Opera in NYC: Mozart’s Don Giovanni at the Met Opera

The most Romantic Mozart masterpiece fills the Met Opera house with delightful music and incredible singing; performances run thru April 18, 2019

Luca Pisaroni as Don Giovanni and Rachel Willis-Sørensen as Donna Anna in Mozart's "Don Giovanni." — Luca Pisaroni as Don Giovanni and Rachel Willis-Sørensen as Donna Anna in Mozart’s “Don Giovanni.” Photo: Marty Sohl / Met Opera

Delicious music, dynamic staging, and incredible singing are all on view in the Metropolitan Opera production of Mozart’s Don Giovanni. Bringing much-needed theatricality and energy to the centuries-old genre of dark comedy, the vibrant arias of the sopranos that vie for and suffer from the frivolity and ferocity of the Don are contrasted with the lower register voices of the male cast, who are well-meaning but helpless. The built-up tensions can only be resolved by a divine intervention, stressing the intransigent nature of philanderers and seducers. And Mozart’s music rescues the improbable plot!

This year Don Giovanni cast features bass-baritone Luca Pisaroni and baritone Peter Mattei alternating in the title role, bass Ildar Abdrazakov and bass-baritone Adam Plachetka as Don’s servants, and an exciting line-up of sopranos Rachel Willis-Sorensen, Federica Lombardi, Aida Garifullina, Guanqun Yu, and Susanna Philips in the roles of Donna Anna, Donna Elvira, and Zerlina.

On the first 3 nights of the performances the tender and soaring lines by grieving Donna Anna (Rachel Willis-Sorensen) and the wordy and artistically rich roles of Leporello (Ildar Abdrazakov) and the Don (Luca Pisaroni) were rightfully rewarded by the audience. Thanks to the tactful casting the old tale looks fresh and engaging. But the strongest round of applause still belongs to Mozart for his unbeatable musical fete.

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Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart Festival: Don Giovanni by Budapest Festival Orchestra

Ivan Fischer, conductor and director

Don Giovanni by Max Slevogt, 1912

This year Mostly Mozart Festival at Lincoln Center brings back to New York a fascinating production of opera Don Giovanni. The performance will take place at the Rose Theater at the Jazz at Lincoln Center Frederick P. Rose Hall.

Mozart wrote this opera to a libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte which was based on the legend about Don Juan, a philanderer and seducer. Premiered at the National Theater of Bohemia in Prague in 1787, it was billed by Mozart himself as opera buffa. However, this particular rendition of the story is much more a tragedy and a learning lesson than a comedy or a melodrama.

Ivan Fischer, co-founder and conductor of Budapest Festival Orchestra, was also directing the production. In an interview by NPR in anticipation of the opening in 2011, Fischer points out that this dual role as conductor and director lets him offer “much more unified experience” for the actors. The resulting accents in the story are on bringing the villain to justice. The costume, stage design and casting of the students of Bucharest Acting Academy in the supporting ensemble are both innovative and highly appropriate. Instead of a singing statue, the actors costumes are designed to resemble the stones serving as both the silent elements of the design and the embodiment of the fate and consequence that gets a final say. The New York Times review of the performance back in 2011 highlights the “climactic moment staged to such haunting effect” under Fischer’s direction.

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