There are opera performances the appeal of which is the consistent level of quality across the board even if no individual element reaches excellence. And there are performances so spectacularly uneven that you cannot help wondering why you have actually enjoyed them. In these cases, the answer is the odd outstanding example of talent that seem to light the darkness around it.
This evening’s Don Giovanni at the Opéra de Paris seemed the caricature of the experience of watching a show in the Opéra Bastille: the audience coughing heartedly, fidgeting with the Velcro opening of their bags, pieces of jewelry jangling along together with noisy plastic bags, whispering voices, a nervous leg kicking the back of your seat, you name it. All that in a building the acoustics of which seem to be conceived to amplify what happens anywhere but the orchestra pit and the stage.
Yes, the Opéra Bastille probably has the worst acoustics among important opera houses in the world. Why they stage Mozart operas there is a mystery to me. To make things even more helpless, stage designer Jan Versweyveld has developed sets that should be studied as an example of what not to do for an opera performance. Voices either seemed to be sucked upwards and backwards, there is an area where they acquire a disfiguring echo, not to mention the moments when you could not hear them at all because singers were behind the walls of staircase wells.
If any of this was a small price to pay for riches of insight in Ivo van Hove’s production, then, well, one could speak of a trade off. I’m afraid, however, that this was not the case. In the booklet, his dramaturg speaks of social oppression, the need to expunge evil, but it seems that this applies to the five last minutes of the opera – Leporello begins to disobey his master, openly eats his food, turns the table on him. After Don Giovanni goes to hell, the all-grey sets suddenly are full of flowers, mail boxes, bicycles. Now everything is just perfect.
I have to confess that the fact that Don Giovanni literally goes to hell here made me a bit angry, because the appearances of the Commendatore’s ghost were all of them so prosaic (he just shows up walking from the door with a red stain in his shirt) that I had to believe that the director made a point of avoiding the supernatural. All that would be of little importance if we saw some especially skilled Personenregie. After all, we’re speaking of a fêted theatre director – I myself have good memories of his stagings of things ranging from Hedda Gabler to All about Eve. But this evening we were back to good old semaphoric operatic acting with some very ineffective blocking in ensembles. Disappointing.
It is hard to explain Bertrand de Billy’s conducting this evening. This was clearly the work of someone who knows Mozartian style, in the sense of balance between the sections in the orchestra and singers and of the right rhythmic propulsion. But in the wrong acoustics made worse by these sets, it meant that the orchestra was kept really low. This grisaille of orchestral sound meant no dynamic variety, no dramatic accents and, if there was some clarity of articulation in the string section, nobody would know unless if you were inside the orchestral pit. If we have all this in mind, then Mr. de Billy must be praised for making everything, absolute everything to help his singers while trying as a secondary task to keep every element in check. I’m afraid it all sounded like background music to the audience noise.
On paper, the Opéra offered its audience a lackluster cast, and I didn’t have any expectation, but in the end some of these singers managed somehow to rescue the evening from its seemingly inevitable dreariness. With one exception, I’m speaking about the sopranos. Adela Zaharia’s Donna Anna alone would make it worth the detour. Her creamy high soprano projects naturally, floats effortlessly and takes to coloratura with bel canto quality. Ms. Zaharia has a natural grasp of Mozartian style, sculpting her phrases with poise, sensitivity and attention to the text. While the velvety quality of her voice made her opt for an Or sai chi l’onore on the vulnerable side, she offered a grand account of Non mi dir, handling the coloratura with accuracy and very little need for breath pauses. Brava.
Nicole Car suffered a little bit with the unhelpful acoustics, but her fruity soprano is well suited for a Donna Elvira in the “lyrical” end of the spectrum. She too has a good grasp of Mozartian style and handled some of the part’s most awkward phrases with poise and dexterity. For someone born very far away from Italy, her recitatives are also vivid enough. Anna El-Khashem’s voice is not on the same level – high notes are pinched and the middle register is on the nasal side – but her Zerlina was one of the most efficient I’ve seen in a while, both in terms of her understanding of the music and the character itself. As we heard the Prague version, she had the opportunity of singing the razor duet, what she did with gusto.
None of the men were that interesting, but Christian Van Horn made me remember the days when A-team basses sang the title role. It is a rich, imposing voice, and yet he worked hard for suaveness, curiously not in his serenata. He doesn’t have an ounce of wildness in him, and his Don Giovanni came across as rather gentlemanly, what goes a bit against the director’s intention of showing the character as evil incarnated. I have the impression that Krzysztof Baczyk must have been indisposed this evening. His Leporello was 50 shades of grey, often woolly and breathy, and he seemed to get progressively tired during the evening. On the other hand, he acted with animation, what made the contrast with his singing even more puzzling. Pavel Petrov’s Don Ottavio is firmer-toned than most singers in the role these days, but he had some trouble being heard and, if he sang mostly within the limits of classical style, one could feel he would rather be in a Donizetti opera. Alexander Tsymbalyuk, an experienced Commendatore, seems to have found the part too low for his voice today.
I HEAR VOICES 
At last, a Mozart review that sounds the performance in question had some merit.
We are getting this production in New York. I’m skeptical but the last three (!) Met productions have ranged from serviceable to awful and the clips I’ve seen of this one makes it seems superior to those in comparison. I guess we will see. Christian Van Horn is a singer I like quite a bit, but he hasn’t always been well cast and while he’s a bass it’s definitely on the lyric size when you look at some of his rep. I’ve never heard Nicole Car and I’d like to. It seems like people either love her or think she’s bland.
I cannot stand the razor duet.
Yes, the Met hasn’t been lucky with Don Giovanni. Because the bar here is so low, I’d agree the Paris production is better. But it could have been really good if the sets had been more reasonably conceived. First, because it doesn’t help singers. Second, because it is made do deliver one single trick – and the trick is a bit lame. Also, it is sad that the dramaturgy stays on paper and never gets in the action (except abruptly and absurdly in the finale ultimo). We could have an atmosphere of tension there – the peasants uneasy around Don Giovanni, Zerlina’s lack of resistance as a result of fear that something might happen to her or Masetto – and a decent solution for the ghost and Don Giovanni’s doom is sorely needed.
I don’t think I had seen Van Horn before last night, but I can see why he would be often miscast. There is a “golden age” quality in his voice except in what regards weight. As you say, it is a lyric voice, but the tonal quality reminds you of singers with bigger and more powerful voices. He is well cast as Don Giovanni – vocally he is in the center of events. But he needs more direction in terms of getting into the character the director wants him to portray.
I am curious about what you’ll think of Nicole Car’s Elvira. If I’m not mistaken, you said once that you’re not partial to the vulnerable, lyric approach to the role à lá Kiri Te Kanawa. And that’s what Car does here – she has more of a temper than Te Kanawa and is far more responsible to the text, but still her voice is soft-centered and she wouldn’t be able to deliver the virago approach.
The razor duet doesn’t make any sense (especially as staged here) – but I am not someone who likes the Prague version. I find that the usual adaptation with the best of both versions is the most sensible solution, even if it involves the awkward sequence of Il mio tesoro and Mi tradì in act 2.
Yeah I do like some edge to Elvira, but it doesn’t have to be on vocal level. I just need some humor and angst in the part. I only know Carr as someone who has been doing Mimi all over the place. She did do Cosi before the pandemic at the Met but that production is on the short list of things I walked out of. So I didn’t bother with the revival.
We are getting Martinez as Elvira in New York.
Just read your Cosi
Car doesn’t have an Italianate voice at all – the voice lacks the bright edge of a Freni or a Scotto, and maybe that’s why some may have found her bland as Mimì. I have no idea – you won’t see me going out of my way for La Bohème 🙂
I still have to find someone who likes the new Met Così. I myself has seen just bits of it on YouTube.
Martínez as in Ana María? I saw her ages ago in the role. She must have been in a bad day, for the role seemed a bit high for her voice (what makes no sense).
I’ve never seen her as Elvira. It does sound odd that it would be too high for her. I’m not really sure what she’s sounding like these days. I do like her generally and lord knows the Met did nothing for her when they should have.
It’s been a very long time since I sat thru La Boheme. And yes the Cosi production is *risible*.