Amazon.com: This 1995 Glyndebourne Festival Opera production uses an orchestra of period instruments but modern costumes. Scenery is virtually nonexistent, lighting is garish, without fine nuances; the title character, excellently portrayed, is an unshaven, disgusting brute. And in spite (or perhaps because?) of all this, the effect is overwhelming. It is a feminist Don Giovanni, calculated to change radically the way people view this, the greatest and most ambiguous of operas.
The visual minimalism, reinforcing Deborah Warner's often brilliant stage direction, focuses on what Don Giovanni is really about: the story of a compulsive serial rapist (also a murderer) who uses his position in the ruling class to deceive and victimize women. The singing is excellent, allowing for one or two small imperfections inevitable in any live performance, but the acting and staging are what make this production very special. Outstanding in the superb cast are Juliane Banse (Zerlina), John Mark Ainsley (Ottavio), and Adrianne Pieczonka (Elvira). --Joe McLellan
Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
Rating: - opera
Glad to have bought. The only thing I wasn't aware about was the setting up scene, it is too modern for Don Giovanni's time. Anyway not bad.
Rating: - Post-Freudian Giovanni
The trouble with this bleakly modern staging of Don Giovanni isn't that it fails but that it works all too well. Instead of the Faustian Giovanni of traditional productions, whose defiance is so appealing ... Read More
Rating: - Not a success.
DON GIOVANNI is such a masterpiece that it takes poor conducting, very poor singers, or extremely poor direction to screw it up. It's the last that is the downfall of this production, with the combined lack ... Read More
Rating: - Interesting and unusual
The only time I am bothered by "updated" or "unusual" versions of an opera is when the opera itself is altered in order to fit the production. I am not disturbed by the fact that Elvira takes Prozac halfway ... Read More
Rating: - Gripping, modern, original instruments
The production is stark, the costumes modern, the acting dramatic and exciting, the singing for the most part is superb, the orchestral sound is incisive, sharp and compelling. Altogether a gripping and committed ... Read More
![: Don Giovanni [Region 2]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41D50P0JFCL._SL160_.jpg)
- opera
- Post-Freudian Giovanni
- Not a success.
- Gripping, modern, original instruments