Mozart Don Giovanni Santa Fe Opera, June 2024 Director Stephen Barlow Choreographer Mitchell Harper Lighting Christopher Akerlind

Reviews 

An Elegant New “Don Giovanni”. Barlow’s two Santa Fe Opera collaborations with designer Thavoris – “Tosca” and “Don Giovanni” – are beautifully conceived, colorful productions. The sets for the “Don Giovanni” production are particularly inventive, opening and closing like the pages of book. One doesn’t have to buy too far into the “Dorian Gray” references to notice how the Barlow-Thavoris production strengthens the theme of the supernatural bond between the Don and the Commendatore. It is the murder of the Commendatore, as much as the Don’s sexual excesses (and assaults) that dooms the Don. In another departure from performance tradition (and stage directions) the Don’s death scene takes place in a gallery of paintings, which come alive, voiced by Santa Fe Opera Apprentices, summoning Don Giovanni to repent or face damnation.The noted departures from tradition do not change the basic story of the opera. (Opera Warhorses)

The set is creative and cunning in its use of space, with walls sliding to reveal lampposts and ornate wrought-iron fences, sumptuous Victorian hotel lobbies, and Don Giovanni’s portrait-laden den (let’s forget that Dorian Gray hides his portrait for most of the novel) replete with a crackling fireplace. Bright pops of orange and red arise in key plot moments against mostly dark greys and blues. (GirlAtTheOpera.com)

Thavoris’ set for DG was built like a book with pages opening onto different scenes. The most striking image came at the beginning, in Don Giovanni’s study, where a wall of portraits of him in red, lined the walls. (Culture Vulture)

During the overture, you see Don Giovanni’s study, where a painter, who emerges briefly from behind a huge easel, is painting the Don. Hung on the walls of the study are more than a dozen portraits of the roué in different poses, clothed in the same brocaded dressing gown. Perhaps these paintings are intended to keep Don Giovanni youthful forever, but he, of course, will be dead by the end of the opera.

So they serve to emphasize his narcissism and self-regard, as well as set up another association. The portraits, particularly the full-length one in progress during the overture, resemble John Singer Sargent’s Dr. Pozzi at Home. (Pozzi was a notorious womanizer whom Sargent painted in 1881, exhibiting the portrait the following year at London’s Royal Academy). Yannis Thavoris’s moody sets look great and make scene transitions comparatively easy. Walls radiating from a central point swing to reveal various outdoor scenes, the hotel lobby, and Don Giovanni’s study. (San Francisco Classical Voice)

Barlow’s choice to situate Mozart’s opera through Wilde’s lens thus makes for a fun visual experience. (Santa Fe Reporter)

The scenic and costume designs by Yannis Thavoris, traditionally elegant and sophisticated for the period and highlighted by sweeping skirts and stylish top hats, allowed for both the graceful and dramatic movements characteristic of each individual role. (LA Opus)

The staging (…) was ingeniously conceived as a piece of stagecraft. The set consisted of two very large panels, hinged at the back of the stage, which could be swung to one side or the other revealing the opera’s varied locations: the grand hotel where Donna Elvira stayed, Donna Anna’s room, the pub where Zerlina and Masetto were to be married, and a succession of nocturnal outdoor spaces; the panels could also be pulled apart, transforming the stage into Don Giovanni’s residence, where the conclusions of both acts took place. The fluidity of the stage set-up allowed for pronounced changes of scene without disrupting the flow of the music. (MundoClasico.com)