Opera News & Press

Review of Don Giovanni in the St. Bernard Voice

Read a review of Don Giovanni in the St. Bernard Voice.

November 2008

Christina Vella

New Orleans Opera Association’s last production at McAllister Auditorium was perhaps the most ambitious of the operas given during three seasons in which we have enjoyed the intimacy of the small hall. (The next opera will be staged at the renovated Mahalia Jackson Theater downtown.) Mozart’s “Don Giovanni” was imaginatively conceived and staged by Mathew Lata as a drama set in Seville in 1934. The “film noir” costumes and the set by G. Alan Rusnik were terrific, but it was not only the look of the opera that was fresh. The characters were rougher than they are traditionally portrayed, gangsterish, more sinister, less playful, and more convincing. Even Masetto, who in traditional presentations is a peasant bridegroom jealous of the Don’s attention to his bride, here was portrayed as a working class fellow with a little bit of street smarts. The updated staging seemed to make the opera come alive.

Perhaps it’s a mark of the 21st century that we begin describing an opera performance by discussing the drama. Since opera came to television, and now to HD movies, acting and staging have claimed nearly equal status with the music. It’s hard not to start by effusing over dramatic interpretations that are far more original and clever than anything opera goers saw in years past.

The show began with credits being projected above the curtain—movie style—during  the playing of the overture. The set, serving for both indoors and outdoors, was simple and versatile; the crew, costumed as passers-by, came along to change it while the principals were finishing up their arias.

Director Lata was careful to give realistic portrayals of the propelling events of the opera. Thus, the attempted rape of Donna Anna, which sets the story in motion, usually takes place offstage; here it was briefly acted out behind a transparent curtain. When Donna Anna’s father in turn attacked Don Giovanni and was killed by him, we again saw it in full view—no simple sword thrust, but a grisly strangulation. Generally, the Don is some baritone whose legs look gorgeous in tights; but this surly Don, for all his sex appeal, was thoroughly dislikable, thanks to Lata’s consistent and thoughtful directing.

None of the stage business was overdone---well, maybe there were a few too many flashlights pointed like guns---but all of it was tasteful and effective.

As the Don, Lucas Meachem gave a performance charged with romance, masculine aggressiveness, anger, and recklessness. For the most part, his voice is powerful. But from time to time, he used his flexible high range to turn an aria into a lyrical love song. Meachem’s baritone, like his body movements, is an expressive instrument that he controls and projects masterfully, shifting from arrogance to tenderness to violence in just a few notes. From “La, ci darem la mano” to the Don’s descent into hell, Meachem’s singing was an unalloyed pleasure.

Julianna Di Giacomo as Donna Anna overcame an uneven beginning to offer passages of exquisite beauty in the latter part of the opera. Chad Johnson sang the thankless role of her weak counterpart, Don Ottavio. He acquitted himself creditably in the beautiful but fiendishly difficult “Il mio Tesoro” and in several other spots; but in general, one sensed that the work was hard for him. Yali-Marie Williams has given fine performances here in the past. However, as Donna Elvira, the jilted lover who draws the rest of the cast into a cabal against the Don, she sang with a noticeably broad vibrato and a shrill upper line.

Maureen McKay’s clear, transparent soprano was a delight, from her early duet with Don Giovanni through a smooth and winsome “Batti, batti,” to “Vedrai, Carino.” McKay’s voice is even from top to bottom, with a crystalline tone that is irresistible alone but also blends well in ensembles. Her jealous husband Masetto was portrayed by Kenneth Weber as a hearty, stolid personality, certainly more sophisticated than a peasant, but more innocently straightforward than the likes of Don Giovanni. There is relatively little solo singing for Masetto; thus Weber’s voice was almost too good for the part. It’s an actor’s role and Weber fulfilled it splendidly.

Typically, Leporello, the Don’s servant, steals the opera. Daniel Mobbs certainly sang with verve and authority, but somehow he never dominated the stage—perhaps because Meachem as the Don overshadowed everybody, and perhaps because Mobbs fell just a tad short of the voluminous fullness one expects of Leporello, even in the patter song. Eric Jordon, the Commendatore who gets strangled and resurrected, was a robust vocal presence both alive and dead.

Conductor Garrett Keast did a remarkable job with the large, difficult production, with its cast of seven principals and a complex score. The orchestra was unusually polished and vivid; one can only attribute this, and the rest of the musical pleasures, to Conductor Keast.