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THE SERIAL SEDUCER
His romantic conquests are so numerous, his sidekick needs a whole aria to list them! But when a father stands between him and the woman he's attempting to seduce, Giovanni murders him and finds himself haunted by the man's ghost. Yet in his moment of judgment, the Don stands unrepentant.
From its spine-tingling first chord to its final bars, Mozart's take on Don Juan, the charismatic anti-hero, is considered by many to be the greatest opera of all time. Charles Gounod, the composer of Faust, called it "a work without blemish, of uninterrupted perfection."
This bold, inventive production, originally created for New York City Opera, was praised by The New York Times as “dark, erotic and vividly theatrical . . . striking, insightful.”
Sung in Italian with English projections above the stage.
Please note: DON GIOVANNI contains adult content and sexual situations.
Cast
| Donna Elvira | Mary Dunleavy |
| Donna Anna | Stefania Dovhan |
| Zerlina | Sandra Piques Eddy |
| Don Ottavio | Jonathan Boyd |
| Don Giovanni | Daniel Okulitch |
| Leporello | Jason Hardy |
| Commendatore | Harold Wilson |
| Masetto | Nicholas Nelson |
| Stage Director | Christopher Alden |
| Conductor | George Manahan |
Total running time is approximately 3 hours, 30 minutes.
ACT I
Seville, 1600s. At night, outside the Commendatore's palace, Leporello grumbles about his duties as servant to Don Giovanni, a dissolute nobleman. Soon the masked Don appears, pursued by Donna Anna, the Commendatore's daughter, whom he has tried to seduce. When the Commendatore himself answers Anna's cries, he is killed in a duel by Giovanni, who escapes. Anna now returns with her fiancé, Don Ottavio. Finding her father dead, she makes Ottavio swear vengeance on the assassin.
At dawn, Giovanni flirts with a high-strung traveler outside a tavern. She turns out to be Donna Elvira, a woman he once seduced in Burgos, who is on his trail. Giovanni escapes while Leporello distracts Elvira by reciting his master's long catalog of conquests. Peasants arrive, celebrating the nuptials of their friends Zerlina and Masetto; when Giovanni joins in, he pursues the bride, angering the groom, who is removed by Leporello. Alone with Zerlina, the Don applies his charm, but Elvira interrupts and protectively whisks the girl away. When Elvira returns to denounce him as a seducer, Giovanni is stymied further while greeting Anna, now in mourning, and Ottavio. Declaring Elvira mad, he leads her off. Anna, having recognized his voice, realizes Giovanni was her attacker.
Dressing for the wedding feast he has planned for the peasants, Giovanni exuberantly downs champagne.
Outside the palace, Zerlina begs Masetto to forgive her apparent infidelity. Masetto hides when the Don appears, emerging from the shadows as Giovanni corners Zerlina. The three enter the palace together. Elvira, Anna and Ottavio arrive in dominoes and masks and are invited to the feast by Leporello.
During the festivities, Leporello entices Masetto into the dance as Giovanni draws Zerlina out of the room. When the girl's cries for help put him on the spot, Giovanni tries to blame Leporello. But no one is convinced; Elvira, Anna and Ottavio unmask and confront Giovanni, who barely escapes Ottavio's drawn sword.
ACT II
Under Elvira's balcony, Leporello exchanges cloaks with Giovanni to woo the lady in his master's stead. Leporello leads Elvira off, leaving the Don free to serenade Elvira's maid. When Masetto passes with a band of armed peasants bent on punishing Giovanni, the disguised rake gives them false directions, then beats up Masetto. Zerlina arrives and tenderly consoles her betrothed.
In a passageway, Elvira and Leporello are surprised by Anna, Ottavio, Zerlina and Masetto, who, mistaking servant for master, threaten Leporello. Frightened, he unmasks and escapes. When Anna departs, Ottavio affirms his confidence in their love. Elvira, frustrated at her second betrayal by the Don, voices her rage.
Leporello catches up with his master in a cemetery, where a voice warns Giovanni of his doom. This is the statue of the Commendatore, which the Don proposes Leporello invite to dinner. When the servant reluctantly stammers an invitation, the statue accepts.
In her home, Anna, still in mourning, puts off Ottavio's offer of marriage until her father is avenged.
Leporello is serving Giovanni's dinner when Elvira rushes in, begging the Don, whom she still loves, to reform. But he waves her out contemptuously. At the door, her screams announce the Commendatore's statue. Giovanni boldly refuses warnings to repent, even in the face of death. Flames engulf his house, and the sinner is dragged to hell.
Among the castle ruins, the others plan their future and recite the moral: such is the fate of a wrongdoer.
— courtesy of Opera News
The Making of Don Giovanni
"Mama, mama...thats real music."
— Charles Gounod when he first heard Don Giovanni
E.T.A. Hoffmann called it “the opera of all operas.” Certainly, the opera has fascinated audiences, musicologists, philosophers, and actors for 225 years. Such longevity longs for explanation, especially since the libretto has been described as “imperfect in conception, a miscarriage as a drama, defective in important features” (Robert Craft). But Mozart blessed it with some of his greatest music—savagely beautiful, funny and tender all at the same time—so it endures and thrives, as lively in the imagination today as it was at its premiere in Prague some 200 years ago.
The subject matter helps. The lascivious Don predates the concept of the Marquis de Sade’s “libertine” (1. One who acts without moral restraint, a dissolute person. 2. One who defies established religious precepts; a free thinker) by 150 years. A study of the artistic interpretations of Don Juan (on whom Giovanni is based) would read like a philosophical and religious history of Europe. Each artist to interpret Don Juan casts him in a different light, breathing new motivations into his personality, each using him—or justifying him—in a way which legitimizes the contemporary point of view. For Molière, he was a slothful, shallow aesthete, ruined by a lavish lifestyle, untouched by external restrictions—a salient metaphor for the excesses of the Sun King’s court. A 17th century English version of Don Juan philosophized that desire is from nature and nothing natural can be bad, ergo all actions are justifiable based on desire (which stems from nature). Therefore the 30 murders he has committed (including patricide) prior to the action of the play are justifiable homicide. The deadly logic of Don Juan in this incarnation underscores the fatal flaw of 17th century Empiricism.
Today, everyone thinks they know Don Juan. Ask a passerby on the street to define “Don Juan” and most will reply with some variant of “a ladies’ man.” Men admire him and women fantasize about him. The richly dangerous, multi-faceted, beguiling figure has become a rakish version of Casanova. But scholars know differently. They know too much to be comfortable with the charming rascal interpretation—throughout his literary life, Don Juan has been a much darker character, a manipulator, liar, seducer (rapist?), obsessively claiming women, not always with pleasure. There is charm and wit, true, but something dark and broken as well. The literary Don Juan attracts and repels in equal measure.
Don Juan as we recognize him made his debut in 1630 in a play by a Spanish friar and playwright, Tirso de Molina, though in truth, there were many precursors and hints to this character starting as early as Ovid. What Tirso did was to persuasively reflect the concerns of his time by linking religious consequences to the carnal actions of the licentious seducer. Tirso’s comedy, El burlador de Sevilla y convidado de piedra (The Trickster of Seville and the Stone Guest), outlines much the same story that Mozart and Da Ponte tell. Tirso’s is a morality play warning against atheism. El burlador was never considered “important” during the friar’s lifetime, despite having birthed an archetype, but it laid the foundations for greater playwrights than he, and planted the seeds of French, Italian and English Don Juans, each familiar to Da Ponte when he sat down to create Don Giovanni.
Don Juan became a favorite stock character of Italy’s commedia dell’arte, where he devolved into a selfish brute, entirely at the mercy of his relentless sexual appetite. Undoubtedly, Da Ponte knew the commedia’s interpretation of Don Juan, as well as Molière’s, Goldoni’s and Tirso’s plays too. He certainly borrowed from all of the Don’s incarnations, most notably from another opera which opened a mere nine months before Mozart’s Prague premiere. This opera, Don Giovanni Tenorio, o sia Il convitato di pietra, was written by composer Giuseppe Gazzaniga and librettist Giovanni Bertati. It goes without saying that their opera was eclipsed by Mozart’s, but Da Ponte owes them much. Da Ponte’s libretto follows theirs closely, sometimes borrowing scenes verbatim. Da Ponte, of course, added a few touches of his own, most notably comic flourishes.
Don Giovanni is certainly funnier than any of its predecessors. In this opera, there is some question as to whether Giovanni is ever entirely successful in his romantic endeavors, and his conquest of Donna Anna is an open question. Here, Giovanni is a bit of a cipher as well. His mystery owes to Mozart’s shifting musical characterization. Giovanni becomes a mirror of his prey, by turns gallant or charming, persuasive, frenetic, desperate, dissolute, resolute or brave. The score leaves us questioning who Giovanni is in himself. It is this score with its ambiguities that saves the opera from becoming a burlesque.
As in all of Mozart’s operas, the women are the clearly-drawn individuals, even if the men are props like Don Ottavio, stock characters like Leporello (though Leporello offers some interesting dichotomies himself) or archetypes like Giovanni. Of all of these women, Donna Anna inspired the Romantics the most—at least as much as the Don himself. E.T.A. Hoffmann argued that had she come into Don Giovanni’s life in time to save him, she would have been his true love. (She didn’t and she wasn’t.) Hoffmann assumed that because Donna Anna clearly is reluctant to wed her fiancé, Ottavio, after Giovanni’s assault and her father’s death, that she is in love with the Don. Feminist theorist Liane Curtis points out that it could just as easily mean that after surviving these traumatic events, she had simply outgrown Ottavio’s somewhat earnest love.
Modern audiences, however, find more satisfaction in Donna Elvira, dismissed by 19th century Romantics as a somewhat pathetic figure trailing after Giovanni like a proactive Miss Havisham. Rather, Elvira protects the other women in the opera, especially Zerlina, by interrupting Giovanni’s seductions, warning the others that he is a deceiver, and revealing to Donna Anna that he is her assailant. Once she joins forces with Anna, Ottavio, and Zerlina, she is ever-present and clever. She foresees Giovanni’s doom and even tries to forestall it with her warnings. Her position as a noblewoman and her seduction and abandonment by Giovanni offer her more moves on the chessboard of the opera than either her younger counterpart, Anna, aided (and hampered) by Ottavio, or the peasant girl, Zerlina. Elvira has power and range and is a worthy foil for Giovanni, capable of great depth of feeling, as evinced in her opera seria style arias.
And what of young Zerlina, tempted on her wedding day? It is easy to dismiss her as a minor, comic player, all too willing to succumb to Giovanni’s wiles, especially in relation to the formidable operatic goddesses Anna and Elvira. Though both of them have their social status to inure them somewhat from the effects of Giovanni’s seductions, Zerlina has only her own sexual wiles to stave off the potential disaster wrought by Giovanni’s attentions. She is endangered in a very real way. Though Giovanni doesn’t threaten her life, her ability to live happily with her husband, Masetto, is threatened, and her ability to live as a member of her society is in peril, too. Should Masetto reject her, what recourse would she have as a “spoiled” woman in her time and place? Very little. So if Zerlina uses her own powers of seduction upon Masetto to smooth the path to happiness and security for them both, there is little to compare with Giovanni’s game-playing.
One of the characteristics of a great work of art is that it offers enough depth for future generations to find relevance and meaning in it for their own time. Modern analysis of his operas was hardly on Mozart’s mind when he was commissioned by the opera house in Prague to write a comedy in 1787. Prague was eager to repeat the success of The Marriage of Figaro, and Mozart was anxious to oblige. Clearly, the librettist had to be Da Ponte. The subject must have appealed to him. He was a close friend of Giovanni’s spiritual brother, Casanova, and had quite a reputation as a romantic rogue himself. But he was busy. Da Ponte was also already at work on two other libretti—one for Salieri and one for Martín, in addition to his duties to Emperor Josef in Vienna. As an imperial employee, he was obligated to let the Emperor know what he was doing and the Emperor, in his characteristically paternal way, was reluctant to allow him to write three libretti at once. Da Ponte convinced him, saying, “I shall write in the evenings for Mozart, imagining that I am reading the Inferno; mornings I shall work for Martín and pretend I am studying Petrarch; my afternoons will be for Salieri—he is my Tasso!” For two months, Da Ponte worked 12 hours a day, dandling a young muse who fed and entertained him in fine Giovanni-esque style. After 63 days Mozart’s and Martín’s libretti were complete and Salieri’s was near completion. This Herculean task diminishes somewhat when we realize that only one of these libretti was wholly original. Martín’s was merely a translation and Mozart’s was a “re-write,” albeit with some additions. Still, this tremendous output is impressive.
Meanwhile, Mozart was at work on the music. There were some peculiar limitations with which he had to work. The cast had to be small—Prague was a modest company with limited means. The Commendatore and Masetto were both the same bass at the Prague premiere. While he knew many of his singers from the Prague Figaro, it is possible he was writing blind for the tenor, which was not his custom. Nevertheless, he and Da Ponte churned out Don Giovanni like professionals.
This professionalism is important to remember. Most great artists are not thinking of posterity when they write. Mozart and Da Ponte certainly were not. “They were working for an immediate success, a job well done, performers well satisfied, and perhaps some performances elsewhere … they regarded their work as ephemerally as today any journalist does.” (William Mann). It is easy for modern listeners and interpreters to forget that, at the time, they were just working artists. This reality makes Giovanni’s failure in Vienna more understandable.
After a very successful opening in Prague, Don Giovanni was taken to Vienna. Mozart even adapted his opera for Viennese audiences, but according to the Emperor, it proved “too much for the teeth of my Viennese.” (To which Mozart is reported to have muttered— one assumes under his breath—“Then let them chew on it.”) The Emperor himself grew bored. When given in Italy, the Italians resented having to work so hard to “get” it. The Italian prima donna sneered, “I can understand nothing of this cursed music.” She was not alone. Although Mozart’s music was always attractive and masterful, it was often on the “cutting edge,” and Don Giovanni, with its shifting dance meters in the first act finale and its unprecedented harmonic language, was more than many of Mozart’s contemporaries could comprehend. Though its action was popular, its music was not particularly loved in Mozart’s lifetime.
It would take the Romantic movement to embrace Don Juan as the standard bearer of independent thought and action for the opera to achieve immortality. Through the richness of the characters and the sublimity of Mozart’s music, Don Giovanni will never leave us, offering each generation the opportunity to be seduced by whichever mask of Don Juan as is most relevant for us to insist he wear. For in the end, Don Juan lives for his audience, be it one woman or the whole world. He will be whatever we choose, as long as we respond. And respond we do. Every time.
— Alexis Hamilton
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)
 | "Neither a lofty degree of intelligence, nor imagination, nor both together go to the making of genius. Love, love, love, that is the soul of genius.” —Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is arguably the greatest musician the world has ever known. With his most influential contemporaries of the classical period, Haydn and Beethoven, he brought the classical style to its height, and only he wrote successfully and prodigiously in all of the musical genres known at his time. Mozart was born in Salzburg, Austria, on January 27, 1756. He began studying the harpsichord early, taught by his father, Leopold, an eminent musician in his own right. He taught himself some of the pieces in his sister’s music books at four years old. The boy possessed a phenomenal capacity to assimilate everything taught to him. At age six, Mozart’s father began to tour him to the various music centers of Europe as a child prodigy performer. Often “tested” by prominent musicians in each of the cities he toured, the child Mozart was never known to be wrong. He could, blindfolded, name any note played on the piano. He remembered that family friend, J. A. Schachtner’s violin was tuned an eighth tone lower than his own, and once he picked up a second violin part and played it perfectly at sight. At that time, Mozart had never taken a violin lesson. Expanding on his prowess as the performing child prodigy, Mozart began to compose. He wrote minuets when he was five, a sonata at seven, and a symphony at eight. In Vienna, in 1768, the Austrian Emperor commissioned him to write an opera, but the work Mozart composed, La finta semplice (The Pretend Simpleton), was not presented because the artists at the opera house refused to participate in an opera composed by a child! He was only 12 years old. Mozart continued to compose a great variety of musical compositions as he matured, all of his work demonstrating exceptional genius. But as he became an adult, the public became less fascinated with him as a performer, and his genius as a composer was not yet recognized. During his life, his critics always felt his music to be “audacious, too highly flavored … too complex for the average listener to follow.” As a result, he always had to struggle to support himself and his family. The operatic works which achieved the greatest success at their premieres, The Marriage of Figaro and Don Giovanni, were written with librettist Lorenzo da Ponte. The third product of this collaboration, Così fan tutte, was considered a failure in its own time but enjoys considerable popularity in opera houses around the world today. In addition to myriad pieces for the concert platform, Mozart completed 25 works for the stage, including serenatas, intermezzi, operettas, comedies and plays with music. He was the first to create important operas employing texts set in the German language: The Abduction from the Seraglio and The Magic Flute. His Italian operas (written in collaboration with da Ponte) have influenced the composition of music written for the stage ever since. Mozart continued his awesome creative output in spite of poverty and failing health. He died in Vienna on December 5, 1791, at the age of 35. Much rumor and intrigue surround the circumstances of his death. Today, Mozart’s influence and genius are undisputed. Waves of Mozart scholarship flood us with available information and interpretation. Luckily, we need only listen to the wonderful sweetness and humanity of his music to know his brilliance first hand in its purity. |
| Mary Dunleavy — Donna ElviraSopranoPreviously at Portland Opera: Pamina, The Magic Flute (2007); Adina, The Elixir of Love (2002); Susanna, The Marriage of Figaro (1996) |
 | Mary Dunleavy — Donna ElviraSopranoPreviously at Portland Opera: Pamina, The Magic Flute (2007); Adina, The Elixir of Love (2002); Susanna, The Marriage of Figaro (1996) American soprano Mary Dunleavy continues to receive critical and popular acclaim for her performances with many of the world's leading opera houses and orchestras.
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| Stefania Dovhan — Donna AnnaSopranoPortland Opera Debut
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 | Stefania Dovhan — Donna AnnaSopranoPortland Opera Debut The Ukrainian-American soprano Stefania Dovhan was born in Kyiv, Ukraine. At the age of five, Dovhan began taking piano lessons, and sang in the Youth Choir at the Kyiv State Conservatory. She began her formal vocal training in the USA at the Baltimore School for the Arts with Joice Hubbard. Miss Dovhan holds degrees from the University of Maryland College Park (Martha Randall – vocal coach) and the Augsburg Academy of Music in Germany (Prof. Dr. Jan Hammar – vocal coach). Stefania Dovhan is a recipient of numerous Performing Arts Scholarships and awards: in 2010 she became the recipient of the Richard F. Gold Career Grant; the first prize in the Emmerich Smola Competition – one of the highest prizes for young singers in Europe; the finalist of the Placido Domingo Operalia Competition in Paris (France), the Hans Gabor Belvedere International Singing Competitionin in Vienna (Austria) and the Alexander Girardi International Singing Competition in Coburg (Germany). The winner of the local and regional National Association of Teachers of Singing competitions; the Gold Medalist in the year 2000 Rosa Ponselle “Young Classical Singers” competition; third prize winner of the International Vocal Competition for Operatic Artists in Bulgaria. During the 2004/2005 season Dovhan was a member of the International Opera Studio in Nuremberg and since 2005 she has been engaged at the Theater Hagen, Germany, where she is critically acclaimed for such roles as Violetta in “La Traviata,” Gilda in Verdi’s “Rigoletto,” Adina in Donizetti’s “L’Elisir d’Amore,” Cleopatra in Handel’s “Giulio Cesare” and others. In the Sumer of 2009 Dovhan enjoyed her very successful North American debut in the titel role of Gustav Charpentier’s “Louise” at the Spoleto Festival USA 2009. In the Fall 2009 Stefania Dovhan made her critically acclaimed role/stage debut as Mozart’s Donna Anna in “Don Giovanni” on the stage of the New York City Opera. In the Spring 2011 Miss Dovhan returned to this company in the role of Adina in Donizetti’s “Elisir d’Amore. Her future engagements include Musetta for the Royal Opera House in London, Marguerite for the Baltimore Lyric Opera, Violetta, Gilda and Donna Anna for the Badisches Staatstheater in Karlsruhe. http://www.stefaniadovhan.com/
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| Sandra Piques Eddy — ZerlinaMezzo SopranoPreviously at Portland Opera: Hansel, Hansel and Gretel (2010) |
 | Sandra Piques Eddy — ZerlinaMezzo SopranoPreviously at Portland Opera: Hansel, Hansel and Gretel (2010) Mezzo-Soprano Sandra Piques Eddy has been praised by the Boston Globe as “a charismatic mezzo with future star written all over her.” The New York Times agrees claiming “The brightest sparkle belonged to Ms. Piques Eddy, a swan-necked mezzo with fine technique, a range of colors from honeyed to bright and charm to burn.” Her winning combination of beautiful tone, artistic sensitivity, and superlative stagecraft have served to make Ms. Eddy one of North America’s most highly acclaimed singing actresses.
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| Jonathan Boyd — Don OttavioTenorPreviously at Portland Opera: Candide, Candide (2012); Jacquino, Fidelio (2008); Tamino, The Magic Flute (2007); Sam Kaplan, Street Scene (2005)... |
 | Jonathan Boyd — Don OttavioTenorPreviously at Portland Opera: Candide, Candide (2012); Jacquino, Fidelio (2008); Tamino, The Magic Flute (2007); Sam Kaplan, Street Scene (2005) Tenor Jonathan Boyd continually performs throughout Europe, North America http://www.jonathanboyd-tenor.com
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| Daniel Okulitch — Don GiovanniBass BaritonePortland Opera Debut
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 | Daniel Okulitch — Don GiovanniBass BaritonePortland Opera Debut Canadian bass-baritone Daniel Okulitch has performed in some of the most prestigious opera companies and orchestras throughout Europe and North America, including Paris, La Scala, Teatro Colon, Dallas, Washington, and Los Angeles. He is lauded as much for his powerful stage presence and dramatic abilities as for his "focused, resonant bass-baritone that he wields with power and sensitivity" (NJ Star-Ledger). His signature roles show a dedication to both old and new works, including the title role in Don Giovanni and Le nozze di Figaro, Joseph DeRocher in Dead Man Walking and Olin Blitch in Susannah. "Okulitch was a dynamic and effective stage presence; he almost stopped the show the first time he strode on stage and sang his opening notes ... by far the most developed and projecting singer in the cast." ( NewJersey Star-Ledger).
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| Jason Hardy — LeporelloBassPortland Opera Debut
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 | Jason Hardy — LeporelloBassPortland Opera Debut Of Jason Hardy‘s debut with New York City Opera in Acis and Galatea, Opera News remarked that the role of Polyphemus was “brilliantly played.” In his return to New York City Opera, he gave a highly-acclaimed performance as Leporello in their new production of Don Giovanni. In the 2011-12 season, Jason once again performs Figaro in Le nozze di Figaro with Michigan Opera Theater and sings the dual roles of Grandpa George/Mr. Beauregard in The Golden Ticket with the Atlanta Opera. This past season, he made his debut with Madison Opera as Figaro in Le nozze di Figaro, returned to the Atlanta Opera as Don Alfonso in Così fan tutte, and sang Basilio in Il barbiere di Siviglia with the Bar Harbor Music Festival. Upcoming engagements include his reprise of Leporello in Don Giovanni with Portland Opera, Don Magnifico in La cenerentola with Nashville Opera, and Figaro in Le nozze di Figaro with Arizona Opera. In concert he was seen with the Richmond Symphony for Handel’s Messiah, Bach’s Mass in b minor with the Atlanta Sacred Chorale, Mozart’s Requiem and Bach’s Cantata #106 with the Handel Choir of Baltimore. Jason’s most recent operatic engagements include the title role in Le nozze di Figaro with Opera Cleveland, Opera Omaha, and Opera Birmingham, the Speaker in Die Zauberflöte with Atlanta Opera, Cadmus and Somnus in Semele with Florentine Opera, a return to Connecticut Opera as Leporello in their production of Don Giovanni, and Colline in La bohème with the Nashville Opera. He was also recently seen in recital under the auspices of the Marilyn Horne Foundation, and in concert for Verdi’s Requiem in Prague and Haydn’s Creation in Montreal with the Berkshire Choral Festival, and for Stravinsky’s Les Noces with the New York City Ballet and the Los Angeles Philharmonic. http://jasonhardy.net
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| Harold Wilson — CommendatoreBassPortland Opera Debut |
 | Harold Wilson — CommendatoreBassPortland Opera Debut American bass Harold Wilson begins the 2011-2012 season as Prince Gremin (Eugene Onegin) with Madison Opera, returns to the Metropolitan Opera to cover Angelotti in Tosca and sings Beethoven’s 9th Symphony with the Greensboro Symphony. Future seasons bring his debuts with Portland Opera and Opera Company of Philadelphia, and a return to the Metropolitan Opera.
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| Nicholas Nelson — MasettoBassPreviously at Portland Opera: Soloist in the Big Night Concert (2012); 2nd Officer / Sailor / Water / Slave Driver / Crook, Candide (2012); Pope Urban VIII / Cardinal Barberini / Simlicio, Galileo Galilei (2012); Commissioner, Madame Butterfly (2012)... |
 | Nicholas Nelson — MasettoBassPortland Opera Resident ArtistPreviously at Portland Opera: Soloist in the Big Night Concert (2012); 2nd Officer / Sailor / Water / Slave Driver / Crook, Candide (2012); Pope Urban VIII / Cardinal Barberini / Simlicio, Galileo Galilei (2012); Commissioner, Madame Butterfly (2012); Soloist in the Big Night Concert (2011); Don Inigo Gomez in L’Heure Espagnole (2011); Armchair / Tree in L’Enfant et les Sortilèges (2011); Mandarin in Turandot (2011) Returning Resident Artist, bass baritone Nicholas Nelson has delighted Portland audiences for the past two seasons, most recently as 2nd Officer / Sailor / Waiter / Slave Driver / Crook, Candide (2012). Previous roles include Pope Urban VIII / Cardinal Barberini / Simplicio, Galileo Galilei, the Commissioner in Madame Butterfly (2012), Don Inigo Gomez in L’Heure Espagnole, Armchair / Tree in L’Enfant et les Sortilèges and Mandarin in Turandot (2011). Mr. Nelson made his debut with Tacoma Opera last season as Selim in Turk In Italy. Originally from Winthrop, Minnesota, Nelson attended the University of Minnesota as a student of Glenda Maurice. During his study, he performed the roles of Colline in La Bohème, Figaro in Le Nozze di Figaro, and Seneca in L'incoronazione di Poppea. He has twice won first place in the Schubert Club Scholarship Competition and has appeared in recital several times for the organization. In 2007, Nelson won First Prize at the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions in the Minnesota District
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| George ManahanConductorPreviously at Portland Opera: Don Giovanni (2012); Big Night Concert (2012); Big Night Concert (2011); The Barber of Seville (2010); Così fan tutte (2010); Rigoletto (2009); Rodelinda (2008); Macbeth (2006). |
 | George ManahanConductorPreviously at Portland Opera: Don Giovanni (2012); Big Night Concert (2012); Big Night Concert (2011); The Barber of Seville (2010); Così fan tutte (2010); Rigoletto (2009); Rodelinda (2008); Macbeth (2006). In his second season as Music Director of the American Composers Orchestra, the wide-ranging and versatile George Manahan has had an esteemed career embracing everything from opera to the concert stage, the traditional to the contemporary. In addition to his work with ACO this season, Mr. Manahan continues his commitment to working with young musicians as Director of Orchestral Studies at the Manhattan School of Music as well as guest conductor at the Curtis Institute of Music.
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| Chrisopher AldenDirectorPreviously at Portland Opera: Turandot (2011); The Flying Dutchman (2007) |
 | Christopher AldenDirectorPreviously at Portland Opera: Turandot (2011); The Flying Dutchman (2007) For the past three decades, Christopher Alden has been busy producing opera around the globe, consistently committed to keeping the art form challenging and vital. Mr. Alden opened the 2010-2011 season with Bernstein's A Quiet Place for the New York City Opera, followed by Lully's Phaeton for the Staatstheater Saarbrücken. This winter, he directs Turandot for the Portland Opera and then returns to Opera Australia to mount his production of Handel's Partenope. In England he then directs Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream for the English National Opera and Turandot at the Welsh National Opera. Last season's highlights include his highly acclaimed Don Giovanni at the New York City Opera, Tosca for his Opera Australia debut , Der fliegende Holländer for the Canadian Opera Company, and a brilliant new production of Les contes D'Hoffmann for the Santa Fe Opera. In recent seasons Mr. Alden has also produced Handel's Partenope at English National Opera in London (which received the prestigious Olivier Award for Best UK opera production of 2008/09), The Makropulos Affair at the Prague National Theater in the Czech Republic, Mozart's La clemenza di Tito for the Chicago Opera Theater, Salome at the Saarländisches Staatstheater in Saarbrücken, Monteverdi's Orfeo at Glimmerglass Opera, Die Entführung aus dem Serail for the Basel Opera, Elliot Carter's What Next? at the Miller Theatre (in celebration of Mr.Carter's 100th birthday), Verdi's Nabucco at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein, Aïda for the Deutsche Oper Berlin and Monteverdi's Orfeo in Oslo. Born in New York City, Mr. Alden began his professional career with Joseph Papp's New York Shakespeare Festival, appearing in the Tony Award winning rock musical, Two Gentlemen of Verona. After apprenticing in opera as assistant to Jean-Pierre Ponnelle in Houston, Paris and Salzburg, he first attracted international attention with his own productions through his ground-breaking work with the Long Beach Opera. Beginning with an acclaimed Death in Venice in 1982, he subsequently directed Rossini's The Barber of Seville and Il turco in Italia, Monteverdi's Orfeo, The Coronation of Poppea and The Return of Ulysses, Offenbach's La vie parisienne and Barbe-bleue, in addition to Eugene Onegin, The Abduction from the Seraglio, the original version of Ariadne auf Naxos, Don Carlo, The Rape of Lucretia, the world premiere of Stewart Wallace and Michael Korie's Hopper's Wife and The Threepenny Opera . Throughout the ‘80's, Mr. Alden also served as Associate Director of Opera at the Academy, a non-traditional training center for opera singers, where he directed innovative productions of Dido and Aeneas and La vie parisienne. Mr. Alden has worked with the most distinguished companies in the United States. For The Dallas Opera he directed Der fliegende Hollander, Le nozze di Figaro and Wozzeck, while his work with Houston Grand Opera includes stagings of La Traviata, Madama Butterfly and the world premiere of Wallace and Korie's Harvey Milk . For The Washington Opera he directed L'incoronazione di Poppea and created a new I Capuleti ed i Montecchi starring Tatiana Troyanos. In Chicago he directed a new production of Rigoletto for Lyric Opera, as well as co-directing, with his twin brother David Alden, Le nozze di Figaro, Così fan tutte, and Don Giovanni with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra under Daniel Barenboim. Mr. Alden has maintained particularly close relationships with several American opera companies. His history with San Francisco Opera includes new productions of Les contes d'Hoffmann, L'incoronazione di Poppea, I vespri siciliani, Thomson's The Mother of Us All, Harvey Milk and the American premieres of Reimann's Ghost Sonata and Henze's Das verratene Meer. He made his New York City Opera debut in 1979 with Rossini's Le comte Ory, which he had previously staged for Opera Theatre of Saint Louis and The Santa Fe Opera. For New York City Opera and Glimmerglass Opera, Christopher Alden has created productions of L'italiana in Algeri, Sousa's The Glassblowers, The Rape of Lucretia and The Mother of us All. Mr. Alden returned to Glimmerglass to direct Offenbach's Barbe-bleue .and Handel's Imeneo. He has staged multiple works for New York's Eos Orchestra, including the Jonathan Dove reductions of Das Rheingold and Die Walkure, Mahler's Songs of a Wayfarer and Das Lied von der Erde, and Stravinsky's L'histoire du soldat and Renard. In 2001, he directed Gotham Chamber Opera's inaugural production, Mozart's Il sogno di Scipione, and returned in 2005 to stage Handel's Arianna in Creta. For Pittsburgh Opera, Mr. Alden has produced Hansel and Gretel, Der fliegende Hollander and Le nozze di Figaro. He has also worked closely with Opera Omaha, where he has staged new productions of La traviata, Aïda, Rigoletto, Madama Butterfly, Don Pasquale and The Barber of Seville. Mr. Alden has enjoyed great success with L'Opéra Français de New York, where his collaborations with Yves Abel included Poulenc's Les mamelles de Tirésias and La same de Monte Carlo, Offenbach's La grande duchesse de Gerolstein, Orfee aux enfers and La Perichole, Chabrier's L'étoile, and Gounod's La Colombe. Mr. Alden's long and varied career has included many more directorial engagements in North America: Hansel and Gretel and Stewart Copeland's Holy Blood and Crescent Moon for Fort Worth Opera; Anthony Davis' Tania in its world premiere at Philadelphia's American Music Theater Festival; Don Pasquale, Count Ory and Le nozze di Figaro for Opera Theatre of Saint Louis; La Traviata and Il barbiere di Siviglia for Michigan Opera Theatre; La bohème, Don Giovanni, La Navarraise, and Djamileh for Connecticut Grand Opera; Don Giovanni with Seattle Opera; La Boheme for Los Angeles Opera; Così fan tutte with Wolf Trap Opera; Carmen, The Mikado and a double bill of A Water-Bird Talk and The Medium for the opera companies of Syracuse, Memphis and Indianapolis; Cavalleria rusticana and I Pagliacci for Opera Columbus; Luisa Miller and Gluck's L'ile de Merlin for the Spoleto Festival USA; Lucia di Lammermoor for Boston Lyric Opera; La Cenerentola for Minnesota Opera; Der fliegende Holländer for the Canadian Opera Company; and Count Ory and The Beggar's Opera for The Santa Fe Opera. Christopher Alden has also enjoyed great success in his work overseas. He made his European debut in 1980 directing Don Giovanni in Basel. In the United Kingdom his production of Turandot , first created for the Welsh National Opera in 1994, has since been seen at Scottish Opera (where he also staged the world premiere of David Horne's Friend of the People ) and English National Opera (where he directed The Makropulos Case, conducted by Sir Charles Mackerras, in 2006). For Opera North, Mr. Alden's success with a new Tosca was followed by his productions of Monteverdi's Orfeo, and half of the award-winning Eight Little Greats season, La vida breve, Djamileh, Pagliacci and Rossini's L'occasione fa il ladro. Mr. Alden also directed Idomeneo at the Grand Théâtre de Genève, La fanciulla del west and L'étoile for Opera Zuid in the Netherlands, Il trovatore for de Vlaamse Opera in Antwerp, Madama Butterfly in Bilbao, Bizet's Djamileh with Opera de Lyon, and a triple bill of Bizet's Djamileh , Le Docteur Miracle, and Don Procopio with the Opéra Comique in Paris. The 2002-2003 season took him twice to Germany, where he directed Cavalleria rusticana and Pagliacci for Cologne Opera, and a new production of Carmen for the Mannheim National Theater. With The New Israeli Opera, Mr. Alden has directed La Traviata, Madama Butterfly, Cavalleria rusticana, and Pagliacci. For the Greek National Opera, he produced a double bill of Falla's La Vida Breve and Dallapiccola's Il Prigionera.
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Don Giovanni Production Montage
The footage in this video was captured during a dress rehearsal.
Opera Insights: Don Giovanni
Is Don Giovanni comic or tragic? What are the source materials for the opera? Who was the librettist? What can be learned about the singers who originated the roles? What else did Mozart compose while he worked on Don Giovanni? What notable recordings exist?
Take a 10 minute break and explore these topics with our Resident Historian & Lecturer Bob Kingston. You can learn more at Bob Kingston's Opera Insights lectures, held one hour prior to each production in the first balcony.
Listen to the Music
Christopher Mattaliano introduces DON GIOVANNISorry, flash is not available.
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Musical excerpts used courtesy of EMI Classics.
Schedule
Nov 2, 2012
Friday 7:30 pm
Friday 7:30 pm
Nov 4, 2012
Sunday 2:00 pm
Sunday 2:00 pm
Nov 8, 2012
Thursday 7:30 pm
Thursday 7:30 pm
Nov 10, 2012
Saturday 7:30 pm
Saturday 7:30 pm