Wolftrap Snares Don Giovanni
Tomer Zvulun Stages a High Tech Opera
By: Susan Hall - Jun 30, 2012
Don Giovanni
by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
libretto by Lorenzo da Ponte
Conducted by Andrew Bisantz
Directed by Tomer Zvulun
Scenic Designer Erhard Rom
Video and Projections Designer S. Katy Tucker
Costumes Vita Tzykun
Lighting Robert H. Grimes
Craig Irvin (Leporello), Ryan Kuster (Don Giovanni), Macy Stonikas (Donna Anna), Craig Colclough (The Commendatore), Jason Slayden (Don Ottavio), Olivia Vote (Donna Elvira), Aaron Sorensen (Masetto), Andrea Carroll (Zerlina).
Wolf Trap Opera Company
Wolf Trap, Vienna, Virginia
June 29, July 1, July 3, July 5, July 7
Don Giovanni, the opera of all operas, comes to Wolftrap, the summer festival outside of Washington, DC. Onto moving panels which deftly open and close throughout the evening are projected animated Mondrian lines lit like a Chryssa-neon painting. The lines move with the overture, but this is just a fortuitous coincidence. The light lines will engulf and strangle Don Giovanni before the very dark evening is over.
The brilliant young stage director Tomer Zvulun has taken elements from contemporary culture and woven them into his take on Mozart's perfect opera, without in any way disturbing the music's glories. What is called, often with a quizzical if not downright disdainful ‘regie theater’, is shown here as a way to command the attention of contemporary audiences while honoring past composer's work. Giovanni's famous catalogue of conquests is presented as 'friending.' The infinite variety of underpanties looks like a 'companion' room at Victoria's Secret.
Like Boston’s Sarah Caldwell, who started regie in this country long before it was famously mounted in Europe, all these apt devices serve as a frothy, fun topping to the deep emotional undertones of the characters' story unfolding. While Giovanni dices with danger, he fearlessly takes on whatever fate presents itself, foreshadowing his grim ending, here on a guerney taking him to death row.
Caldwell worked at Wolftrap and was joined at the hip to diva Beverly Sills who often appeared here. The main theater is named Filene, like the famous Boston department store, but The Barns where opera is performed in the summer is hardly the Basement. Instead the stage features stunning young talent from all over the United States.
Don Giovanni is among other things about identity. The resemblance between the Don and his man servant Leoporello, foils for each other, is literal as they change seducer's roles under the balcony of the besotted Donna Elvira. Kim Pensinger Witman and Lee Anne Myslewski, director and administrative director at Wolf Trap, were in a quandry over which of two marvelously talented singers to cast as the Don and came up with a solution which serves to blend them: The singers would alternate in their roles. We saw Ryan Kuster, a Ralph Fiennes look alike, as the Don and Craig Irvin, as conflicted Leporello. Both perform recitatives and arias wonderfully. Kuster has no conscience and no morality, but displays a charm which helps us understand his powers as a seducer. He is not smooth, but pleased with his powers, whether or not they are effective. The champagne aria is a crescendo of fury and sheer driving power.
Zvulun has succeeded in not disturbing any of the singing as he energizes engaging physical performance. Olivia Vote in her shield of proper pumps and a fitted suit, hurls herself at the Don, even when he is engaged in seducing other women. Softened by a caressing robe in the balcony scene in which Leporello steps in for his now-bored master, this Donna Elvira's obsession rises to a fever pitch.
Donna Anna's initial seduction is not resolved here, but we sense she is straight arrow from the getgo. Marcy Stonikas is a revelation in the role. Her voice has the delicacy to reveal detail, but is huge as it is comfortably delivers arias. This season she will be Turandot and Lenora in Fidelio at the Seattle Opera. Don Octtavio and Stonikas are both graduates of the Seattle program for young singers, which will sadly be suspended next year.
Jason Slayden's Ottavio has a rich and lively texture. His delivery of Ottavio's two famous arias is both luscious and enraptured. Ottavio is sometimes played remote, but not here as he portrays a genuinely aggressive Don brandishing his pistols and all about revenge. This is more than buckle and swash. Both Slayden and Stonikas act with their voices.
Andrea Carroll, a tiny woman, wanted to be a Rockette but didn't have the neck and legs for it. We are fortunate indeed, because she inhabited Zerlina with a delightful soprano, ranging comfortably high and low. Carroll displays the character’s sexuality and native wit. She is, after all, the only woman who comes out of her contact with Giovanni unscathed. Zvulun does not shy away from her insistence that Masetto punish her in a scene apparently inspired by a true incident in which a Venetian doctor spanked a Paduan lady in public.
Zvulun directed all the actors in exciting physical response to their characters, not just in the threats of murder and the fights. Sex is explicit and fun. The mixing and matching of the various characters are easy to follow. Touches from the current tech world are funny and apt. Taking pictures with a phone tops off the dark depths of this story of a kinky man challenging the power of God and the conventions of society.
Sometimes the opera is divided between recitative told between actors advancing the plot and arias delivered directly to the audience at the lip of the stage. Although charming touches, like the Don's toss of a flower to a woman in the second row, are direct audience address, there is a pleasing smoothness to Zvulun's through-direction, which does not sink in middle-ground. All the singers, including Craig Colclough (The Commendatore) and Aaron Sorensen (Masetto) deserve a call-out.
Andrew Bisantz conducted the orchestra in a brisk performance. Changes of mood, swifter than any other Mozart opera, were perfectly captured. The complicated projections enhanced and the costumes, referring only to Mozart's period in the ball scene, were attractive. We only discovered the production’s date, 2014, in the graveyard scene.
Any opportunity for an audience to appreciate up and coming opera talent is welcome and Wolf Trap does a terrific job in this presentation of Don Giovanni.