United States Mozart, Don Giovanni: Soloists, Berkshire Festival Opera Chorus & Orchestra / Brian Garman (conductor). Berkshire Festival Opera, Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center, Great Barrington, MA, 23.8.2022. (RP)
Production:
Director – Jonathon Loy
Sets – Stephen Dobay
Costumes – Charles Caine
Lighting – Alex Jainchill
Choreographer – Stephen Agisilaou
Chorus Master – Geoffrey Larson
Cast:
Don Giovanni – André Courville
Leporello – Christian Zaremba
Donna Anna – Laura Wilde
Don Ottavio – Joshua Blue
Donna Elvira – Megan Moore
Commendatore – John Cheek
Zerlina – Natalia Santaliz
Masetto – Brian James Myer
Dancers – Edoardo Torresin, Katie Harding
The combination of an engaging cast of young Mozartians and the intimacy of the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center with its excellent acoustics (at least from a seat in the mezzanine) combined to make the Berkshire Opera Festival’s Don Giovanni a particularly vivid and engrossing experience. It is a stretch, of course, to make comparisons to the opera’s premiere in Prague in 1787 which Mozart himself led, but in terms of scale, it was a near fit.
Jonathon Loy updated the action to the present day, and substance abuse goes hand in glove with that. Don Giovanni’s depravity and debauchery are writ large in the libretto, although in Loy’s concept they were fueled in part by cocaine, while Donna Anna sought solace in Don Ottavio’s ever-present hip flask. At the banquet that Don Giovanni threw for the peasantry, the only refreshment was to be found in little bottles, whose contents lulled the guests into a complacent stupor.
It was also a gun-happy populace, with an automatic pistol as the weapon of choice. Masetto, however, packed more heat when he went searching for Don Giovanni with an AK-47 slung over his shoulder. Toss in the sex – Don Giovanni’s racing libido was on display from practically the first measures of the overture – and Loy deftly tailored a story fit for the front page of any present-day tabloid, without doing any injustice whatsoever to Mozart and Da Ponte.
Loy’s chief directorial touch was a specter who appeared whenever Don Giovanni sensed the opportunity for sexual conquest or wanton violence. The lithe and sinister figure, portrayed by the remarkably agile Edoardo Torresin, was first seen during the overture sharing a bed with Don Giovanni and a scantily clad young woman who was a bit the worse for wear.
The writhing figures on the bed were practically naked, but there was no passion to it. Leporello entered and matter-of-factly cleaned up the mess, before the scrims rose on the first scene, which takes place outside the Commendatore’s house.
Stephen Dobay’s set of white marble walls, staircases and alcoves on a black marble floor was geometric and timeless. As for costumes, basic black served for most characters, excepting Don Giovanni’s blue dinner jacket and shoes, as well as Leporello’s more homespun look. Attire, however, was not the only thing that set Christian Zaremba’s Leporello apart.
Mozart revised Don Giovanni for the 1799 Vienna premiere, and there are always musical and directorial decisions to be made when mounting it. Loy opted for the Vienna version. So instead of Don Ottavio’s heroic aria, ‘Il mio tesoro’, the golden-voiced Joshua Blue sang the lyrical ‘Dalla sua pace’. It is a common switch, but with a tenor like Blue, one yearns to have heard him tackle the technical challenges of the former.
Inclusion of the Zerlina and Leporello duet, ‘Per queste tue manine’, which found the long-suffering servant on his knees with his hands bound by a necktie, is less frequent. However, it does shift the balance of the opera a bit: Zerlina and Leporello get a lot more stage time, and Natalia Santaliz and Christian Zaremba made the most of it.
Zaremba has a natural and engaging presence that commands attention. His height is a factor, but it’s the combination of voice and charm that made his Leporello such a delight. This was a good-natured Leporello, no less sensual than his master but with far more decency about him.
André Courville made for a dashing, virile Don Giovanni both vocally and dramatically. Handsome and lean, Courville was a credible human counterpart to Torresin’s well-toned apparition. Courville’s baritone was elegant and beautiful but, as with his actions, there was always a sense of danger in his voice.
Mezzo-soprano Megan Moore cut an equally stylish figure as Donna Elvira. The higher tessitura of the role, usually sung by a soprano, held no terrors for Moore, but she sounded her loveliest in the lower range of her voice. She gave a bravura account of ‘Mi tradì quell’alma ingrata’, although at times pitch and line could sag. Nonetheless, Moore won the hearts of the audience, who awarded her with the loudest ovation.
Laura Wilde graced Donna Anna with singing that was pure and effortless. As an actress, she was equally convincing and made Donna Anna’s emotional fragility palatable. Her ‘Non mi dir’ was a thing of beauty.
Natalia Santaliz’s combination of pluck, curiosity and naiveté made for a delightful Zerlina. As Masetto, the fine baritone Brian James Myer was vain, volatile and virile, but nonetheless outmatched by Don Giovanni’s wickedness. Veteran bass-baritone John Cheek brought authority and a firm voice to the Commendatore.
Conducting from the keyboard, Brian Garman, played some fancy riffs and led a well-paced performance. His ability to instill tension into the score made it exciting. The chorus sang well, but there was some rough playing from the orchestra; the horn blat in the introduction to ‘Mi tradi’ was particularly jarring.
How to end this opera also requires that decisions be made. The musical and dramatic intensity of Don Giovanni’s demise here left one breathless and appeared to bring the performance to an end. The cast, however, reappeared on stage, and for a moment the audience was clueless as to whether they were taking a company bow or back to sing the finale.
Garman and Loy opted for the latter, but the spell had been broken. The joyous music, however, did send the audience off in high spirits.
Rick Perdian