Don Giovanni

The second show that I went to at the Estate Theater was Mozart's Don Giovanni.  Don Giovanni is one of Mozart's more important operas and is very classic.  Most interestingly, when Mozart himself directed its world premiere showing, he did it in this exact building (although it had a different name at the time) on this exact same stage.  That is pretty cool, I think.

Don Giovanni is a flirty fellow of low moral character who is running around with every girl in town and periodically killing their fathers.  After a fair bit of running around and some slap-stick, an avenging ghost,  in the shape of a stone statue, visits Don Giovanni in the middle of a riotous party.  The ghost repeatedly tells Don Giovanni to repent of his wickedness and, after he continues to refuse to do so, drags him, screaming, down to hell.  It is a moralistic story.

I enjoyed the production.  It was fun to watch and I thought they sang it very well.  Additionally, they had a screen above the stage which showed translations of the Italian words in English and and in Czech, which made it much easier to follow what was going on.  There was one odd thing, though.  Besides the main, singers, there were a bunch of folks who didn't sing but acted as servants or town folks.  Most of the time it wasn't very notable but at one point, a couple of the servants at the back of the stage did a long break dance routine which included doing "the robot".  It was very odd.  It is, however, not nearly as odd as this.  I was looking for a copy of the last scene of the opera and found this one.  I have no earthly idea why Don Giovanni is only wearing fluffy pants.  It is very, very odd.  I have found this alternate video of Act 2, Scene 5, the "Commendatore" scene, where Don Giovanni gets his just deserts.  It is much less creepy.  (If you "x" out the advertisement at the bottom of either of these videos you will see the English translation of what they are singing.)  And in case you're wondering, yes, they did keep bringing candles and other flames out onto, presumably, a wooden stage, in a crowded theater.  The production I saw had more clothes and less skeletons so I think I came out on top.  Also, from watching those videos, I have come to the conclusion that opera is not really an art form where it pays to zoom in on the weirdly contorted lips of the singers as much as they seem to like doing it.

The Estates Theater set up for Don Giovanni