The Wagnerian: Don Giovanni

Written By The Wagnerian on Saturday, 9 July 2011 | 1:54:00 am

"After lunch Richard comes back to Mozart, and particularly Die Zauberflöte, he says that certain things in it marked a turning point in the history of art; Sarastro introduced dignity of spirit in place of conventional dignity - certain things in Mozart will and can never be excelled, he says" Cosima Wagner - Diaries - Saturday, February 23 1878 - (Trans: Geoffery Skelton)

"...We dine at five o'clock and then go and see Die Zauberflöte - Richard describes this work as the genius of the German character, and he draws our attention especially to Pamina's aria (G minor)" - Cosima Wagner - Diaries - Thursday November 11 1880 - (Trans: Geoffery Skelton)

As their Ring Cycle finishes. SF Opera today announced that single ticket sales will be available from Sunday (10/07/11) for its 89th season. While it seems a very full season, of particular interest to Wagnerians (given Wagner's affinity for both - see here) are new production premieres of Mozart’s The Magic Flute designed by visual artist Jun Kaneko and Don Giovanni by director Gabriele Lavia and set designer Alessandro Camera. Press release to be found below. More when, and if, I get the chance. Either way, visit SF Operas website for more - including details of the full season starting September with Carman.

SAN FRANCISCO (July 8, 2011)—Single (non-subscription) tickets for San Francisco Opera’s 2011–12 Season, running from September 9 through December 4, 2011 and June 8 through July 3, 2012 at the historic War Memorial Opera House, will go on sale to the public on Sunday, July 10, 2011 at 10 a.m. Single tickets will be available for David Hockney’s beloved production of Puccini’s Turandot, the world premiere of Heart of a Soldier by Christopher Theofanidis and Donna Di Novelli, the Company premiere of Donizetti’s Lucrezia Borgia starring Renée Fleming, a new production premiere of Mozart’s Don Giovanni, the Company premiere of Handel’s Xerxes, Bizet’s Carmen, the Bay Area stage premiere of Philip Glass’ Nixon in China, a new co-production of Verdi’s Attila with Milan’s Teatro alla Scala, and a new production premiere of Mozart’s The Magic Flute. The San Francisco Opera Box Office, located at 301 Van Ness Avenue in San Francisco, will be open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on July 10 for in-person sales or by phone at (415) 864-3330; tickets will also be available for online purchase at sfopera.com.

Kate Lindsey and Lucas Meachem. Photo by Ken Howard/Santa Fe Opera.

In Don Giovanni, Mozart uses a bold, beguiling blend of comedy and drama to tell the tale of a proud, predatory nobleman and the women who are drawn to him. Music Director Nicola Luisotti conducts a cast of exciting young singers led by former Adler Fellow Lucas Meachem, who starred as Count Almaviva in last fall’s Le Nozze di Figaro, in the title role. Soprano Ellie Dehn, who made her Company debut last year as Countess Almaviva opposite Meachem, is Donna Anna. The cast also features the Company debuts of soprano Serena Farnocchia (Donna Elvira), mezzo-soprano Kate Lindsey (Zerlina), tenor Topi Lehtipuu (Don Ottavio) and bass Marco Vinco (Leporello). Noted Italian film and theater director Gabriele Lavia makes his U.S. debut and set designer Alessandro Camera and costume designer Andrea Viotti make their Company debuts in this new San Francisco Opera production premiere.

Endlessly inventive, charmingly fantastical and utterly unique, Mozart’s The Magic Flute is a profound yet lighthearted tale of romantic love, spiritual transcendence and the beguiling art of birdcatching. The internationally acclaimed ensemble cast is led by dynamic young conductor Rory Macdonald and includes lyric tenor and former Adler Fellow Alek Shrader as Tamino (shared with Nathaniel Peake for two performances), soprano Heidi Stober (Pamina), acclaimed baritone Nathan Gunn (Papageno), bass Kristinn Sigmundsson (Sarastro), and in the opera’s most virtuosic role, Russian soprano Albina Shagimuratova, who is “in demand everywhere as the Queen of the Night” (The New York Times). Sung in English, this new San Francisco Opera co-production is created by renowned Japanese-American visual artist Jun Kaneko and directed by Harry Silverstein.

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Written By The Wagnerian on Friday, 24 June 2011 | 8:21:00 pm

“Is it possible to find anything more perfect than every piece in ‘Don Giovanni’? Richard Wagner: Oper und Drama

"Oh, how doubly dear and above all honour is Mozart to me that it was not possible for him to invent music for ‘Tito’ like that of ‘Don Giovanni,’ for ‘Cosi fan tutte’ like that of ‘Figaro’! How shamefully would it have desecrated music!" Richard Wagner: Oper und Drama

I love Don Giovanni - it is without doubt my favourite Mozart opera (although the Flute runs a close second). It has everything: some of the finest music for opera ever written, a wonderful overture and a great piece of drama and theatre to boot; together with Mozart and Da Ponte's wonderful psychological analysis. How could anyone not love it? Well, according to his autobiography Wagner in his youth - much preferring The Magic Flute and seeming to dislike the Don for its Italian text - amongst other things. However, as you can see, he changed his mind greatly in later years, going on to not only conduct it on many occasions but to take much time over it's production - especially while in Zurich. According to Newman (Wagner's greatest biographer):

"Meanwhile Wagner had been doing his best to raise the standard of opera in Zurich. As we have seen, he opened the season on the 4th October, 1850, with Der Freischutz. He further conducted La Dame Blanche of Boieldieu on the llth and 18th, Norma on the 21st, Freischutz again on the 27th, Don Giovanni on the 8th and 18th November (again on the 26th March, 1851), the Magic Flute on the 29th November, La Dame Blanche again on the 6th December, 1850, and the 7th February, 1851, and Fidelio on the 4th April, 1851

He took particular trouble over Don Giovanni, a work that had been greatly disadvantaged, since Mozart's time, by the difficulties of all kinds that are inseparable from a modern performance of it.

Wagner spent three days and nights with Billow and Hitter correcting the orchestral parts and writing substitute parts for instruments, such as the trombones, that were missing from the local orchestra ; he made a working German dialogue version of some of the Italian recitatives, retaining others in their original form ; he simplified the scenic arrangements so as to avoid too many changes of the set tings; he transposed Donna Anna's aria to the graveyard scene, writing, by way of introduction to it, a short musical recitative for Ottavio and Donna Anna.

"I was furious ", Biilow wrote to his father, " when I remembered how it used to be said in Dresden that Wagner conducted Mozart's operas badly on purpose, because in his vain self-esteem he could not tolerate this music! He shows towards Mozart a warm, living, unselfish, but rational piety to which none of Mozart's pseudo-worshippers will ever attain." The theatre, according to Biilow, was sold out, but the Zurich public was somewhat irresponsive and ungrateful. Though Wagner, to get Kramer out of a difficulty, consented to conduct Don Giovanni again on the 26th March, 1851, and to close the company's season with Fidelio on the 4th April, 17 his more or less official connection with Kramer seems to have terminated when Biilow resigned, Wagner feeling that he had no longer any moral responsibility towards the management.

The Zurich score with Wagner's revisions in it has unfortunately disappeared".

THE LIFE OF RICHARD WAGNER VOLUME TWO 1848 1860 - Newman

And so, now that I feel I have well justified my inclusion of WNO new production of the Don here, onto the details.

Award winning West End team bring opera’s greatest villain to life

Three members of the multi award-winning creative team behind the smash hit West End musical Les Misérables are working on WNO’s new production of Don Giovanni this autumn.

Co-director and adapter of the musical John Caird, designer John Napier and lighting designer David Hersey have been re-united on WNO’s latest production which will open at Wales Millennium Centre in Cardiff on 16th September before touring to Liverpool, Swansea, Llandudno, Bristol, Birmingham, Oxford and Southampton.

John Caird is directing his third opera for WNO, Don Carlos and Aida have both been critically acclaimed. He says Don Giovanni is a powerful piece: “Mozart’s dark masterpiece is a complex study in sexual obsession and the exercise of power, the greatest and darkest of the three Mozart/da Ponte collaborations.

“My designer John Napier and I have worked on creating a sculptured world of dark intensity as a backdrop for these profound human dramas. Just as the obsessive collector of art may be completely unaware of the pain and hardship endured by the artist, so the obsessive collector of women is unaware of the desperation and loneliness he leaves in his wake.

The most compelling irony of this story is that while the statue of the slaughtered Commendatore comes to life, his human heart is still beating after death. The living Giovanni, tragically unmoved by the plight of others, slowly turns his own heart into stone.”

Realising this world is former sculptor-turned-designer John Napier. John, who designed Cats, Starlight Express, Les Misérables, Miss Saigon and Sunset Boulevard for the West End, makes his WNO debut with Don Giovanni. His opera work includes Lohengrin and Macbeth for the Royal Opera House, Idomeneo for Glyndebourne and Nabucco for the Metropolitan Opera.

Further Details (including booking and touring information) please go here: WNO: Don Giovanni

The Creative Team