and excellently thought-out presentation by Christopher Alden, and probably one of my best experiences at City Opera in recent years.
It is somewhat ironic that in spite of all the sex in the plot, Don Giovanni is not a particularly sensual opera, musically or otherwise. Its primary theme is honor. It functions only secondarily as a morality play with mildly puritanical overtones, which Alden accentuated by inventing a 20th-century setting and vaguely Frontier aesthetic. The excellent costumes, by Therese Wadden, suggested the depression-era American south, with lots of cheap wool and rumpled fedoras. (Squirrel couldn’t help but be reminded of this, but most of all this.) Friends, it really worked.
Alden has fascinating and thoughtful solutions to the thorniest dramatic problems in the piece. Rather than tidying up scenes that ask the audience to suspend their disbelief, he went the other way, placing characters on stage together who were not privy to one another’s dialogue, and making “asides” out of certain lines, which created an atmosphere of irony and disbelief that softened much of what today reads as camp. One of many examples is Don Ottavio (Gregory Turay) sitting onstage through the judgment scene, as if willing his vengeance to completion, though we know he does not attend the dinner.
Daniel Okulitsch inhabits the Don perfectly, and gave even Peter Mattei a run for his money. Of the others in this uniformly good cast, special notice should go to Kelly Markgraf, who sang Masetto with a wonderfully resonant, clear, and colorful baritone, and could have excelled in the title role.
Remember when a certain G___ M___ was going to become the General Manager of this company, and some predicted a kind of competition between City Opera and Peter Gelb‘s Met for forward-thinking, theatrically viable opera? Well, based purely on this production, i would say it’s on!
“Daniel Okulitsch inhabits the Don perfectly, and gave even Peter Mattei a run for his money”
I am sorry, anyone that could state this is not competent to review an operatic performance. Okulitch was above average vocally ONLY in the serenade (in which Mattei was phenomenal). Otherwise, a Schaunard.
Plus, Turay was hardly “good”.
I liked Daniel Okulitsch was good but Stefania Dovhan (Donna Anna) had a gorgeous voice!
As to Turay, I am going to believe that his consistent beautiful but uninteresting color was a choice by the director to show the lack of charisma and sensuality in Don Ottavio; the polar opposite of the Don. I may be wrong though, I haven’t had the good luck to ask Mr. Alden myself.
All said, one must admire anyone who can sing both of Don Ottavio’s arias without the ‘cheat’ breaths and make it sound easy.
And another thing, let’s not forget that this show was cast, created from scratch, and put up in only 7 months. The singers that they could get were limited greatly by this ‘last minute’ casting as most big name singers are booked for the next 3 years. I cannot wait for this to be revived with proper rehearsal and casting. It could be one of the shows of a lifetime in 3 or 4 years.
I think Krunoslav should read (and read between the lines) a bit better
I felt exactly the same way–this production was the strongest possible come-back for the beleaguered NYCO. In my own review of this Don G. I made the point that everything that happened on the stage was grounded in the text–Alden is clearly a great director and I hope we get to see a good deal more of his work at NYCO and/or at the MET.
I saw this a while back, and remembered why I love this opera so much – the openness. I have seen Don Giovanni many times, and every time i leave feeling different about the Don, as well as myself. And kudos to Mr. Alden for flipping the expectations in staging. Those scenes that are often drenched in sexuality were staged as more introspective or intimate, possibly showing true love and not just sexual attraction (La ci darem, Vedrai carino), while the rest of the show was dry-humping and partial nudity.
Vocally, did anyone else notice that the new Koch theater is favorable to the ladies? I had a very hard time hearing Mr. Hardy and there were many places on the stage where I couldn’t hear much out of Mr. Okulitch, while the clear by small voice of Joelle Harvey was easily heard in the top tier.
A quick aside – I cannot say how happy I was to finally see someone get pistol-whipped in an opera. Long overdue.
M. Valmont, why did the pistol-
whipping make you happy?
Mr. M.
There is no more dramatic way to do damage to a person than with a pistol whip. Think about how many people get pistol-whipped in Tarantino movies.
Meanwhile, in CBS’s ‘Amazing Race’, the contestants were racing through Prague and made to stop at the Estates Theater where they had to find a little Mandolin to hand to a ‘Don Giovanni’ character who would provide them with their next clue. Unfortunately, that ‘Don Giovanni’ sang ‘Il mio tesoro’ while they were searching and did sound awfully like a (not very good) tenor. O tempora, o mores.
I just commented on that on Facebook. And even Sam (one of two gay brothers competing as a team), who was a voice performance major in college, didn’t comment, at least on camera.
“special notice should go to Kelly Markgraf, who sang Masetto with a wonderfully resonant, clear, and colorful baritone, and could have excelled in the title role.” But no mention of why he didn’t excel.
Yeah, I was annoyed that the guy supposed to be Don G was singing “Il mio tesoro”. The more annoying part, however, was his “singing”. And let’s face it, Sam is a bit of a flake. Worst of all, I had the aria stuck in my head all night and morning.
On the bright side, I liked that they set a roadblock in the theatre and emphasised the Don G and Mozart connection. It’s so rare that one sees references to opera and classical music on TV.
My thought on this production:
-Okulitsch has an adequate voice, a sub par stage presence in this role, and is not particularly attractive.
-Hardy, from my seat in the second ring, was the only man I could hear throughout the entire opera. He sounded great, acted superbly, and hunka-hunka!
-Joelle Something, the Zerlina, was resplendent. She is a perfect soubrette, and sounded glorious in this role.
-Dohvan is a loud soubrette who has no business singing Donna Anna. Her Orsai was impeccable, but achieved through sheer force of will. the effort the first act took for her was obvious in the second act. The second act is a lot lighter for Donna Anna, and it should have been better suited to her. Unfortunately, you could already hear signs of a wobble when she sang the the repeated phrase “Non mi dir, bell’idol mio’ (both times)
-The Elvira has a gorgeous voice. you can tell she has just switched from Mezzo, because the high notes are still out of line. Judging from the rest of lined up technique, that will be fixed in a matter of months and she will be something special.
-The Masetto, aside form being gorgeous, was absolutely unnoticeable. He was fine, but I could barely hear him.
The production was brilliant. I think this production is the perfect example to show why NYC needs two companies. When the Met attempted something outside the box, the audience was ready to hate it before it even opened. The NYCO audience couldn’t get enough of the Don G deconstruction. Friday was completely sold out.
justanothertenor
Okulitsch zero stage presence? i thought the concept of him being a hugo boss suit wearin douchebag was great, and he pulled it off. Such a concept does not give one a great deal of interpretive leeway, however
Yes on Joelle whatever – she is a lovely singer
Also the Elvira, I went to school with her! I don’t remember her being a mezzo back then. She did some amazing flat-tone (non vibrato) expressive things that made her sound like a William Christie type singer. In a good way. I loved her.
Didn’t hear Masetto? On the orchestra level he was quite audible, and obviously very very talented. I kind of wish he’d sung Don G and Okulisch had sung Masetto!
Tenor was lousy. Though he got better as the show went on, he never quite hit good.
PS does every single Mozart production at NYCOPERA have to include weird melodic decorations and interpolated grace notes instead of the notes we are used to? Every time i hear mozart there they do that stuff
“..does every single Mozart production at NYCOPERA
have to include weird melodic decorations and interpolated grace notes instead of the notes we are used to?”
You mean those silly appoggiaturi that were expected in Mozart’s day?
These weren’t the standard appoggiaturi that we all know. These were extended Bellini or Rossini style cadences. Not appropriate.
Oh, and I started laughing when Turray had to resort to heavy scooping to get through Dalla Sua Pace. And he took EVERY sneak breath in Tesoro. And he still couldn’t make it through the runs.
You never want to be reviewed
by another tenor, esp. when he
cannot even spell your name.
Yes, it’s Turay, with one R. Duly noted.
However, he was in serious hot water on Friday.
The voice is still beautiful. A lot of the ensemble work that is usually tricky for tenors seemed to be easy for him. He was especially strong in the finale of Act II, and in the quartet of Act I.
However, the two arias were fairly disastrous, he over-darkened the opening duet so much that he sounded muffled, and he sounded very swallowed in the Act I finale.
I think this guy is a MAJOR talent who has been taken down the completely wrong path. When he started singing stuff like the Duke in Rigoletto, a lot of his colleagues feared the worst, and were sadly proved right. He needs to leave the stage until he can fix some major technical issues and accept that he is a light tenor, and nothing more. He is still young, and I don’t think he has done permanent damage. It would be a pity if he didn’t fix these issues. There is a little article in the NYCO playbill stating how is voice has grown, and how he has a thick rich middle. It’s that sort of publicity that is demolishing him, because it is just not true.
I remember his “Vallon Sonore” from Les Troyens at the Met in 2003. My GOD that was beautiful. Beautiful ringing tone throughout, line, legato, color. I wish he would find that voice again.
Squirrel wasn’t writing a full-fledged review, and thought it unreasonable to single out anyone for particularly bad singing.
Did anyone else notice the quotation of the Lacrymosa from the Requiem, right before Non mi dir?? LOL
Yes, I loved it! I think a lot of the audience did not get it though…
There is also the ‘Non piu andrai’ quote in the finale that is hilarious if you get it. ‘Questa poi la conosco pur troppo…’
Yes, but that’s in every performance of DonG – it’s in the score.
The lacrimosa quote was a continuo embellishment
I may not have gotten that in my night, I saw it last Wednesday. I thought the continuo was very well played, I was very impressed.
Who was it who said Turay took no extra breaths? He was near disaster in both arias yesterday too.
Markgraf’s Masetto was indeed more of a vocal presence than the anonymous Okulich, and much sexier too.
Alkema’s Elvira , still in transition, did show her considerable talent. But yes, she has been listening to too much Renee with those straight tones.
Most of the approgiatture were good; there were however a lot of really awkward interpolate cadenzas and a lot of stupid Alden shit like having Hardy’s hunka hunka but vocally errant ( he simply does not know how to produce his voice) interpolate German words into the catalog aria’s mention of Allemagna.
“Squirrel was expecting boobs! People, there were no boobs, and for that, I was a little disappointed.”
There was plenty of naked chest: male chest — which, when Parterre Box was “the queer opera ‘zine” was the kind we looked for. But that was before we came to be treated to repeated reassurances of a constant poster’s heterosexuality.
Et tu, Parterre Box?
But that was before we came to be treated to repeated reassurances of a constant poster’s heterosexuality
You betcha.
I hear that!