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OPERA REVIEW
May 21, 2004
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By John Bender
Don Giovanni presents challenges to any opera company. The eight characters must possess wide-ranging, authoritative voices. The suave and seductive hero is an amoral and violent rake. The masterly libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte, which opens with rape, dueling and murder, is centered by a long and brilliant ballroom episode full of threat, and closes as a living stone statue drags the rake from his supper table to hell. Within this framework, the many characters weave through countless arias and ensembles which, though dazzling, can seem loosely strung.
West Bay Opera's music director, David Sloss, found a solution to Don Giovanni's sprawl in brisk, driving tempos accompanied by forceful playing and continually loud projection from the singers. Even Act II, which often sags in the middle, moved engagingly to the hero's doom. At times, singers seemed hard pressed to keep up, while some exposed instrumental lines were unevenly played and entries could be ragged. Yet listeners were swept through an evening true to the vigor and power of Mozart's music, if not to its ethereal transparency.
The tiny stage of Palo Alto's Lucie Stern Theater and its minute orchestra pit (it holds only twenty-two players, with percussion and tympani banished backstage) pose challenges all their own. Peter Crompton ingeniously composed the new settings of mobile, rotating architectural elements that continually recombined to form specific places for the many indoor and outdoor scenes. No vague, immobile framework here! Fresh, handsomely detailed costumes by Richard W. Battle integrated with the generalized, rather traditional Mediterranean decor. Director, Kenneth Tigar, put the characters into intensely felt exchanges. He turned limited space to advantage, increasing tension by pushing the singers together into inescapable physical contact. Only the ballroom scene, with its multiple centers of action really suffered from confined quarters.
Todd Robinson ( Leporello) Kirk Eichelberger has the stature and presence to make a Don Giovanni, and his powerful, rather high bass fits the part. As the evening moved toward its end, he tended to bark out phrases, fatigued perhaps by the length of the role, or perhaps by the rapid pace. More worrisome was the approach to the Don's character (was it Eichelberger's or the director's?). This was a harsh, cruel, unyielding Don full of sarcasm and relish for the harm he does to others. The opening duel is usually staged as an uneven fight in which the younger Don might well choose to disarm rather than kill the Commendatore. But this is a duel, after all, and a hot-headed if unjustified thrust can be fatal. In this production, however, the Don disarms the old man entirely and steps back, only to execute him with a dagger to the belly. One had to search for the Don who seduces through charm and personal charisma as much as through powerful position and physical force. The women set the vocal pace, although Todd Robinson's singing as Leporello was a model of easy, supple phrasing and his depiction full of delightful detail. The audience favored Elizabeth Caballero for her fiery Donna Elvira, incisively executed, dramatically engaged, and physically demonstrative. She is a vibrant presence but her voice lacks warmth to my ear. I preferred Shana Blake Hill, whose Donna Anna offered more vocal graces and more shaped lines despite a slightly reedy tone. Kimarie Torre, as Zerlina, flirted across the stage almost like a dancer and sang with real presence. The loud, full-throated singing that dominated the evening may well have been urged by the conductor. In any case, the approach wore thin as the evening advanced. One noticed ever more that while the staging showed constant variety and detailed engagement, the singing had a stand-and-deliver quality that left little room for carefully shaped phrasing, modulated volume, or, indeed, basic ornamentation like trills. Singers like Todd Wilander (Ottavio) and Nikolaus Schiffmann (Masetto) who could not or would not perform with overstatement, tended to get lost in the shuffle. The same was true especially of a feeble Commendatore by Paul Thompson. He did get a gorgeous white silk faille costume complete with tricorn hat, and some spooky cutting-edge video projections of his face. This new, carefully thought out Don Giovanni by West Bay Opera offers a thoroughly enjoyable evening of intimate opera that reaches far beyond the limits imposed by small facilities and limited budgets. There will be further performances June 28 and 30 (with Lori Decter as Donna Elvira), June 29 (with Elizabeth Caballero in the role). (John Bender is Director of the Stanford Humanities Center and Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Stanford University. He has reviewed the San Francisco Opera for Opera Canada for many years.) ©2004 John Bender, all rights reserved |
Elizabeth Caballero (Donna Elvira))