Premiered at the National Theatre in Prague on 29 October 1787, Mozart’s Don Giovanni, K.527, remains one of the composer’s most popular operas. Don Giovanni was commissioned by the City of Prague following the enormous success of Le nozze di Figaro in the city in 1786. Based on the legends of Don Juan, the fictional womaniser, the opera is a mixture of serious and comic action blending lighthearted comedy, murder and the supernatural. It follows the story of charismatic lothario Don Giovanni who travels around Europe with his trusty servant Leporello, causing mayhem.
Kasper Holten’s production first opened at the Royal Opera House on 1 February 2014. In this, its first revival, the casting was spot on with Christopher Maltman’s striking and enigmatic Don Giovanni the perfect balance to Simon Bailey’s jovial Leporello. Mexican tenor Rolando Vilazon elevated Don Ottavio almost to the role of leading character, singing beautifully throughout. Zerlina may be Mozart’s comic female role in Don Giovanni, yet Julia Lezhneva sang the part with a pure soprano sound unequalled by her female co-stars, although Albina Shagimuratova (Donna Anna) and Dorothea Röschmann (Donna Elivra) both sang their parts convincingly.
The innovative set, designed by Es Devlin and featuring video projections by Luke Hall, is perhaps the most striking element of this performance. An interesting marriage of traditional opera and digital technology, the performance opens with a simple white facade. Scrawled handwritten names are gradually projected onto the white background. Hundreds if not thousands of names appear throughout the overture, rather like notches on a bedpost, with Giovanni’s many conquests jostling for space.
As the opera progresses, Holten makes full use of Devlin’s two-storey set with the characters constantly moving between the two levels. Some of the vocal quality is lost as the characters ascend and descend the staircases and it is, at times, difficult to keep track of what is going on over both levels. However, it is generally effective and adds an extra dimension to Mozart’s music by attempting to give the audience an insight into Giovanni’s chaotic mind.
The performance was beautifully sung, with the whole cast bringing a rich depth to Mozart’s music. Despite a couple of shaky moments, the Royal Opera House’s orchestra played confidently. Ottavio’s first act aria, Dalla sua pace, which Mozart added to the opera for its Viennese premiere on 7 May 1788, was a clear highlight. Villazon’s rendition of the romantic aria was both passionate and delicate, bringing sophistication and a rare moment of calm to this slightly chaotic staging.
However, it is Holten’s depiction of Giovanni himself that is, I think, most interesting in this performance. As an audience member, one is constantly torn between disgust, despair and sympathy for Mozart’s character. At times Giovanni seems both an irrepressible philanderer prone to resort to violence to overcome those who challenge him, and a misunderstood man constantly struggling with his own demons and unable to find a sustainable way to express himself.
This is perhaps epitomised in Holten’s setting of the ever-popular ‘Champagne Aria’ towards the end of Act 1, Fin ch’han dal vino. The aria comes as Giovanni’s forgotten lover Elvira has foiled his attempts to seduce Zerlina, whose wedding Giovanni has emphatically railroaded, and Giovanni has revealed his true character to Anna and Ottavio who have (unknown to him) vowed to get revenge on him for the murder of Anna’s father. Despite the chaos building around him, Giovanni decides to host a party and as he rattles off a string of instructions to Leporello he becomes increasingly excited that by the time the morning comes, he will have ten more names for Leporello’s notebook. Holten’s setting sees Giovanni standing in the middle of the two-storey set looking out directly at the audience. A digital kaleidoscope of images reminiscent of M. C. Escher’s 1953 painting, Relativity (reproduced in the programme), swirls around him, creating the impression that Giovanni is at the centre of a whirlpool of confusion. Symbolic both of Giovanni’s chaotic excitement and the web of mayhem building around him, Holten’s setting is powerful if not slightly nauseating to watch. Giovanni seems unable to control his desires and the spinning projections threaten to carry Giovanni down into the vortex. Thankfully, as Fin ch’han dal vino is one of Mozart’s shortest arias (at less than 2 minutes long) the dizzying projection is short-lived. Nonetheless the scene is one of this production’s most powerful moments, sticking with the audience well after the curtain falls on Act 1.
In another striking directorial decision, Holten chooses to omit the opera’s final ensemble. In fact this ensemble does not appear in the Viennese libretto of 1788 and was generally omitted until the early-twentieth century, but it is rarely omitted from performances today. Holten closes his performance with Giovanni alone on stage. As he is confronted by the Commendatore and dragged down into hell, Giovanni shows no regret and no repentance. Yet, at the end he is alone and pathetic. Holten’s portrayal of hell is not fire and menace, but loneliness. In a digital age where we are always connected with the world around us, Holten shows the audience a vision of hell fit to scare the twenty-first century audience: a man dependent on the company of others is left completely alone, in an empty world, to confront his own mental demons.
In all, Holten’s production was at times a little too chaotic and overwhelming. Nonetheless, the cast was hard to fault and the use of digital effects ensured the performance was never boring and often enthralling.
Don Giovanni was most recently performed at the Royal Opera House, London, from June 12th to July 3rd, 2015.