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Reviewed by:
  • Don Giovanni
  • Kenneth McLeod
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Don Giovanni. DVD. Chorus and Orchestra of the Vienna State Opera / Riccardo Muti. With Carlos Álvarez, Adrianne Pieczonka, Angelika Kirchschlager, Anna Caterina Antonacci, Michael Schade, Lorenzo Regazzo, and Ildebrando D’Arcangelo. Directed by Roberto de Simone. Ratingen, Germany: TDK, 2005. DVUS-OPDG. $26.99.

This annual column presents reviews of significant video releases of interest to the field of music and to music libraries, as well as briefly noting other interesting titles. All genres of music in all video formats will be covered, with a preference given to those in DVD. All Web sites accessed 23 November 2005.

The seemingly timeless archetype embodied in the Don Juan legend actually received its first full dramatic setting in Tirso de Molina's El Burlador de Sevilla (1630). In addition to Mozart's Don Giovanni, versions of the story by Molière, Byron, Dumas, Strauss, and Shaw subsequently solidified the character in the public imagination. In keeping with its historical popularity, Director Roberto de Simone chose to depict Mozart's version of the myth from a variety of chronological perspectives: Don Giovanni as time-traveler. Although the rational is ultimately unclear, the production portrays the common elements of the deceptive nature of the predatory seducer through the ages.

The work opens in sixteenth century Spain. Adrianne Pieczonka as Donna Anna, who gives a powerful vocal performance, is attired in Elizabethan era ruffles and Carlos Álvarez as Don Giovanni is similarly festooned in an opulent tunic, presumably imparting the court fashions of Molina's original production. With Anna Caterina Antonacci's entrance as Donna Elvira the narrative progresses to the seventeenth-century and Don Giovanni is an effetely wigged snuff sniffing courtier (one of seven major costume changes in the work). Ildebrando d'Arcangelo as Lepporello dons a distractingly oversized cap and appears in white-face throughout the production. Unfortunately, d'Arcangelo is miscast as Lepporello—his voice lacks the easy depth needed for the role and he is labored in his attempts at comic relief. CarlosÁlverez as Giovanni, however, delivers a fine performance. His voice and demeanor remain controlled throughout, admirably suggesting the manipulative power and lack of true passion inherent in a sexual predator.

Act 2 moves into nineteenth-century prerevolutionary France. Don Giovanni adopts the wide brimmed hat and starched collars befitting a man of his status. Unfortunately, the statue of the murdered Commendatore, sung adequately by Franz-Joseph Selig, ends up looking like a cheap cardboard portrait of Verdi in his top hat and cloak.

Most of the performances in this production are of a high standard. Anna Caterina Antonacci is radiant as Donna Elvira and exhibits a powerful voice and consistently focused tone throughout. Angelika Kirchschlager as Zerlina and Lorenzo Regazzo as Masetto add a welcome element of easy youthful vitality befitting their characters. Michael Schade as Don Ottavio comes off as hesitant in comparison to the passion and vocal commitment of Pieczonka and Antonacci. Riccardo Muti and the Wiener Staatsoper orchestra provide an admirably tight, energetic and spirited accompaniment throughout the production.

Apart from the costumes, the sets are elegant if somewhat joyless as befits the ultimately dark subject matter of the work. [End Page 781] Some unfortunately comic mishaps, such as the sight of stage hands frantically trying to stabilize a billowing sail in scene three, also mar this production which originally aired on Austrian television in 1999.

This edition features optional subtitles in English, German, French, Spanish and the original Italian. Regrettably the disk includes nothing in the way of other extras. The program booklet provides little more than track and chapter information and, barring a brief explanation of the staging, is frustratingly devoid of information about the performers or other aspects of the production.

I am not, in principle, opposed to contemporary operatic adaptations or historical reinterpretations, however such alterations must be done with a clear sense of purpose. Unfortunately this production is an all too familiar example of a director trying too hard to make a simple point. The outlandish costumes and disjointed progression through several hundred years of history—with no clear explanation as to why there is no twentieth-century Don Giovanni...

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