Recently I went to see Mozart's great opera Don Giovanni at the Metropolitan Opera. Widely regarding by many as perhaps the greatest opera ever written, Don Giovanni is better known as infamous Don Juan, serial seducer and evil Cassanova. When Don Giovanni tries to seduce the wrong woman, Donna Anna, her father "the Commendatore" tries to stop him and Don Giovanni brutally murders him. Anna makes her fiance Ottavio swear revenge. Meanwhile Don Giovanni continues his wanton ways, aided by his hapless servant Leporello. He steals away a young peasant girl named Zerlina from her good-hearted love Masetto. And when another woman wronged by Giovanni, Donna Elvira, encounters both Masetto and Donna Anna, they conspire together to bring down Giovanni. That and more brings the story to a stunning end.
This being a Met production, needless to say the singing was first class. Uraguyan bass Erwin Schrott is impressive and forceful as the unrepentant Don Giovanni. Italian Ildebrando D'Arcangelo was a funny, lovable, sad-sack Leporello who is really the emotional center of the story. But the greatest performance by far was by Tamar Iveri from the former Soviet republic of Georgia. Her strong, powerful voice and impassioned performance created a dimensional, sympathetic character who you also sense is tough as nails. Ms Iveri is someone who I would love to see again in another role.
Going to the opera, obviously, is not cheap but if you've never been to the Met then you must. A beautiful, gorgeous theater, with chandeliers that rise at the beginning of the performance, it takes you into a world of class, refinement, and high taste. The opera may be old fashioned but not irrelevant. It is a theatrical experience like no other. And it makes me grateful, once again, to live in this city.
This being a Met production, needless to say the singing was first class. Uraguyan bass Erwin Schrott is impressive and forceful as the unrepentant Don Giovanni. Italian Ildebrando D'Arcangelo was a funny, lovable, sad-sack Leporello who is really the emotional center of the story. But the greatest performance by far was by Tamar Iveri from the former Soviet republic of Georgia. Her strong, powerful voice and impassioned performance created a dimensional, sympathetic character who you also sense is tough as nails. Ms Iveri is someone who I would love to see again in another role.
Going to the opera, obviously, is not cheap but if you've never been to the Met then you must. A beautiful, gorgeous theater, with chandeliers that rise at the beginning of the performance, it takes you into a world of class, refinement, and high taste. The opera may be old fashioned but not irrelevant. It is a theatrical experience like no other. And it makes me grateful, once again, to live in this city.
Well, I'm glad you enjoyed it more than I did. I've seen few stage productions with so little dramatic tension.
ReplyDeleteI agree that it was not the most dramatic or powerful opera I've ever seen but I thought the music and singing was enjoyable enough.
ReplyDelete