I don't know if anyone has already touched upon this subject (in which case I apologize to the moderators).
I saw that Don Giovanni, conducted by Daniel Oren, will be performed at the Arena di Verona.
While I am planning to attend the performance... off the top of my head, I have a couple of perplexities:
1) Isn't Don Giovanni a bit out of context for the Arena? Will the acoustics do it justice?
2) Is Oren the most suitable conductor for Mozartian opera? It seems to me that he performs best with Puccini; even his interpretations of Verdi are sometimes not so clean... but MOZART?
1) Isn't Don Giovanni a bit out of context at the Arena? Will the acoustics do it justice?
The acoustics and the "background" noise will not do it justice.
Melita wrote:
2) Is Oren the most suitable conductor for Mozartian opera? It seems to me that he performs best with Puccini; even his interpretations of Verdi are sometimes not so clean... but MOZART?
What do you think?
...that with Mozart, if you move wrong, you fail.
M
Marebu
Member
Reply 3 by Marebu
Posts
34
Tenore wrote:
...that with Mozart, the way you move, you are wrong.
I agree
I would listen to Solti's Don Giovanni and Klemperer's (since I want to spend a fortune, maybe even Barenboim's afterwards to understand who is trying to "copy" without being up to the task) and then I would try to understand between 2 proposals which one is the right one?
After the answer to this question, let's see how to fit in Oren, also because one can only judge in hindsight, right?
I hate to say it, but nowadays if one chooses to perform Mozart, it is primarily for one reason: budget. It is an opera with few soloists and very little chorus; within a festival, it drastically lowers expenses.
... and since at the Arena artistic choices that are actually "artistic" are rarely made, this is likely an explanation.
As for Oren, I don't know...
M
Marebu
Member
Reply 5 by Marebu
Posts
34
The effects of globalization ...
Don Giovanni sung in Arabic No 12 Batti, batti o bel Masetto, N. Nassar (Zerlina)
how cool ahahah who knows how far back the adaptation goes... "rhythmic" translations of works have a history all their own. But I think it was talked about on the forum elsewhere, or maybe not...
N
Natan
Member
Reply 7 by Natan
Posts
239
The question of Don Giovanni has always intrigued me. I propose
Macerata Opera Festival Sferisterio 23/07/2009
Don Giovanni - Ildebrando D`Arcangelo
Zerlina - Manuela Bisceglie
La ci darem la mano...Ildebrando d`Arcangelo (Don Giovanni)
Does it work, or not? It doesn't blow me away - I find it difficult to pronounce judgment on the voices because the quality of the video does not allow for it and anyway the directorial choice shifts, in my opinion, the attention to what happens on stage between the two protagonists, rather than on the interpretation.
The question of Don Giovanni has always intrigued me. I propose
Macerata Opera Festival Sferisterio 23/07/2009
Don Giovanni - Ildebrando D`Arcangelo
Zerlina - Manuela Bisceglie
La ci darem la mano...Ildebrando d`Arcangelo (Don Giovanni)
Does it work, or not? It doesn't blow me away - I find it difficult to pronounce judgment on the voices because the video quality does not allow for it and anyway the directorial choice shifts, in my opinion, the attention to what happens on stage between the two protagonists, rather than on the interpretation.
I saw last year the Così fan tutte by the same director (Pizzi).
A truly remarkable production and even there these perhaps superfluous emphases were not missing: see what happens on stage.
Mozart and Da Ponte do not need to be highlighted and made explicit in this way... one ends up transforming the "unsaid" into the most obvious superficiality. However, overall, the show works.
Ah, it is not the Sferisterio but the Lauro Rossi.
D'Arcangelo has a divine voice, but she doesn't enthuse me, not even as an actress.
But above all, I don't see anything scandalous about it... there are much worse things on stage today. And to think of directing merely as a "just set the scene" staging is ahistorical. That is to say, today Pizzi, like any other opera director, does not stage Mozart, but rather Pizzi or a mix of Pizzi and Mozart...
