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Both singers captured the full spectrum of anguish, rage and despair in Lorenzo da Ponte’s brilliant libretto.

Adela Zaharia, in the role of the aggrieved Donna Anna, sang with urgency and elegance, and Nicole Car - who is married offstage to Dupuis - delivered a rich range of phrasing and nuance as the equally tormented Donna Elvira. The opera’s soprano roles were just as well-cast. (Photo courtesy Cory Weaver/San Francisco Opera) Leporello (bass-baritone Luca Pisaroni), at right, is servant, handler and clean-up man to Don Giovanni (Etienne Dupuis) in San Francisco Opera’s “Don Giovanni,” which debuted Saturday at War Memorial Opera House. The role of Leporello, Don Giovanni’s servant, handler and clean-up man, offers a daunting task for any bass-baritone, but Luca Pisaroni is ideal in the role - hilariously funny in his stage business and vocally assured in his Act I “Catalogue” aria as he lists the Don’s more than 2,000 conquests, with the women’s names projected on enormous overhead screens. Dupuis brought the Don to life with expressive energy, rich vocal resources, plenty of swagger and a practiced method of seduction, demonstrated in his Act II “Deh vieni all finestra,” delivered in a performance of seductive beauty. There were three major company debuts among the cast, beginning with Canadian baritone Etienne Dupuis in the title role. The company fielded a strong cast for the production - one that, led by conductor Bertrand de Billy in his company debut, performed with thrilling conviction. If, three hours later, Cavanagh’s core concept for this “Don Giovanni” never quite justifies its dystopian setting - or forges a discernible connective link to the trilogy’s earlier productions - the director’s staging still achieves considerable dramatic impact as the title character’s aggrieved victims express their anguish in scene after scene highlighting some of Mozart’s greatest set pieces. Don Ottavio (Amitai Pati) comforts Donna Anna (Adela Zaharia) after Don Giovanni has assaulted her and killed her father, the Commendatore (Soloman Howard), in San Francisco Opera’s “Don Giovanni.” (Photo courtesy Cory Weaver/San Francisco Opera) The Don has just assaulted Donna Anna, and then killed her father, the Commendatore, who attempted to come to her rescue.
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Only the title character appears to be prospering: With his manservant, Leporello, on hand to assist with the particulars, the Don is free to pursue his insatiable quest to seduce every woman he meets.Īs Act I begins, the wreckage he’s already left in his wake - and the production’s allusions to modern-day sexual predators - are everywhere.


As the novel unfolds, a story about a man ingenuously seduces and abandons women across Europe before he is ultimately murdered by his ghost.But where the “Figaro” house was an 18th century model of stately elegance, and “Cosi” was situated in a 1930s seaside resort, Saturday’s opening unfolded on a crumbling ruin about to go up in flames (lighting by Jane Cox) - a place, a few anguished aristocrats aside, that’s peopled by a ragged troupe of townspeople in a mix-and-match array of rustic grubbies and steampunk garb (Constance Hoffman designed the costumes). There are many elements in this work which combine to form both serious and comic opera. The subject matter of Don Giovanni has a timeless appeal. Mozart’s classic is a brilliant combination of stark human tragedy and touching comedy, set to music of limitless genius. Giovanni embodies “an absolute moral nihilism’, but thrives not so much on desire but on transgression he is driven not by the satisfaction derived from his seductions but from the breaking of a taboo.ĭon Giovanni has been called the finest opera ever composed.

Based on the story of Don Juan, Don Giovanni is an amoral youth who is loved by women almost as much as he loves them. Mozart’s outrageous comedy tells the tale of an incorrigible young playboy who blazes a path to his own destruction in a single day. The opera is based on a legendary fictional character called “Don Juan,” who is a seducer and libertine. Lorenzo Da Ponte crafted the Italian libretto. “Don Giovanni” is a two-act opera composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. SAN FRANCISCO OPERA: JUNE 4- July 14, 2022įleeing the scene of his crime, a lecherous nobleman commits a heinous murder-an act so depraved that it unleashes the vengeance of hell itself.
