Original image of Salzburg, Austria, by There Stands the Glass.
Excusing my extended silences when conversation turns to mass media, friends feel obliged to explain to others that I don’t watch television. It’s not entirely true, but listening to music and reading books are among my preferred forms of home entertainment. Full-length videos of operas are the exception to the rule.
Opera Ballet Vlaanderen’s minimalist production of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s 1787 opera “Don Giovanni” is the most recent of the hundreds of opera productions I’ve viewed on YouTube in recent years. And unlike my frustrating experience with “Porgy and Bess” at Muriel Kauffman Theatre last week, hearing is not a sometime thing at my home theater.
Stylish and loaded with a talented cast, the Dutch interpretation of “Don Giovanni” enthralled me. Mozart’s music, needless to say, is divine. The unnecessary coda excepted, “Don Giovanni” is perfect. Still, I’d steer anyone unfamiliar with the tale of rape, murder, vengeance and damnation to a different version.
Outbursts like the hilariously bacchanal “Fin ch'han dal vin”- better known as the champagne aria- may not make sense without a conventional stage set. Joseph Losey’s visually stunning 1979 screen adaptation leans into the opera’s sinfulness, but it lacks subtitles and is incomplete..
Kansas native Samuel Rainey stars in a grainy 35-year-old staging at the Metropolitan Opera, but English subtitles aren’t available. That’s why I suggest uninitiated viewers begin their appreciation of “Don Giovanni” with a 1954 star-studded production or a 2001 rendering featuring the wonderful Cecilia Bartoli.
Not knowing what I’m missing, I’m not in a position to disparage the media consumption of others. I’m deliriously happy with my unjustly underappreciated indulgence of choice. For the remainder of my life I intend to be intoxicated by the champagne supernova of streaming opera videos.