Pittsburgh
Opera jump started the 2019-2020 season with Mozart’s classic Italian opera Don Giovanni and paired the season opener with the roll out of its new
live mobile app, Live Note. The opera
encouraged the audience to enhance the opera experience by using earbuds connected to a smart phone and receive
commentary during the performance. My app experience was just “menza menza” when linked with Don
Giovanni, which was a high energy easy to follow show filled with Mozart's spectacular compositions. Don Giovanni was so “perfecto” that it did
not seem to need mobile app enhancement.
Reflection
The
Show
The show is based on the legends of Don Juan. Many stories have been written about the Don, the notorious womanizer. This opera told the tail of this famous seducer of ladies with a mixed bag of humor and drama.
The opera
opened with Don Giovanni (Craig Verm) attacking Donna Anna (Rachelle Durkin) and killing her father, Commendatore
(Brian Kontes) when he rushed to his daughter’s aid. Of course this fuels Donna and her fiancé, Don Ottavio (Kang Wang) to seek revenge for her father’s death.
Don Giovanni, a man absent of morals, even tries to seduce a young women, Zerlina (Antonia
Botti-Lodovico) during the celebration of her upcoming wedding to Masetto (Tyler
Zimmerman). Thus, Masetto is not a fan of
the Don.
Don
Giovanni’s servant, Leporello (Musa Ngqungwana) is required to keep a list of the Don’s conquests. Early in the Act 1, we hear a powerful
base as Ngqungwana moans about working for the Don. The Don (Verm) is
not only a wonderful base-baritone but exudes the charisma of a womanizer. Verm and
Ngqungwana had great chemistry injecting spurts of levity during the opera. The jolted
Donna Elvira (Corrie Stallings) enters several scenes to proclaim waves
of affection or anger directed towards the Don. Stallings, a powerful soprano, displays a little of that “fatal attraction” action in the opera which adds even more
humor.
Of
course, Don Giovanni ends in tragedy when he ignores his
opportunities to repent. His pride and sins ultimately lead to his demise.
Mozart's 1787 opera
was given a face-lift in this production. Don Giovanni owned a night club which gave the
opera its “gangster flair.” The set and costumes were black and white in the 1950’s
style like an old Hollywood film. The whole production brought to mind a
similarity to the look of movies like Casablanca. I could just see the Don saying "hear's looking at you kid."
I could
see why Don Giovanni has been regarded
by many as one of the greatest operas of
all time. From the start, Mozart’s overture was whimsical and light and the
conductor (Glenn Lewis) seemed to be as animated as the music. Every aria in the opera bounced even when the character lamented over an issue. Every
character seemed to have a vocal moment or maybe every aria was just so beautiful, I am
not sure, but I was on a musical high
after the show.
I admit that I planed to leave during intermission when I learned that the first act was 1.5 hours long and the
second act was 1 hour. The first act moved as fast as a movie reel without producing one yawn on my
part. As I walked to my car, I overheard two women giving the show many accolades saying, “This was the best opera I ever saw. I loved
the way they made it modern."
The Live
Note App
You are
getting the picture that this was one good show and I am not sure that it was elevated
higher with the help of the live commentary. I started to use the app in the “Director’s
Track” which started to gave information about
film style, lighting and something called “Film Noir” a type of film
drama of 1940’s and 1950’s. I was
confused because this seemed to have nothing to do with opera. I finally caught on that these clues were about the set and the
reasons for the set choices. Once I understood, I found some of the information interesting but the commentary seemed to distract from the music. I unplugged the sound but
continued to glance down and read.
I then
tried the app’s “Insider Track” which seemed to relate more facts about the music.
It gave prompts to listen for the changes in tempo, some history of Mozart’s
musical styles and pointed out trivia about the score. I preferred this type of commentary however
I was not familiar with some of the opera terminology so I had to read it several
times (I guess I needed the watered down layman version).
There were times when the app added a little extra “insider” understanding but this fast pasted, easy to follow opera filled with such beautiful music
did not need a boost with this new tool. I think that the commentary has potential to be an
asset for other operas but this night my app experience was just “mensa mensa” (so/so) because Mozart’s opera and Pittsburgh’s production of Don Giovanni was so "perfecto” that it
was better to just listen.
( For tickets to Don
Giovanni and to learn more about the new season and the new mobile app, Live Note go to Pittsburghopera.org.)