For this week’s comments you may have to do some searching in past issues of the NYTimes. You can do this by using the search function at http://www.nytimes.com.
Find a NYTimes article discussing any aspect of the Metropolitan Opera’s current or past productions of Mozart’s Don Giovanni (the opera we will be seeing on 11/3). Include a link to the story, a synopsis of the article, and three questions the story left you wondering.
You may NOT discuss an article that a classmate has already commented on. First come, first served!
Finally, read this synopsis of the opera . You will have a much better experience if you have a sense of what the opera is ‘about’ and can focus on the singing, music, acting, staging, etc. when you are there. If you have a pair of opera glasses, get them ready! and if not, borrow a bird-watcher’s binoculars, you will not regret it.
In “Baritone Returns to Fighting Trim for Met ‘Don Giovanni’” a recent injury incurred by Mariusz Kwiecien and its aftereffects are described. Kwiecien, who plays the title role in the performance herniated a disc during rehearsal just a few nights before the show debuted. The star had to miss the first three performances but plans to reenter for the next. His doctors advised for it, as did the Metropolitan Opera and of course Kwiecien himself but it still sounds risky. There doesn’t appear to be any certainty that he’s in the condition he needs to be. The article even highlights that the movements have been lessened to account for Kwiecien’s decreased mobility. The seemingly cut-throat environment of the Opera is revealed in this piece. While I feel that so many people laugh off opera as a waste of time by the upper class, its fascinating to see how many are so devoted to this.
I’m curious as to how “theatrical” opera is. I’ve never seen one but I’ve always imagined one person simply singing. And I never thought there was much physicality or athleticism involved. I’d also like to know the system of replacements in the opera. According to the article, Kwiecien’s replacement was met with great reviews. Which characters have replacements. That seems like an odd job, rehearsing for a play you know you probably won’t be in. Finally what do opera stars earn per year? All the stress placed on Kwieciens appearance seems serious. Are these stars compensated well?
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/25/arts/music/mariusz-kwiecien-on-the-mend-for-don-giovanni-at-the-met.html?_r=1&sq=Don%20Giovanni&st=nyt&adxnnl=1&scp=2&adxnnlx=1319817969-0BbRAY9W/mEzGe+Nvk3kEA
The article “Giovanni as Snapshot of a New Met” talks about how new “Don Giovanni” conductor Fabio Luisi and director, Michael Grandage – both of whom are making their Met debuts – are a snapshot of whats to come for the “new” Met and it’s new productions. Both Luisi and Grandage are well-versed fans of the opera – ” It has drama; it has fun; it has a lot of subtexts; it has many different and contrasting personalities. And all of the characters take a journey. No one is the same at the end as at the beginning. What I like is that in a short time there is a lot of life.”- say Luisi. However, all agree that the Met needs a new “Don Giovanni”, especially since different versions of the opera have struggled at the Met.
The piece is being presented in a straight-forward way, with a recognizably 18th century setting and period costumes. Luisi will be conducting the Opera from the harpsichord and playing along with the dialogue himself, which many conductors no longer do anymore. However, Luisi places emphasis and feeling the production and being there with the singers rather than on rehearsed singing and perfection. He says that too many singers think too much nowadays, but in order to do their best, they need to “lose themselves”, which is what he hopes to be able to achieve.
This article left me wondering whether or not I will truly be able to connect with the performance, as Luisi hopes his audience to be able to. I’ve never seen an opera, and I am wondering will it be easy to follow, just from emotions expressed in the singer’s voice or their movements on stage, since I’m sure the words will be difficult to understand? Also, I’m wondering whether or not this production of “Don Giovanni” has been more successful than previous ones, since that seems to be the goal in making all these changes to the production. Finally, I wonder what the atmosphere will be like when we go, what type of people will make up the audience, and how they will react to the production – I’m very curious about all this since I’ve never been to an opera.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/09/arts/music/old-fashioned-approach-to-mets-new-don-giovanni.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&sq=don%20giovanni&st=cse&scp=4
The article “Delayed by Injury, Giovanni Still Arrives” reviews the final production of Don Giovanni at the Metropolitan Opera. The review discusses how Mariusz Kwiecien, who plays the lead role in the opera, was injured during the play’s October 10th dress rehearsal. Mariusz suffered from a hernia in his lower but has worked very hard during rehabilitation to play his role well. Although he still looks the part and is doing well physically, he still needs some time to get his singing voice back to its origin condition.
What intrigues me about the article is how the author says Mariusz Kwiecien preforms the titular role in comparison to the other opera singers before him. Don Giovanni has been around for some time, and there has been countless renditions of the opera, but what I wonder is how much Mariusz Kwiecien’s performance is true to Mozart’s original intended vision of it.
Anthony Tommasini, the writer of the review notes that he was happy to be able to see the opera twice because it gave him a chance to focus on the singing and the orchestra’s performance as opposed to the singers’ performances. This made me wonder what the most important part of an opera is. Would it be more important to understand the storyline? Or to appreciate the music?
Lastly, I read that Mariusz Kwiecien hurt himself during a sword fight. Which made me wonder how much action is involved in an opera. When I heard we’d have to attend an opera late in the evening I was afraid it’d mostly be incomprehenible singing, but I was reassured by this article that opera can be filled with action as well. Then again, I hope its not too exciting–someone could get hurt.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/27/arts/music/mariusz-kwiecien-in-don-giovanni-at-the-met-review.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=Don%20Giovanni&st=cse
I read an article from 2008 as I thought it would be interesting to compare and contrast the performance from three years ago to that which we will be seeing on Thursday. This article, titled “A Bad Boy on the Prowl”,discusses how the opera’s 2008 version of Don Giovanni successfully combined musicality with theatrics. It discusses how it was also successful in not losing anyone “in dark corners” along with the great combo of having a clear focus and attractive singers who were “mostly believable in their roles”. The article then continues to discuss various actors/singers of the opera, in particular Erwin Schrott in the role of Don Giovanni. Although the writer of the article had a great deal of compliments for Schrott, such as how natural his singing sounded, he was far more critical when it came to Susan Graham. Graham’s singing, according to the writer, “lacked a certain fire that the role [of Donna Elvia] demands”. Overall, the writer seemed to be fond of this version of Don Giovanni. He does, however, point out that in the first act there were a few mistakes but Louis Langree’s conducting in the second act remedied the situation. I had a similar reaction to Michael’s as I was reading this article. Prior to reading about the mix of theatrics and musicality, I had solely thought the opera’s performances included singing. This article, although very informative, left me with curiosity as well as some questions. How long do the actors and singers stay with the production? Could we, for example, be seeing Susan Graham perform on Thursday or does each production vary in cast? I was also wondering if most people go into the opera business with their main interest/talent being singing as the writer made it seem like singing was their main strength and the majority of the performers were solely “passable actors”. This article also left me wondering how much the performances change over the years based on various conductors. Are there certain regulations the conductor must follow or does he have some sense of freedom with his own production? This article left me with much excitement and anticipation for Thursday’s performance!
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/30/arts/music/30giov.html
In article, “Reckless in Seduction, if not Onstage,” Anthony Tommasini describes a new production of “Don Giovanni” directed by Michael Grandage. Grandage is a strong and gifted director from Britain. Peter Gelb, the general manager of the Metropolitan Opera at the time, thought that having directors from theater and film would provide a more refreshing perspective to the performances. However, Tommasini claims that the performance was slightly disappointing, seeing that Grandage took on a very traditional staging of the performance. Tommasini also gives kudos for Grandage for dealing with a lot of last-minute casting changes that might have affected his directing. Tommasini claims that the setting wasn’t special, only consisting of a “large, curved sliding wall with three tiers of balconies and slatted-wood doors.” Also, the costumes were all in shades of brown and gray and were quite dull. Although, Tommasini does point out that the musical performance was quite superb. Tommasini claims that the one daring approach to the performance was when real flames actually shot up from the floor as Giovanni descends into hell. However, he says that this move was a bit too late and that he would rather have heard some boos, rather than just respectful applause.
Reading this article has left me with quite a few questions. Seeing that Tommasini’s review wasn’t quite flattering, I wonder how the directors would react to his criticism. How do the directors decide on the staging? What reasons were behind the simple costumes and staging? How much does each performance varies according to the directors? Do actors take part in the directing? I am actually quite excited to see whether or not they will use real flames in the performance next Thursday.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/15/arts/music/don-giovanni-at-the-metropolitan-opera-review.html?scp=4&sq=don%20giovanni&st=cse
My article was a review from 1981, about a performance of Don Giovanni at the CIty Opera. For the most part, the writer concentrated on the quality of the singers of the opera, and remarked that a “perfect opera” such as Don Giovanni demanded levels of excellence which were not achieved by most of the cast. This article was like many others that I browsed; most of the reviews of Don Giovanni seem to be filled with negative criticism. Out of the ones that I had the luck to click, none of them have a mostly positive mood.
Three questions I’m asking are:
1) Many of the remarks in the article were regarding the lack of perfect characterization by the singers. Will we be able to feel the distinct flavour of each character and their voice through the music during the perf we see?
2) How well will the actors/actresses sing? And how will they choose to portray their characters? While vocal performance is definitely important in an opera, it cannot be separated from the acting and emotional expression required to complete a full performance. I’m curious to see the cast take on the famous characters of Don Giovanni.
3) This article was written 3 decades ago, but Don Giovanni obviously had set a bar for its own excellence back then too. In the present day, the opera world has experienced many Don Giovannis, well-done and poorly played, so are the critics more understanding or have more tolerance for performances now?
http://www.nytimes.com/1981/10/09/arts/music-mozart-s-don-giovanni-at-the-city-opera-theodore-w-libbey-jr.html?scp=55&sq=don+giovanni&st=nyt
The article, “MUSIC REVIEW; Terfel, as Don Giovanni, Opens Met Opera Season,” Bernard Holland critiques the performances of the various singers in the opera. It starts off talking about the origin of this opera piece, which debuted at the Prague National Opera in 1787. Since then, Mozart’s great work has never been out of the international repertory. The writer describes the various parts of the people in the opera. Holland believes that Mr. Terfel had a very good performance and claims that this “not very nice man sings like an angel.” According to him, “volume does not necessarily conquer the Met’s bigness…quality and focus have a better chance.” He also claims that the cast did not have any significant weakness.
Questions:
– What was the original inspiration for “Don Giovanni?”
– Since so many of Holland’s comments were positive, what are some other plays that he considers to be bad? What does he consider as negatives?
– How many times does Holland view an opera in order to make an informed critique about it?
Source:
http://www.nytimes.com/2000/09/26/nyregion/music-review-terfel-as-don-giovanni-opens-met-opera-season.html?scp=1&sq=don+giovanni&st=nyt
The article: “Met Orchestra and New Chief, Out of the Pit” by Allan Koznin discusses the change of conductor from James Levine to Fabio Luisi. The article discusses how Fabio plans to succeed Mr. Levine. Mr. Koznin says how Mr. Luisi was the guest conductor for the Metropolitan opera since 2010 and now the term ‘guest’ was removed. Fabio Luisi was at the podium leading the Met’s opera in Carnegie Hall in the first concert of the season. So while Mr. Luisi is trying to maintain the standard left behind by James Levine he also has to bring his own flair to the table and show why he’s worthy of being the Met’s conductor. Fabio started off well with his first performance where he pulled it off similar to Mr. Levine where they both had the orchestra playing at its best and pulled off great shows.
This article left me with three questions:
What does a conductor do that makes him so important to the orchestra?
Will the setting of where the opera takes place have an effect on the opera as a whole
And if the conductor does everything in his power and tries his hardest does this automatically ensure a great performance
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/18/arts/music/fabio-luisi-with-the-met-orchestra-at-carnegie-hall-review.html?scp=10&sq=Don%20Giovanni%20mozart&st=cse
In the article “OPERA REVIEW; The Met’s ‘Don Giovanni,’ With Three New Voices”–written in 1997, the author James R. Oestreich argues that the performance of Mozart’s “Don Giovanni” was unorganized and lacked star power. The author begins by describing the setting of the Metropolitan Opera, which Oestreich says was relatively empty because the opera failed to incorporate the big name singers. Moreover, the orchestra was off key at points as it tried to follow the tone of one singer specifically. According to the author, the female singers Bayo and Roocroft have naturally euphonious voices which reflected favorably onto the performance. Luckily for the producers, this was the opening night of the performance, so they had time to tweak the minor mistakes in the opera.
3 Questions:
1) Who casted the singers? How much dress rehearsal time was put in? Why did they not cast big name singers
2) What was the budget for the performance? Was the Met Opera popular, what did people do in their leisure time?
3) Since the orchestra provides the background music and follows along to the singers, how does it solve issues where one singer is off key, in that case isn’t it the fault of the singer not the orchestra?
http://www.nytimes.com/1997/11/07/movies/opera-review-the-met-s-don-giovanni-with-three-new-voices.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/15/arts/music/don-giovanni-at-the-metropolitan-opera-review.html
The article is a pretty straightforward review of Don Giovanni. The writer addresses the unfortunate absence of the principal actor due to a herniated disc (luckily, since he went back to the role last week, we should be seeing him! I usually love understudies, but since I’m not familiar with this particular of Don Giovanni, I want to see Mariusz) The reviewer gives Mariusz’s understudy a favorable review, ensuring that readers know that he is just as qualified to sing the role as the original actor was. In this production of Don Giovanni, the direction seemed to be tailored for a more modern audience, though it’s not at all meant to be a modern day interpretation.
One of my questions about the production would be how close it is to the story of Don Juan, which shares many of the plot points.
Two, because the more nuanced bits of direction seem updated, would tradition opera patrons find it to be unsuited to their tastes?
The Don Giovanni played by Mariusz seems to play a very handsome rake, is having such an attractive actor play the role something that’s important to the plot and has it been done traditionally?
The article “Footlights: An Anniversary for Roberta Peters” recants the story of Ms. Peters who apparently was only nineteen when she stepped into the starring role of Zerlina in Mozart’s famed “Don Giovanni” performed at the Met. The article was a nice throwback as it was written in 2000 and highlights the fifty-year anniversary of Ms. Peters portrayal of Zerlina. The story goes that Peters, a novice in the theatrical arts, had never sung professionally at the time, and was only on understudy for six hours when asked to take the stage. Her premiere was not scheduled until at least two months away. The story did leave me with a bunch of questions though. The whole articles appears to be revolving around a sort of mythology around Ms. Peters. Is there a certain folklore that has developed in the theatrical world? Furthermore, this article seems to appeal to a specific niche audience familiar with the story. Is there a close-nit opera society in New York? How did Ms. Peters come into the position of of performing live at the Met. I’ve always been interested in how does one become a formal actor. Are they groomed into it from an early age? Where do they develop and hone their skills? I guess I’ll just have to find out.
Heres the link to the article:http://www.nytimes.com/2000/11/12/nyregion/footlights.html
The article that I read is titled “Delayed by Injury, Giovanni Still Arrives” and talks about the production of Don Giovanni, which has had come across some obstacles since its lead baritone Mariusz Kwiecien has been injured. The article digresses and explains that for Kwiecien this opera has been a “calling card”, since he has been very successful at playing the role. The reviewer notes that his voice was off key on low notes as well has high notes however this was not the major problem in the opera because there were many parts of opera that were truly captivating.
The review goes in depth with the character of Don Giovanni and exactly what he expected from the lead role. Don Giovanni is suppose to be a dominating ladies man who is turning heads of both women and men because of his manly appearance. The reviewer notes that a previous production had caste a taller Don Giovanni and the transition to a shorter singer made the attributes of the character less convectional. Overall from this review I’m excited to see the opera and can’t wait for Mariusz Kwiecien’s performance.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/27/arts/music/mariusz-kwiecien-in-don-giovanni-at-the-met-review.html?_r=1&sq=don%20giovanni&st=cse&adxnnl=1&scp=1&adxnnlx=1320246213-1oWlO6Tif2Sfu4o
James R. Oestreich’s article from 1997 entitled “OPERA REVIEW; The Met’s ‘Don Giovanni,’ With Three New Voices” is a rather biased and harsh review of the fall performance by Franco Zeffirelli. Oestreich applauds some of the performers’ efforts, such as “Ms. Bayo[‘s], a Spanish soprano, [who] sang with a lovely unforced tone, which nevertheless carried well through the house”, but ultimately denounces the production as a patchy and un-engaging piece. He mentions that there were many empty seats on opening night, that there was no “star power”, as all the performers were relatively new to the consistent opera goers, and that there was a lack of focus. He also seemed to have denounced the ongoing project as a whole, stating that “this [is a] sluggish production, which dates from 1990 and remains thoroughly dislikable, with its peripatetic masses of columns and its oppressive, unrelenting monumentality.” The author acknowledges the challenges that the up and coming performers may have faced, but stands by his opinion that the performance was a bit lackluster.
Oestreich’s article made me wonder how picky some opera-goers and critics may be. I have never been to an opera, but I had no idea that “star power” meant so much; I personally can’t tell from a name (or even reputation) alone if a particular singer is good or not. It aggravated me that new talents were met with skepticism, as they still had no reputation to uphold. Some other questions I have are: “How does the promotion/marketing of an opera come into account? How might the 1997 production have fared with better advertising? Of what caliber are the performers of the 2011 production? What role does the orchestra play in the big picture? Can it “save” a potentially unsuccessful opera performance?
Despite Oestreich’s negativity, I am excited to see this year’s performance–amateur singers or not. It (ideally) takes immense talent and drive to pursue anything creative, and I have respect for all artists who beautify their craft with a passion.
http://www.nytimes.com/1997/11/07/movies/opera-review-the-met-s-don-giovanni-with-three-new-voices.html?scp=3&sq=don+giovanni+metropolitan+opera+review&st=nyt
In “‘Giovanni’ as Snapshot of a New Met” article the opera is looked at from the time perspective and how it changed: while before Giovanni was just a happy guy, now he is preparing for death. The emphasis is done on the context now. Moreover, the opera s said to be brought to a new level. Such changes are supposed to happen not to the opera only but to the Met overall.
The three questions it made me wonder about are: How people get paid for such nonsense they’re writing? Why is death of self is so exiting and does it have something to do with being killed by an angry boyfriend? and Is dealing with funny things considered to be so easy?
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/09/arts/music/old-fashioned-approach-to-mets-new-don-giovanni.html?_r=1&scp=5&sq=Don%20Giovanni&st=cse
The article “The Seduction Catalog: A Bad Boy on the Prowl” is outline of what type of production Don Giovanni was right before and immediately after Peter Gelb was named company manager. At the time (~2004) Don Giovanni had only been on stage for a few months. As the article progresses, there is a character description, which includes a background into each actor and actresses respective career. It also insinuates that Gelb tends to emphasize acting more than other managers, who seem to weight singing prowess more. Although the actors and actresses may not sounds quite as good as in previous years, the play is certainly more visually appealing.