Don Giovanni took away my opera virginity with promises of a grand time and a spectacular night, but alas, when it was over, I, like many others, had been betrayed. Having never seen opera before Don Giovanni, I always thought I’d enjoy it because I enjoy singing and listening to orchestral music. Man, was I wrong. I love music and embrace all types, but this opera performance was so hard to endure. The whole thing was around two hours of the actors singing in Italian, repeating every other sentence for about three or four times, or more. I was not totally enthralled as I expected myself to be, however the whole experience wasn’t completely negative.
The plot of the performance was one of three aspects that kept me interested. Although it was hard to tell what was going on because of our location in the furthest back row, I was able to determine the situation through the subtitles provided to us. You had your protagonist Don Giovanni who was basically the anti-hero of the whole story, pissing everyone off until the heavens decided his life was over. The entire hunt for Don Giovanni was really hilarious. He always found a way to escape. As much as it was a funny thing, I found it to be disappointing. I was convinced that each scene where they had Don Giovanni cornered, would be the ending where he ultimately dies. Anyone who enjoyed the opera would have been happy to find out that the performance continued, but to be honest, I wanted to get out of there.
The second of the three aspects is the music. I love music. Music is everywhere, and it is awesome. The orchestra that accompanied the performance was just fantastic. Their musicians were obviously skilled, and they played their cues on point. Each scene was accompanied with music (It’s hard to imagine the opposite), and the loudness of it all was enough to keep me awake and reading the subtitles. Actually, at many points throughout the opera, I found myself ignoring the subtitles, closing my eyes, and imagining myself conducting the orchestra (As anyone around me would have noticed!). This was perhaps what I enjoyed the most about the opera. One would think I would have much to say about the opera style singing itself, but I actually didn’t find the singing to be striking. Don’t get me wrong here, the singers were phenomenal; their harmonization was superb, their sustain was impressive, and the fact that they could do this while moving around was astounding. I just really wasn’t too fond of the substance. I couldn’t connect emotionally with the singing perhaps because of certain reasons having to do with myself or perhaps because of the singers themselves. Either way, the connection just wasn’t there and I really just found myself paying more attention to the music.
The final aspect of the performance that kept me interested was the set. It’s apparent that much work had been put into designing the set. The brick house complex, reminiscent of the buildings back in Don Giovanni’s time, was really well made in terms of appearance and functionality. The set was able to morph with ease into different sets, and with the aid of the lighting and other factors I may be unaware of, it really brought out the atmosphere for the scene. Good examples of this are when the house split into two, and when the set transformed into a party scene, utilizing the use of warm colors. Along with the set, I think the costume design was pretty great. The clothes really set the characters apart and helped me identify who was who from such a far distance. It would be hard however, for me to mention specific details of certain costumes due to my bad vision and inaccessibility to binoculars.
Personally, although I can find a good amount of positives within this opera, I don’t believe that the opera showed a great appeal to a younger audience. Much of my claim comes from the feedback of my fellow peers who complained about how bored they were, and how incredibly long the performance was. Many of them, including me at one point, were either asleep, or falling asleep. This is not to say the young audience overall didn’t enjoy it. I’m sure there are a handful of my peers who would disagree with me. Still, I heard more complaints than praise that night.
With regard to New York being a fantasy or nightmare, I feel that the opera definitely fits in more with the fantasy side of New York. Up until Don Giovanni, I had always pictured viewing opera as something I’d never do unless I had a lot of money to spend. A LOT of money. I always wondered about how an actual opera was, piecing together my exposure of opera through movies and other indirect outlets. Yet, it was never quite like my experience with Don Giovanni. I always held opera in high regard as an elite art form, and it was perhaps that standard I set that had made me disappointed that night.
Don Giovanni is a well developed opera, with its interesting plot, extremely talented singers/actors, great set, and amazing orchestra. Such factors when put together create an amazingly crafted piece, however such a piece isn’t fit for my taste as well as a good amount of the younger audience. Today’s teens just aren’t entertained by the slow paced action of opera among other things. Such a claim stated, will opera be able to survive in the future when its main audience is gone? Such is an important question to be answered in time. Until then, those who enjoy opera, keep on keeping on. You have my utmost respect.
