If Chicago Opera Theater's ( COT's ) new production of Don Giovanni was a movie, it would be slapped with an 'R' rating for sexuality and violence. Thank heaven for that.
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Playwright: Mozart/Da Ponte
At: Chicago Opera Theater at Harris Theater
for Music and Dance, 205 E. Randolph
Phone: 312-334-7777; $35-$120
Runs through: May 11.
Photo by Liz Lauren
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Mozart and Da Ponte's 1787 opera is often done with period costumes and storybook settings. Yet this prettified approach often lulls audiences from the danger of the title character who is a murderer and a serial seducer ( or rapist ) of women.
Director Diane Paulus' brilliant modernization of Don Giovanni smacks audiences upside the head with this fact. By setting the opera in a swanky New York gentlemen's club complete with sexy pole dancers, swilled liquor and simulated copulation, Paulus presents a valid picture of where Don Giovanni would hang out nowadays. ( No doubt many elderly opera patrons used to stately productions will be shocked ) .
But in this case, Paulus' directorial choices are valid dramatically in conjuring the decadent world of a cad whose sexual conquests number in the thousands. The English supertitles are slang-filled ( 'hooked up with' is used ) and reflect the slight plot changes Paulus has cleverly instituted ( for instance, a zombie replaces a walking, talking statue from Hell ) .
Here, Don Giovanni ( Ian Paterson ) is the club proprietor, bossing around his club-kid servant Leporello ( a comically gangly Matt Boehler ) , and having his way with his staff of strippers and wealthy guests. After seducing Donna Anna ( Rhoslyn Jones ) by guile, Don Giovanni makes the tragic mistake of shooting what looks to be her mob boss father Il Commendatore ( Andrew Funk ) . That sets off a chain of events that leads to Don Giovanni's bloody comeuppance.
Along the way, Don Giovanni encounters vengeful ex-lover Donna Elvira ( Krisztina Szabo, dressed as a dominatrix whose brittle exterior hides her co-dependent longing ) and the soon-to-be-wed couple of Masetto ( Michael Brown as a volatile frat boy ) and Zerlina ( Isabel Leonard as his partying girlfriend ) . Donna Anna's fiance Don Ottavio ( Michael Colvin ) also arrives on the scene ( whose upstanding attitudes gives you an inkling of why Donna Anna might have strayed ) .
Clearly, the orgy scenes in Stanley Kubrick's film Eyes Wide Shut have had an influence on David Woolard's skimpy costumes and masks amid Riccardo Hernandez's stylish red and black lounge set. The bursts of physical violence also make you think of Martin Scorsese mob movies.
Through it all, conductor Jane Glover leads a gorgeously traditional account of Mozart's timeless score which is emotionally and dramatically sung by the entire young and lovely cast.
Thanks to Paulus, COT's Don Giovanni has been given an invigorating jolt of danger and modern relevance. But COT may want to warn viewers ahead of time ( particularly those going to the free live simulcast at the Pritzker Pavilion on May 9 ) . A nice family outing this Don Giovanni is definitely not.