Cincinnati Opera's "Don Giovanni" a Powerful Season Opener
Ever see Don Giovanni flirt with the audience?
Baritone Lucas Meachem did just that Thursday night at Music Hall, opening night of Cincinnati Opera’s 2013 summer festival.
Tossing a rose to the crowd, he locked eyes with his spectators as if to suggest a rendezvous after the performance, adding a bit of grandstanding to his potent characterization of Mozart’s hyper-glandular anti-hero.
It was just one moment during an evening of great singing, terrific acting and a tip-top performance by the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, led with uncommon skill and insight by conductor Roberto Minczuk in his Cincinnati Opera debut.
The production, designed by Nicholas Muni, expanded on the metaphor of a frame, with gilt-edged picture frames of varying sizes flying in and out, and numerous trap doors in the steeply raked stage to facilitate entrances and exits, including the Don’s descent into hell in a puff of steam at the end. The period costumes by David Burdick kept the action 18th-century within an Everyman setting.
The cast was uniformly strong. In addition to Meachem, they included soprano
Angela Meade as the wronged, but ambiguous Donna Anna (was she raped or not?), bass
Burak Bilgili as Giovanni’s chronically abused servant Leporello, soprano
Nicole Cabell as Donna Elvira (who truly loves Giovanni and tries to save him),
tenor Aaron Blake as Donna Anna’s fiancé Don Ottavio, soprano Alexandra Schoeny
as the country girl Zerlina (elusive target of Giovanni), bass-baritone Ryan
Kuster as Zerlina’s betrothed Masetto and bass Nathan Stark as Donna Anna’s
father the Commendatore, murdered by Giovanni in act I. (Meade, Blake and Kuster also made their
Cincinnati Opera debuts.)
The opera unfolds as one long, bad day in Don Giovanni’s life. Everything goes wrong for him: he encounters the Commendatore (and actually stabs him in the back), Donna Elvira thwarts his attempted assignations, Leporello threatens to leave his service, Donna Anna and Don Ottavio confront him, a village mob chases him with hatchets and pitchforks, and he is finally banished to hell when the Commendatore, a stone statue come to life, accepts his flippant invitation to dinner, offers him the chance to repent his sins and he refuses.
There were many fine moments during the evening. Cabell owned one of them (and others) with her aria “Ah! Chi mi dice mai” (“Oh! Who can tell me now”) in which Elvira laments her fate as one of Giovanni’s victims. On a buffo note, Bilgili delivered a riotous “Madamina, il catalogo è questo,” in which Leporello catalogues Giovanni’s hundreds of conquests, illustrating their varying proportions by displaying an over-sized corset.
Meachem’s “Là ci darem la mano” (“You’ll put your hand in mine”), sung to win over Zerlina, was silky and seductive. His “champagne aria” (“Fin ch’han dal vino”) as Giovanni prepares for the party at his palace, was exuberant and bubbly. Both were in diametric contrast to Meade’s powerful “Or sai chi l’onore” (“You know now for certain”) in which Donna Anna, having identified Giovanni as her attacker, vents her rage and calls upon Don Ottavio to avenge her. Schoeney’s sweet, soothing aria “Batti, batti, o bel Masetto” (“Beat me, dear Masetto”) was further enriched by principal cellist Ilya Finkelshteyn’s supple solos.
A purple silk curtain was raised elegantly on the finale to act I -- the party scene where Giovanni is confronted in his wrongdoing – only to fall inelegantly on the guests as he made his escape.
The Don’s further adventures transpired in act II, where Giovanni switches clothing with Leporello in order to serenade and seduce Elvira’s maid, while Leporello, as Giovanni, lures the vulnerable Elvira away. The lovely serenade was accompanied beautifully by Paul Patterson on mandolin (and occasioned Meachem’s rose toss to the audience). After beating up the jealous Masetto, who is on the prowl for Giovanni but doesn’t know he is disguised as Leporello, Meachem sauntered casually off the stage, whistling a snippet of the mandolin accompaniment. Tenor Blake’s moment to shine, Don Ottavio’s aria “Il mio tesoro intanto” (“Go and console my treasure”) shone brightly indeed, as did Cabell’s “Mi tradi quell ‘alma ingrata” (“That ungrateful soul betrayed me”) in which the conflicted Elvira confesses her pity for Giovanni.
The famous scene in the churchyard took place under blue lighting, with the shrouded ghost of the Commendatore (Stark) in a picture frame to the side. Giovanni’s bluster overcomes his apprehension -- he has detected the ghost’s image through a wall several times during the opera -- as he merrily invites the Commendatore’s statue to dinner at his palace.
Dinner was ribaldly underway as Leporello and Elvira (who comes to beg him to reform) spot the stone guest approaching. The scene was perfused with drama, heightened considerably by Minczuk and the CSO, as Giovanni clasps the stone hand, vehemently refuses to repent and is finally swallowed up amid a chorus of ghosts rising through trapdoors in the stage.
The final “all’s well that ends well” scene, a sextet comprising Elvira, Leporello, Donna Anna, Don Ottavio, Zerlina and Masetto, sealed the drama quite effectively.
Repeat is 7:30 p.m. Saturday at Music Hall. Tickets begin at $25. Call (513) 241-2742, or order online at www.cincinnatiopera.org