Review – “Don Giovanni” at the Mozart Week in Salzburg: Semi-staged – and yet theatrical | News and criticism | BR CLASSIC
Review – “Don Giovanni” at the Mozart Week in Salzburg
Semi-staged – and yet theatrical
January 28, 2023 by Bernhard Doppler
Rolando Villazón placed at least a few props on the stage of the Felsenreitschule to make his “Don Giovanni” look a little more scenic. Magdalena Kožena as Elvira and Julia Lezhneva as Zerlina – is the star cast enough for this version of the “opera of all operas” to be convincing in Salzburg?
Image source: Wolfgang Lienbacher
An evening birthday song under the Mozart monument on Salzburg’s Mozartplatz: Despite heavy snowfall, a large crowd has gathered around Rollando Villazón and the Los Mariachis Negros and hums along when they perform Mexican serenades for Wolferl in Mexican costume with wide sombrero hats.
Rollando Villazón dominates the Salzburg Mozart Week
Mozart has been celebrated with a Mozart Week organized by the Mozarteum Foundation since 1956, since Mozart’s 200th birthday. After a failure and limited operation during the pandemic, the Great Salzburg Festival Hall and the Felsenreitschule will open again in 2023 for “pure Mozart” – that’s the motto for the more than 50 events. In addition to major concerts, for example with the Vienna Philharmonic under Marc Minkowski or Thomas Guggeis, there is also a large supporting programme. In 2023, the program should primarily contrast the “child prodigy” with “the mature Mozart”. Rollando Villazón, who has been director of the Mozart Week for five years, is constantly present. On the same day that he performs the Mexican birthday stands, he chatted with the Mozart researcher Geneviève Geffray about Mozart’s letters in a separate event in the Tanzmeistersaal in Mozart’s house. In the evening, Villazón is then responsible for the scenic arrangement of the “opera of all operas” (Kierkegaard): “Don Giovanni” – albeit only presented as a semi-concert.
Adrás Schiff conducts from the fortepiano
Sir András Schiff, who has been a regular at the Mozart Week for 37 years – initially primarily as a pianist – conducts his Capella Andrea Barca, also from the fortepiano. An ensemble made up of internationally active chamber musicians and named after a fictional Tuscan composer and Mozart admirer.
Semi-staged performance in the Felsenreitschule
“Don Giovanni” at the Mozart Week in Salzburg | Image source: Wolfgang Lienbacher
The semi-staged performance of “Don Giovanni” still has a theatrical effect, even if only the orchestra is placed on the stage. Only two house fronts on the edge and in the background the colorfully illuminated arcades of the Felsenreitschule (Light: Davy Cunningham) give a scenic allusion. Except for the livery of the servant Leporello, the singers play in evening dress, but they not only play their roles psychologically precisely, they play with the orchestra, hide among the musicians, seek approval in eye contact with the conductor.
Magdalena Kožena, Julia Lezhneva and Julian Prégardien are convincing
scenic performances, the focus of the opera also shifts. The focus is not on Don Giovanni’s art of seduction, but on the resonating of musicians and singers about his deeds, the uncertainty as to how far he could have become encroaching, and what that means if Giovanni’s doings were made public . No boasting womanizer, Johannes Kammler in the title role is quickly reserved. Magdalena Kožená (already at the Mozart Week for 27 years) received with deeper intensity than Elvira with her doubts, and Julia Lezhneva beguiled with soft soprano as Zerlina. Sylvia Schwartz presented her traumas, which Don Giovanni had produced, as Donna Anna. Most impressive and deeply moving, even getting under the skin, is Julian Prégardien as Don Ottavio. The two arias are the highlights of the evening. Indeed a feast for Mozart.
Show: “Allegro” on January 30, 2023 from 6:05 a.m. on BR-KLASSIK