L.A. Opera Opens New Season with a Musically Compelling ‘Don Giovanni’
/By Truman C. Wang
9/25/2023
Photo credit: Cory Weaver
This well-traveled Don Giovanni, directed by Kasper Holten, was first seen in London (2014), then Barcelona, Houston and Israel. Los Angeles’ version arrived this month to open the 2023/24 opera season at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. It is a polished and visually compelling production, as one would expect from a former opera manager (of the Royal Opera House). Es Devlin’s revolving set is a two-story cube connected by a staircase, with Don frequently occupying upstairs and the lower class downstairs. Luke Halls’ video projections are constantly running and commenting on the actions, subtly or in-your-face (blood splashing in murder scene, scrawling women’s names from Don’s ‘black book’). Similar motifs found their way onto Anja Vang Kragh’s handsome costumes for Anna and Elvira.
In some ways, however, the drama is overdirected and is weakened by over-elaboration. Mr. Holten can seldom resist adding to the original stage pictures. Mozart had his three characters (Ottavio, Elvira, Anna) in Act II sing their solo arias alone onstage. Mr. Holten adds visual cues via video projection and, in the case of the two women, adds an ‘imaginary’ Don to spice things up. And in the finale, Don, having survived fire and brimstone promised by the Commendatore, joins the sextet as a ghost, still unrepentant, haunting and taunting his victims. Regardless of how one feels about these three solo arias holding up the action in Act II (which, unlike Basilio’s and Marcelina’s solo arias in the Marriage of Figaro, cannot be cut), or the anticlimactic sextet following Don’s demise, Holten’s directorial heavy-handedness proves more distracting than illuminating.
This is regrettable because the musical standards with maestro James Conlon at the helm remain lofty, even stratospheric. The appoggiaturas, missing in last season’s Marriage of Figaro, are now tastefully gracing the cadenzas and cadences, conforming to eighteenth-century musical tradition. The orchestra played with a compelling fusion of drama, virtuosity and sweetness, featuring memorable solo flute (“La ci darem la mano”) and cello (“Batti batti”), as well as superb wind playing throughout.
Lucas Meachem was the Don Giovanni. He has sung the role all over the world, portraying the Don as a complete rogue who, even with his suave baritone, in his most tender serenade, “Vieni alla finestra”, evinced little warmth or feeling. It is perhaps this devil-may-care aspect of Meachem’s characterization that gave the stage director license to invent enough new business to unnerve L.A. Opera’s new intimacy director Sara E. Widzer. Meachem’s partner in crime was Craig Colclough, a Leporello who, with his delightful comedic timing and agile bass-baritone, made all his scenes memorable.
From L.A. Opera’s Young Artist Program, Anthony León and Alan Williams’ stars shone brightly as Ottavio and Masetto, respectively. Peixin Chen has a firm, authoritative bass for the Commendatore. Meigui Zhang was a sparkly and delightful Zerlina. Guanqun Yu’s lovely soprano is on the lighter end of the scale for Donna Anna, but should be ideal as Liù in Turandot later in the season. Isabel Leonard, the Donna Elvira, is a mezzo-soprano with an easy and fluid command of coloratura in the soprano range, and gave a probing performance of the most troubled of the Don’s three female victims.
Additional performances of Don Giovanni on October 1, 4, 7, 12, 15
Lucas Meachem as don giovanni, Act II finale
Truman C. Wang is Editor-in-Chief of Classical Voice, whose articles have appeared in the Pasadena Star-News, San Gabriel Valley Tribune, other Southern California publications, as well as the Hawaiian Chinese Daily. He studied Integrative Biology and Music at U.C. Berkeley.