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Music Lane It's all about the music, dude! Sit down, relax and listen to some tunes. |
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Music Lane It's all about the music, dude! Sit down, relax and listen to some tunes. |
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In Reply to: WSJ: 'Don Giovanni' Papered Over by Gehry posted by Poles Apart on May 31, 2012 at 18:55:14:
...has anyone seen the DVDs conducted by Craig Smith and staged by Peter Sellars in Vienna? They're great!
While I don't myself go for modern settings, this one works IMO. We're in the Bronx, current time, a locale where it makes weird sense that the first two or three minutes include a rape and a murder. The Don and Leporello are both black -- the singers are actual twins in fact, which adds a subtle comment on their relationship. It's sung in Italian with minimal and effective subtitles (Leporello, channeling Rochester, calls the Don, Boss, as in "Yes, Boss").
The production, as with this pair's other two da Ponte operas, is Boston-based. I've seen them all on stage and can attest that the Vienna versions (filmed live but with cameras on stage) fully embody the theatre experience. Anyway if you don't like these proceedings you can close your eyes and hear Mozart wonderfully sung and even more well played by a smallish Viennese ensemble under Craig Smith's fleet-of-foot direction.
P.A.
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Follow Ups
- Speaking of stagings of Don Giovanni... - Poles Apart 12:11:54 06/02/12 (0)
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