2006, Don Giovanni, Theatre an der Wien, Vienna

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Don Giovanni

Photo credits: Rolf Bock

Composer	Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Librettist	Lorenzo da Ponte

Venue and Dates	Theater an der Wien, Vienna 20, 23, 29 July 2, 6, 9, 13, 16, & 18 August 2006
Conductor	Bertrand de Billy

Production	Director: Keith Warner Set and Costume Designer: Es Devlin Lighting: Wolfgang Göbbel

Performers	Don Giovanni: Gerald Finley Il Commendatore : Attila Jun Donna Anna: Myrto Papatanasiu Don Ottavio: Mathias Zachariassen Donna Elvira: Heidi Brunner Leporello: Hanno Müller-Brachmann Zerlina: Adriana Queiroz Masetto: Markus Butter Arnold Schönberg Choir Radio-Symphonieorchester Vienna


Notes	If you have any further information please do let us know by emailing webmaster@geraldfinley.info

What the critics say

Larry L Lash for Opera News, October 2006 , vol 71 , no.4

Mozart and da Ponte labeled Don Giovanni a "dramma giocoso." How easily we forget to take them literally! In Keith Warner's wildly uproarious production (seen July 20), the laughs come as fast and furious as in a Marx Brothers movie.

A generic luxury hotel (stunningly designed by Es Devlin) makes an apt setting, its lobbies, rooms, corridors and (most memorably) elevators providing a perfect landscape for broad farce.

The Don seems to be a permanent guest, while Elvira, Anna, Ottavio and the Commendatore are there for a costume ball. Zerlina is one of an army of maids, Masetto a bellhop, Leporello the perfect concierge, tending to everyone's needs.

Gerald Finley, likely the most in-demand Don of our time, has never had a better opportunity to show off his comedic chops: caressing elevator doors, he was instantaneously obsessed by the scent of an anonymous woman as she descended from a dozen stories above; the opening recitative of Act II, in which the Don silently attempts — and continually fails — to find the right words to placate Leporello had the audience howling with Finley's perfect comic timing and gallery of faces. He's handsome, he's got a gorgeous voice, and he knows how to use it: this is not news. But who knew he could be so funny (with one trip onstage at his opening-night curtain call transformed into a spontaneous soft-shoe routine)?

Frequently one-upping Finley was his Leporello, the young, chameleonic Hanno Müller-Brachmann, whose repertory includes such heavies as Amfortas and Golaud. Müller-Brachmann tucked away his suave, rich bass-baritone to offer an old-fashioned buffo approach (he sounded like he was channeling Fernando Corena), opening up only when servant trades roles with master. Excelling in physical comedy, Müller-Brachmann offered a geek with black-framed glasses at a perpetual tilt, and an off-kilter, Marty Feldman (op cit Young Frankenstein) "walk this way" shuffle, always at the ready with a restorative Johnny Walker.

The gimmicks never stopped. Giovanni's attempts to convince Anna (Myrtò Papatanasiu, sexy, but overtaxed by the music) and Ottavio (Mathias Zachariassen, an invisible, dry-as-dust cleric) that Elvira was insane took place in an increasingly-crowded elevator; Zerlina (an uninhibited, erotically-charged, creamy-voiced Adriane Queiroz) was a ditzy foot fetishist, begging for a spanking ("Batti, batti" indeed!) but settling for having her shoes licked. Adorable Markus Butter, in a triumphant, breakthrough performance, was her naïve, clueless Masetto. Elvira (Heidi Brunner, in searing, spectacular voice, unable to keep her hands off Finley's posterior) emerged from fencing class to interrupt Giovanni's seduction of Zerlina. In an oft-excised scene, Zerlina handcuffed Leporello to a luggage rack and tortured his tootsies with a feather duster. The bust of the Commendatore (a game, sepulcher-voiced Attila Jun) tossed smarmy grins toward the Don and Leporello and a wink at the audience.

Bertrand de Billy and his Radio-Sinfonieorchester Wien again offered insightful, expert accompaniment, but they, too, never forgot that the keyword of the evening was giocoso.

Opera (Christopher Norton-Welsh), November 2006

This year saw the last Klang Bogen festival - its activities are being absorbed into the regular season of the Theatre an der Wien now that it is to be a full-time opera house. The Don Giovanni myth was the theme of the operatic fare. Mozart's work was given first, in a co-production with the Royal Opera, Copenhagen, on July 20. Keith Warner and his designer Es Devlin set the action in the present in the 'Hotel Universale', which permitted fast scene changes from the hotel foyer to corridors and a kind of silver ballroom through varous sliding panels, and allowed for amusing encounters whenever the lift doors opened. Zerlina and Masetto were chambermaid and waiter, Leporello the head porter; as it was not clear whether Giovanni owned the hotel or merely lived there, the exact position of his servant was poorly defined. But Warner's acute feeling for the relationships and ready wit ensured that this was very much a dramma giocoso.

The title role was sung by the experienced and very believable Gerald Finley, his lean and hungry Leporello by the excellent Hanno Miiller-Brachmann. The ladies were led by Myrta Papatanasiu as a vulnerable and shapely Anna, and Heidi Brunner, who has improved her Elvira since I last heard it. Mathias Zachariassen has also matured into a very positive Ottavio, here dressed as a (presumably Protestant) clergyman, thus eXplaining his hesitations. Adriane Quieroz was a strong-voiced and very knowing Zerlina, and Markus Butter her well-sung Masetto. Attila Jun was a stentorian Commendatore, if not truly at home in the black depths. After a rather heavy and thick-textured overture, Bertrand de Billy led an attractive, middle-of-the-stylistic-road performance, and was, as always, considerate to his singers .