LA Opera: Don Giovanni and La Boheme

(Don Giovanni curtain call: Erwin Schrott, center in white, with the cast at LA Opera. Photo by me.)

A bit behind on reviewing this, but anyway... LA Opera presented Mozart's Don Giovanni and Puccini's La Boheme in repertory from Thanksgiving to early December this year - both productions were revivals of productions that have already been seen in LA. The Boheme (which I saw on Nov. 25) was very traditional and straightforward, while the Giovanni (Dec 7) was anything but.

Directed by Polish director Mariusz Trelinski, this Don Giovanni was wacky, colorful, full of directorial concepts - I loved it. It is set in a fantastical, cartoonish otherworld, visually framed in neon and dressed out in all sorts of bright reds, yellows and oranges. The men wore splattered hot pants and the women wore boldly colored ball gowns and spectacular swirling hair-dos.

There was a constant motion to the proceedings: there was concept and an idea for each scene and action materialized on the stage with focus, purpose and motion, enhancing the drama in the music and libretto. The eyes were engaged as much as the ears. I loved, for example, that the overture was fully staged, with characters zigzagging the stage and forwarning Giovanni's impending doom, and that later, Zerlina and Masetto, two lighter characters, sing their duet in the garden among dancing triangular shrubbery.

It was so different from what you'd usually see with this opera, and the 'differentness' here wasn't vulgar or pointless as such differences can sometimes be. Trelinski's concept is clearly laid out at the beginning and stays consistent throughout, and, most importantly, it works because it doesn't stray from the spirit of Don Giovanni. Certainly we get a different visual world from the "traditional" 18th century costume drama, but Giovanni remains a lothario who meets his doom from overindulgence, it is just retold visually. There was a surprise around every corner, and the three-and-a-half hour opera flew by.

Photos by Robert Millard/LA Opera. (1) Erwin Schrott as Don Giovanni in hot pink, (2) Lauren McNeese and James Creswell as Zerlina and Masetto in a garden of dancing shrubs, (3) Alexandra DeShorties as Donna Anna.

Performances were all around very strong. Erwin Schrott played a sexy, hunky Don Giovanni in tight pink pants, seducing women left and right while crooning brilliantly with a musically assured baritone. He seemed so assured with the music that it rolled out of him naturally, like he didn't even have to bother thinking over the technique; it was a wonderfully complete performance. I also loved Alexandra DeShorties' performance as the pained and revengeful Donna Anna, a woman whom Giovanni attempts to forcefully seduce but kills her father in the process. Her voice started off slightly thin, but she really sang and acted the hell out of her two dramatic arias. Maria Kanyova was great also as Donna Elvira, who vows to bring down Giovanni's reputation but can't seem to stop falling for him whenever he is near. Lauren McNeese as Zerbinetta was weak vocally as Zerlina, though she looked and acted right for the production's concept.

The major critics didn't really like this production, essentially calling it over concepty but recognizing that several performances were strong. Nevertheless, I really liked it it because it was so different and engaging (Out West Arts liked it too). This was one of the first times at LA Opera that I've felt I was as much at the theater as I was at the opera.

La Boheme rarely fails make me tear up at the end. And I did eventually get there when I saw it over Thanksgiving weekend in LA Opera's rather staid production. This Puccini opera is one of the most frequently performed operas around, and so many productions have become workaday, war horse affairs that lumber along. The sets in LA are big, but they are also blandly literal, and the direction is more serviceable than particularly revelatory.

My view of Boheme will always be marked by Baz Luhrmann's staging for Broadway, which made things exciting and sexy (even if vocally we weren't hearing international opera house voices). There was a vibrancy and excitement to the drama there. The productions that the opera houses put out have always seemed so boring to me since then. The singers come out, park, and sing. The chorus mills about aimlessly during crowd scenes and overacts, clashing with the principals. Just ugh. It looks like everyone has done it one too many times to care.

Still, the Puccini music always brings me around. I love the duets between Mimi and Rodolfo, from their star-crossed, love-at-first-sight meeting in Act 1 to the heartfelt near break-up in Act 3, all the way to the hear-breaking death scene in Act 4. It's all very openly emotional and lushly romantic, and I'm a giant sap so I fall for it every time.

At the performance I saw, Maija Kovalevska and Massimo Giordani saved the day as Mimi and Rodolfo. Kovalevska had a clear, attractive voice, full of passion. Her and Giordani's death scene was truly touching.

One more Boheme awaits me this season: the movie theater broadcast of Met's famously gigantic Franco Zeferelli production, starring Angela Georghiu as Mimi. Spectacular sets and the presence of Georghiu should help keep things from becoming routine.

La Boheme photo by Robert Millard/LA Opera. Maija Kovalevska and Massimo Giordani at the end of Act 1.