Friday, July 23, 2010

Don Giovanni in Glyndebourne

Tonight, July 23 at 18:00 (Paris time) via Medici TV we can all see --live from Glyndebourne-- new Don Giovanni, directed by Jonathan Kent. I loved his production of The Fairy Queen and hope this Don Giovanni is fine too. It is unfortunate that this broadcast comes less than 3 weeks after we saw the finest Don Giovanni ever, i.e. the one by Dmitrii Tcherniakov presented at the festival in Aix-en-Province. We will try and stay unbiased as much as possible ;)


From Jonathan Kent's production of Don Giovanni in Glyndebourne 2010


Musically it should be very good as Vladimir Jurowski will conduct the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, and the cast includes: Anna Samuil (brilliant Donna Anna in Verbier last year!), Gerald Finley (always good!), Luca Pisaroni (is Luca the most talented singer of his generation?), Kate Royal, Anna Virovlansky, Guido Loconsolo, William Burden, and Alastair Miles.



Ed:  Tcherniakov's production is a century ahead from this half-baked bufoonery by Kent. I think the best is to pretend this actually never happened and move on (Anna, Luca, and Gerald were very good though)


Appended are two videos about the production...






6 comments:

  1. Disappointing at best, and now the Leporello-Zerlina duet... awful.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I agree.

    Anna Samuil's singing is particularly beautiful, but that's not enough to keep the show from sinking.

    I'm very disappointed :(

    ReplyDelete
  3. That was one of the best 'Non mi dir, bel'idol mio's I have ever heard!
    But while we seem to agree about this one, I must admit I was not at all pleased with Tcherinakov's effort...did you not find that every scene was lead towards not contradicting the concept rather than developing a meaningful narrative? I felt he reduced a larger plot to a very small and overly specific context, which, despite some very fine acting, did not have any real resonance...
    I would love to understand, not just what you enjoyed about the performance - your eloquent review explains that clearly! - but what you see happening in this production that makes it superior to others.
    (and I agree with one of the comments, that musically the curtain drops were unforgivable!)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thanks for keeping us posted regarding European opera broadcasts. This US-based reader is hopeless in keeping up with all the web broadcasts.

    I enjoyed the singing a lot, but the stage was very dark and what's up with the clown costume???

    ReplyDelete
  5. They seemed to run out of gas in Act II. Generally I thought male singers sang better than the females. I don't know how Kate Royal gained such fame. To my ears, her voice always lacks power and adequate characterization. The staging is a yawn...

    ReplyDelete
  6. Being opera starved, I enjoyed this on the web very much. I thought the voices were glorious, and, call me crazy but what exactly is wrong with Kate Royal's voice? (maybe you had to have been there)Yes, I agree that Luca is very talented but vocally I don't think he can match Gerald's always glorious resonance and timbre. (again, maybe you had to have been there) Luca is a very good actor and handsome man I have to admit. The clown face ? Is this one of those you have to hit us over the head with it moments to show us the insanity of Donna Anna, Don Ottavio and Donna E? We could have done without that extra duet and replaced it with that lovely voice of William Burden singing Il Mio Tesoro. Otherwise, GIVE ME MORE!

    ReplyDelete