Belated Don Giovanni review

Mia and I have been to two of the three operas that Chicago Opera Theater is producing this spring. We'll go see Orlando next week but for now I'll give a long over due review of their production of Mozart's Don Giovanni (Diana Paulus, Jane Glover); the only Mozart opera produced in Chicago this season.

I'm sure that most of you have read Mia's reactions to the production, my reactions were not as violent, but I still think that they made some serious mistakes. The production was set in what appears to be a strip club that Don Giovanni owns, this means that the stage was full of hot writhing girl bodies essentially constantly. One of the problems here was that the chorus played the strippers -- let me tell you -- aspiring opera singers: not great pole dancers. Not that I have a basis of comparison really.

The first mistake in my mind was the portrayal of Donna Anna's rape. She was masked and in the club, and the way it was staged (sparkly golden curtain, lots of laughter) made it seem complicit. The only place that you see something is going wrong is that Don Giovanni removes her mask (and therefore her honor?) but not his own. We're also not clear as it happens that the man who defends her is her father. You really think that he's another lover, or her pimp or something. Honestly, what is a father doing in a club with is daughter anyway? Either way it leaves the audience with out the pity and heart break that they are supposed to feel for Donna Anna. The woman was raped and then her father was killed by the man who raped her. Of course she's messed up! Here however she just comes across as whiny because we don't get the magnitude of what happened.

The second mistake I think they made is related to my comment about the dancing girls: they were alway on stage. There was just too much going on at all times, I needed fewer things happening so I could focus. During Leporello's aria listing the Don's conquests, they had girls holding numbers. Really this sort of gimmick added nothing and just cluttered the stage.

The third mistake I thought they made was in the casting of Masetto. He was just too good looking, you don't really get why Zerlina goes off with this creepy older fellow. Masetto should be cast as sort of bumbling and foolish. Here he was certainly hot headed, but handsome enough to forgive.

Finally I want to have a discussion of the ending. I don't count the ending as a mistake. Normally after the Don descends to hell all of the characters sing about how those who are evil get what's coming to them and are joyous because they are rid of a terrible influence in their lives. In this production all of the characters are singing and the police are investigating and they come and handcuff all who were trying to prove that the Don was an evil guy. He certainly was, but as they're arrested you have to pause remind yourself that none of the characters have been particularly "good" in their actions. I liked this. Then the curtain to the upper part of the stage is lifted and you see Don Giovanni hanging, covered in blood with a ball gag in his mouth. So you're left wondering, what was the falling to hell scene? Did they all band together and murder him in a sick and twisted way and the commodore taking him to hell was what? At that point it was just too much visual stimulus. There had been too many negative sexual tropes and too much violence for the audience to be shocked out of their seats. It was almost insult to injury at that point.

So the ending was well thought out but poorly executed. In fact I would say that this is my analysis for the entire show, except for the Donna Anna thing, that was poorly thought out.

Dear Work Computer;

It is my sad duty to inform you that we are no longer friends. Our relationship started out as a hopeful one, full of promise, these hopes were, however, swiftly dashed.

Our relationship has been tenuous, to say the least, for quite some time, but today really signaled the end of all favorable efforts on your part.

Normally I deem it unnecessarily cruel to list the short coming of whose who I am, or have been close to, however it seems best -- so you know just where we went awry -- for me to mention them in no uncertain terms.

I have two chief complaints: The first being your persistent refusal to find local wireless internet to which to connect. This would be understandable if I brought you to remote locations, however not finding wireless in my own home is simply offending. The second and greater complaint is of your frequent and inexplicable need to go blank in the midst of doing something. Today alone this occurred three times, and you never give any explanation. I have noticed that this happens after the system hibernates, but that is what you were designed to do.

All this to say that I will no longer defend your actions. They are unprovoked and unnecessary. I hope that we are able to continue working together in a productive fashion and that we both can work on our professional attitudes towards the other.

Regards;
Miss Emblies

some kind of sample

I was reading an interesting article in the NYTimes yesterday about the six different tribes of bacteria that live on the insides of your elbows. It was all information that didn't surprise me, but was interesting to read about. According to the article the type of bacteria that lives there is fairly consistent from person to person. Again interesting but not shocking. I then read that this person's sample size was five people. (If I misunderstood the article the rest of this post is completely worthless).

Five people? Your sample size was only five people. Surely you know more than five people who wouldn't mind having a swab of their inner elbow taken. Wouldn't you want more samples before stating something about the consistency of the type of bacteria tribes from person to person?

wouldn't you want to know if someone half way around the globe has the same bacteria growing on them? I think that would be interesting to find out. All of this isn't that hard.

Anyhow this discovery is part of a larger project to find out what bacteria live in the human ecosystem, which is very cool.

Monkey Journey to the West

This seems really cool.

yes it's an opera.

yes the site is beautiful.

yes, the composer's one of the guy's behind the Gorillaz.

I'm pretty excited by the entire concept! Now to get to the Spoleto festival to see it...

doesn't it seem awesome?

I think it's kind of ridiculously awesome

Encore!

There was a time in history that, if the audience demanded it, a diva or divo would sing a stellar aria again, even if it were in the middle of an opera. In fact there are cases where they would repeat the piece three or possibly four times if desired.

This has fallen out of favor in most opera houses as they have been trying to be more conscientious about performance practice, and try to give an upper hand to stage craft and telling a story. Many opera houses have gone so far as to ban the practice, and it has gotten to the point that the audience would not even think to demand/expect an encore. In fact I rarely even hear "encore!" or "bis!" yelled after an aria. Some times a "bravo!" or "brava!" but never the former two.

However it is still done! Monday at the Met it was in fact planned for (which is necessary if you're going to pull it off). Again Juan Diego Florez has taken opera stardom and stepped it up to where it once was! I love it! (I'm also still bummed about not seeing him this year at the Lyric, so I can see what the fuss is about)

I'm excited to see a small return to the feeling that opera should be thrilling, because it should be! Scholarship is great, and makes us better musicians, and creates better performances, and respect of the work of a whole is noble. But we mustn't get too stuffy!

The rules...

This week is Passover, which is one of my favorite holidays of the year. I find it to be the most meaningful, and has the best present day traditions as well. I won't go into more that that now, but I'm sure I could.

I was in the grocery store yesterday, picking up some things for dinner and there at the little kosher for Passover table I picked up and looked at a box of Kosher for Passover brownie mix. I was looking at the ingredients, the normal things that you would expect, matzah meal instead of flour, potato starch, chocolate....sodium bicarbonate....wait.

Sodium Bicarbonate? That's leavening. That is leavening. Sodium bicarbonate is baking soda, who's purpose is to make your brownies fluffy. So clearly (in my mind at least) it is strictly off limits for anything that is Kosher for Passover.

When did the rules become, no grain products rather than no leaven foods. To me eating brownies with sodium bicarbonate in them ever if they are made with matzah meal made under the strictest rabbinical direction just doesn't make any sense! It's some giant loop hole that just doesn't add up.

So you have to sit down and think about why we don't eat leaven food during Passover. The Jews left Egypt in haste, and had not the time to let their bread rise and to commemorate this we don't eat bread with leavening. "For seven days no yeast is to be found in your houses. And whoever eats anything with yeast in it must be cut off from the community of Israel, whether he is an alien or native-born. Eat nothing made with yeast. Wherever you live, you must eat unleavened bread." (Exodus 12:19-20)

OK looking at this it strictly says nothing with yeast. But is also says unleavened. To be fair baking soda was not a prevalent factor in Biblical times, but its purpose is solely leavening (and cleaning?), so in my mind it's definitely out. It is very interesting to me that the rules have sort have been distorted to nothing with grain in it unless the grain was matzah first.

Are we really trying to re-create the experience of wandering in the desert? if so I can think of a lot of food we would not eat: Brisket, Matzah ball soup, etc...Also in the desert if they found (at an oasis) wild rice, they clearly would have eaten it. We don't stop eating leaven food to punish ourselves, but to be conscious for an entire week of the Passover story, and what God did for the Jewish people. I guess that perhaps eating mediocre brownies from a box made with matzah meal might make someone conscious of this as well. But really. It's just a week. Eat ice cream for dessert, though they certainly did not have that in the desert.

what!? I can't hear you!

check out this article from today's NYtimes.

It's strange to think about musician's in an orchestra having to worry about their hearing. It makes sense. I've stood behind the horn section in concerts and even that's loud, but as many of the musicians point out, ear plugs or screens make playing incredibly hard.

I guess this article brings up the same confusion in me that the idea that the delicious chocolate smells in Chicago are pollution. I mean it's delicious smelling, but I guess that if it were another less delicious smell as strong in the neighborhood, people would be up in arms about pollution.