Don Giovanni goes to school – past report 3/30/2012

This was my first time in the renovated theater at Boston Conservatory, and I was impressed by the audience side of the new hall. I'm not sure what technical improvements were made backstage, because the production values of this Don Giovanni were modest: latticework flats that could be pushed around in varied configurations, a few archways flown in, set pieces wheeled in by the chorus, that was it.

Yet the intimacy of playing on a modest stage to an audience of 325 brought an immediacy to the performance that was very appealing. There were some judicious cuts (nobody seemed to miss "Metà di voi qua vadano") with only one jarring tonal splice during the Act Two finale (Donna Elvira entered just after the table is laid, curtailing the Don's dinner music).

The highlight of the evening was Katy Kelly's Donna Anna. I felt privileged to see an early performance in what should be a distinguished career. That she made the singing look easy and brought out a many-faceted interpretation of her role is the definition of secure technic and artistic mastery.

Evan Ross played Leporello for big laughs and succeeded, especially to a warm house of fellow students. His diction was impeccable in the quick moments of the score.

As Giovanni himself, Isaac Bray (unfortunate name for a singer) carried off "Finch' han dal vino" brilliantly, as if the Don were catching the inspiration for the coming night's diversion right at that instant. No jaded wastrel he.

Katelyn Parker jumped a few of Zerlina's entrances, so we got several phrase repetitions that Da Ponte and Mozart didn't intend. Masetto and the Commendatore were harmless, which brings us to Ottavio. 

Salvatore Atti showed himself a perfectly respectable tenor in the recitatives, but he ran into trouble in both arias, losing his way when the melodic line took broad leaps down and then up. I was willing to enjoy the good parts, but I couldn't help flinching a half dozen times.

And finally Donna Elvira. Erin Hannon has the skills that should make her an excellent performer. She brought a comic undertone to Elvira, and had the vocal power to hold her own as a prima donna. Unfortunately she proved herself underprepared for the role. Her pitch was imprecise in her passage work, and she missed at least four entrances.

There are people like me who have seen or listened to Don Giovanni dozens (if not hundreds) of times. We can instantly recognize when things go awry and take no pleasure in hearing 80% of a performance. With a work that has been in the repertory for over 200 years, a work that is one of Mozart's signature pieces, the performers have to be 100% secure in the music and then add the magic that lifts it off the page. This was an instructive student production, and I hope the students learned that you need to own your role every time you perform.