Don Giovanni or the spell of the charming bastard
La Fenice, Venice
June 18, 2019
Brooks asked me why I was so disappointed by Don Giovanni. I know she loves Mozart--maybe especially that opera. It is also GP's all-time favorite. Chris is likewise a Mozart maniac. Even though I am myself not a huge Mozart fan; still, this was a performance I was predisposed to loving. After all, we were at La Fenice. I have read that La Fenice is one of the oldest opera houses in the world--one of the first to display the horseshoe shape and is historically significant for its many premiers by the four bel canto greats: Bellini, Rossini, Donizetti and my beloved Verdi. (Monteverdi was active in Venice in the days before the theater was built).
La Fenice-- the phoenix that rises from the ashes! It has seen more than its fair share of fires. The last one in 1996 was the subject of a fantastic book called, the City of Falling Angels, by John Berendt. One wonders, how could the theater burn to the ground like that when it is surrounded by water?
As is known, Venice dumps its raw sewage--all of it-- straight into the lagoon, via the canals. Being salty and having tides, flowers don't bloom in the canals, which for the most part don't stink, and neither are diseases like dysentery an issue (like in Srinigar's Dal Lake)--but it is imperative that the canals are regularly dredged. And the fire happened just when they were dredging the canal surrounding the theater. So much was lost to this last fire. Not just the theater itself but hundreds of years of operatic history--including the loss of many original scores. La Fenice, like La Scala, was a museum as well as an opera house. It was tragic. Berendt's book tells the story of the fire and though two electricians were convicted of intentionally setting this fire --questions continue as to whether the fire was set only intended to be a small job to just get rid of their legal culpability on a job they had been working on in the theater or was their darker Mafia forces pushing them behind the scenes? The electricians are still in jail but so are the questions, it seems.
All was not lost though as the book recounts the way the soundscape was preserved thanks to the previous catastrophic fire (1836) which saw new very detailed plans for the rebuilding of the new theater created and stored at city hall. This second incarnation of La Fenice was the one which saw its close association with Verdi and was absolutely legendary for its acoustics. Because these plans were not lost to the fire in 1996, it is believed similar acoustics were achieved in the third incarnation of the Phoenix.
The interior is just beautiful!
So, what was the problem?
Well, I would say in very much the same way I always appreciate Titian and Piero when I see works by lesser artists, everything about the performance was lacking--especially the staging and the singing. Nothing substandard but more being a tourist quality show--but with top opera prices. And indeed the theater was filled with tourists in a way I've never noticed in Europe. In fact, this was the most vivid way I could feel the effect of tourism on Venice. As we had chosen to stay in Canneregio, we were surrounded with Venetians. In that neighborhood, you still find shops for residents and Italian spoken everywhere. It really still has a beating heart--with REAL Venetians! That said, I know that there are 420 tourists for every Venetians AND that nowadays most Venetians make a living serving tourists. Those Venetians typically live back on terra firma (In Mestre over the bridge)--but many also live in Canneregio. But I am getting the feeling that these Ventians left are not the ones who frequent the opera.
So there was not the usual passionate opera crowd. We had great seats! And were primed to love it--but found the singing to be uninspired and the staging very, very dull--mechanical, in fact. It was a way for me to understand, however, that when the singing and music are "on" a kind of alchemy takes place that leads to a really magical experience... unforgettable and sometimes even world-opening! And if the production is beautiful or interesting, that is just icing on the cake...Coming from Salzburg and then heading to la Scala, this opera was just so blah... in the end. After all the reading I had done about the death of Venice (at the hands of tourism and environmental destruction), I couldn't help but feel sad...
CAST
Don Giovanni
Alessio Arduini
Donna Anna
Gioia Crepaldi
Donna Elvira
Carmela Remigio
Don Ottavio
Juan Francisco Gatell
Leporello
Omar Montanari
Zerlina
Giulia Semenzato
Masetto
William Corrò
Matteo Ferrara (19,21,23,26,28,30)
La Fenice Orchestra & Choir
Chorus Master ⎮ Claudio Marino Moretti
La Fenice production
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