Lyric Opera opens season in wickedly winning fashion with a stellar “Don Giovanni”
You don’t mess with operatic success.
Such was the winning formula for Lyric Opera’s production of Mozart’s Don Giovanni, which opened the company’s 72nd season Saturday night.
This is the third time around for director Robert Falls’ much-lauded production of Mozart’s dramma giocoso, which was unveiled in 2014 and revived five years later.
Unlike Barbara Gaines’ inane, Mozart for Dummies staging of Le nozze di Figaro, Falls’ updating of Don Giovanni puts quirky modern backspin on the opera while being respectful of the narrative and the characters, and always keeping Mozart’s music in a primary position.
From the curtain—with no mindless inserted pantomime during the Overture—to the jaw-dropping theatrical denouement where the Don gets his just desserts—Falls’ clever staging still works nearly flawlessly and provides a sturdy framework for the large cast to make vocal and dramatic impact in Mozart’s somewhat chaotic mix of comedy and drama.
The opening scene remains awkwardly blocked but after that the fast-moving action quickly finds its tempo giusto. Walt Spangler’s striking quasi-minimalist sets effectively recast the action to the 1920s with some modern accretions as do Ana Kuzmanic’s colorful costumes.
While the staging remains largely unchanged from its previous iterations, Don Giovanni’s cocaine-sniffing has been much reduced from the first run, probably wisely. Some other elements have worn less well— the two ever-present slatterns prove distracting at times. And Colin Ure’s jokey, colloquial surtitles feel increasingly lame, often veering far afield from Lorenzo da Ponte’s text—which is funny enough on its own without any gratuitous “assistance.”
Saturday night’s performance marked Christian Van Horn’s l50th appearance at Lyric Opera and his 20th role for the company. The American bass-baritone has come a long way since his Ryan Opera Center origins, going on to stake out a successful decades-long career on the world’s leading opera stages.
Singing his signature role in Chicago for the first time, Van Horn more than lived up to expectations. At 47, the towering singer still has booming vocal power as well as a rich, burnished tone and remarkable flexibility. For such a huge voice, he was able to throw off “Fin ch’han del vino” at impressive velocity, while drawing in the Don’s next victim with a mellifluous and enticing serenade (“Deh, vieni alla finestra”).
Dramatically, Van Horn was equally alive to the broad comedy as well as the edgy drama of his charming but morally vacuous libertine. At times he was a hearty Don whose back and forth with his valet Leporello was consistently amusing. Yet the singer also conveyed the character’s sociopathic side and relentless sexual appetites, as well as his refusal to atone for his sins right up to his well-deserved end.
As Leporello, Giovanni’s long-suffering manservant, Tommaso Barea was equally outstanding in his Lyric Opera debut. The young Venetian bass-baritone has a middleweight but agile voice, and Barea rattled off the Catalogue Aria with graceful ease and humor, as well as handling his tongue-twisting lines in the Act II ensembles with astounding speed and accuracy. Unlike many a Leporello, Barea was genuinely funny in this role, from his consistent exasperated resentment at his master’s excesses to busting out some goofy dance moves at the Don’s party. When they switched identities, Barea also managed a hilariously dead-on vocal impersonation of Van Horne’s Don.
As Donna Anna, the woman Giovanni attempts to rape and whose father he murders when he tries to rescue her, Mané Galoyan was ideal as the somber fulcrum of the cast, bringing a dignified graceful presence yet a woman determined to see Giovanni pay for his misdeeds.
The Armenian soprano sang with consistent purity of tone and dramatic point throughout. Even though the second-part cabaletta proved effortful, Galoyan provided the finest vocalism of the evening in “Non mi dir”—Anna’s statement of love to Don Ottavio—rendered by Galoyan with vocal refinement, nuanced dynamic shading and a deep vein of feeling.
Lawrence Brownlee brought customary vocal facility and dramatic credibility to the thankless role of Don Ottavio, Donna Anna’s ineffectual fiancee. If the tenor’s “Dalla sua pace” was a bit anodyne and lacking in tenderness, his technical equipoise in “O mio tesoro” made up the balance.
Donna Elvira is a choice role in this production, and Nina Solodovnikova made the most of her opportunities in a largely worthy company debut. The Russian soprano possesses a bright and agile soprano though her chest notes often faded, evincing weakness in the middle and lower range. That apart she brought bright and flexible singing to her arias and a lively stage presence as the Don’s unbalanced victim and persistent stalker.
Christopher Humbert, Jr. proved a superb Masetto. The singer’s imposing bass-baritone and strapping, burly presence showed that this was one peasant who could pose a physical challenge to even Van Horn’s raw-boned Giovanni in their confrontations.
Less consistent was Masetto’s betrothed, Anna El-Khashem as the country girl Zerlina who is relentlessly pursued by Giovanni. While she was a fine, suitably pert presence on stage, the soprano’s voice proved too feather-light even for this soubrette role. Her wispy tone and breathy phrasing made a hash out of “Batti, batti”— Enrique Mazzola’s rushed tempo didn’t help—though the singer recovered with an insinuating and more polished “Vedrai, carino.”
At the other end of the spectrum David Leigh, while solid enough dramatically, proved a light in the vocal loafers Commendatore—singing well but in a voice that lacked the deep subterranean weight to make the final scene effective.
Music director Mazzola—marking a decade since his company debut—was a capable Mozart hand in the pit on this occasion. A few aria and ensemble tempos dragged and one would have occasionally liked more incisive string playing and better balancing in the ensembles. But the dramatic moments were well served with the mounting tension in the climactic scene particularly effective.
Don Giovanni runs through November 1. lyricopera.org
Posted in Performances
Leave a Comment
Subscribe via RSS.