Don Giovanni

Lorin Maazel, Conductor

Ruggero Raimondi, José van Dam, Edda Moser, Kiri Te Kanawa, Kenneth Riegel, Teresa Berganza, Malcolm King, John Macurdy
Composer: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Librettist: Lorenzo da Ponte
Directed by Joseph Losey

After a few experiments, I've decided that I don't generally like operas adapted into actual films. I much prefer to watch a filmed stage production. That said, Losey's film of Don Giovanni is something of an exception. Despite numerous flaws, it's still an enjoyable movie.

The use of symbolism and psychological elements seemed too heavy at times to me, almost as if I were being beaten over the head with the opera's themes. The piece's whole mood was also a little too dark for me - I prefer a more lighthearted Don Giovanni. That's all entirely a matter of personal preference, so it doesn't really count as a flaw.

One more minor thing, the dubbing doesn't always line up perfectly. It's never really obvious - no Godzilla moments, lol - but you get a kind of instinctive sense that the voice you hear isn't coming from the person's mouth. I don't think it's entirely timing; some of it is just that the sound (having been recorded in a studio) doesn't change as the actors move around. On a live stage the sound changes slightly if the actor has his back to you, is facing sideways, or is walking. You expect it to happen and it doesn't, so it's a bit unsettling. This is really a pretty minor issue though, you get used to it after a few minutes.

Ruggero Raimondi's Don is well done, but almost too menacing to be really seductive. He seems to be scowling all the time, and it's a little difficult to believe that he has women falling at his feet. However, this fits with the dark mood of the film as a whole. He does have his lighter moments, too, and then he makes a really fantastic Don in my eyes. "Finch'an dal Vino" and the whole graveyard scene were both very well done.

Kiri Te Kanawa is a fabulous performer and sings a really moving and beautiful Donna Elvira. But I find that it's hard to notice that here because of her very strange looking costumes and also her hair. She first appears in something that looks like a Klu Klux Klan outfit. She then sports a traveling coat that looks like it was made out of a particularly hideous kind of bedcurtain. Her other dress, which is under the robe, isn't bad though. However, I find it a little difficult to believe in the whole "Non ti fidar" scene. You don't say "Cieli! Ch'aspetto nobile!" about someone wearing a bedcurtain and a 'fro. And when some guy tells you "Oh, don't mind her, she's nuts," you'd probably believe him. None of this is at all Te Kanawa's fault, but it makes it hard to appreciate her really passionate Elvira. I didn't until I listened to the soundtrack of this movie and then watched it again.

Edda Moser is makes a very solid Donna Anna. In this film, Donna Elvira is very clearly the female lead, so Moser isn't given as much leeway for expression as she might otherwise have been. Still, she pulls through very well. While nothing really blew me away, she gives the one performance in which I found nothing really wrong or disconcerting. (Except Te Kanawa, whose flaws were visual and again, probably not her fault.) Her voice is great, too.

I dislike Kenneth Riegel as Don Ottavio, mostly because of the interpretation. If you've read my other reviews you know that I prefer to see Ottavio as a more sympathetic, human character instead of a bland whiner. Riegel is a bland whiner. He does it on purpose, and he does it consistently, so I put it down to interpretation rather than bad acting. If you like the Freudian implications of a (frankly) annoying Ottavio, you might appreciate this more; personally I felt that that sort of thing only works when you give Donna Anna more prominence than she is given here. To redeem him a little, Riegel is a solid singer, and his two arias aren't at all bad vocally.

Teresa Berganza's Zerlina is well-sung. She looks a bit old for Zerlina, but then again Malcolm King looks old for Masetto, so they match up well. Both of them present pretty good performances, although nothing really sticks out in my mind as remarkable.

I do have a serious issue with a lot of the "staging" (for lack of a better word) in this film. It just seems to me that the Don is moving a bit too fast in "La ci darem." Key word in the libretto here is "LA." As in, "OVER THERE." Not "Here in the bedroom we are already standing in even though you are still singing about reluctance."

Another similar issue was the Act I finale. First of all, it left me confused. Zerlina ought to be dragged off in this scene in order to make her cry for help believable. If she's plastering herself all over the Don, and follows him willingly into some little room behind a closed door... I mean, did she think he wanted to play Scrabble? It's too much to ask the viewers to believe that Zerlina could possibly be that naïve, particularly one with Berganza's mature appearance.

In this same scene we have the Don's attempt to pin it on Leporello, which is totally ridiculous since Leporello entered with all the peasants. (On stage, Leporello normally exits just before Zerlina screams, and then is dragged back on by the Don.) Also, the whole "Mori, dico!" "Cosa farte?" exchange is silly. Raimondi and van Dam just stand there and look at each other with practically no facial expressions. Some kind of threatening gesture on Raimondi's part would have made a huge difference; some actual concern for his own welfare would have done the same for van Dam. After all, at the beginning of Act II he is pissed off because his boss tried to kill him. He ought to be pissed off while the threat is being made.

Kenneth Riegel sings "Il Mio Tesoro" while tripping over these guys who have passed out in a field. While this does offer some interesting psychological insights into the director's perception of Ottavio's character, it still looks very silly.

The final scene is disappointing, too. I think they could have taken advantage of the fact that this is a filmed movie and really used special effects to outweigh some of the other flaws that causes. A really realistic, moving stone Commendatore entering in all his glory would have been nice. Instead we only get to see the back of his neck, and they have this rubber ghost thing - not even the real actor. You can see it swaying back and forth a little throughout the scene. It looks like it would fall over if Raimondi just went up and poked it hard.

Now that I've discussed the bad stuff I need to point out the good stuff, too. To its credit, when this film does things right, it does them right.

I liked the staging of "Non mi dir." I can't really explain why, but it seemed right for the way the characters were interpreted. Also you see one advantage to the dubbing - the actual, realistic embrace is a nice touch in this scene, but isn't possible onstage because you'd be messing with Donna Anna's breath control in the middle of an aria.

The whole changing identities part was well done, too - the use of the masks took a minute to get used to but it fit nicely. One thought though... in the scene where Leporello is unmasked, who is the dude in the red hat? Even more to the point, why are the singers placed in front of a huge group of people that they never seem to notice? If this is symbolism, it went over my head.

The whole setting in general is gorgeous, too. And I like how everyone gets in a little gondola at the end.

I don't want to give the wrong impression by this review. This movie has a lot of faults, but it still pulls together nicely as a whole. This shouldn't be too hard to see before you buy it - try Blockbuster (the one near me has it on DVD), or a local library might be able to get it for you through interlibrary loan. It's definitely worth seeing.

Originally Reviewed:

22-Feb-03