Nearly Perfect

A reshowing of an Metropolitan Opera simulcast I missed last October was at noon today -- not exactly what one expected to be doing on a lovely late June Wednesday afternoon -- but nothing I could have done would have been more perfect.  I've seen a few Don Giovannis and never quite understood who was who and why they were doing what they were doing.  Today I really got it.

For my tastes this was a near perfect production; it had very good subtitles, the music is wonderful although I'd have wished some arias were shortened as they were all repetition but that's what music was like in Mozart's time.  The casting, costuming, acting and stage directions were as nearly perfect as I could hope for.  Most of the voices were wonderful.  The Don and his servant Leparello where really wonderful actors as well as singers, the women finally came across as distinct individuals. The set was simple and appropriate and didn't call attention to itself as too many new sets do -- I don't go to opera for architecture.  This was a level of operatic production that was satisfying in every way.  I can't say that about all the new Met productions.  In the next month the theatre will show Tales of Hoffman and then Lucia diLamamour both  of which have music I like more than this actually.  I've seen the Lucia and liked it but the production values didn't seem as fine.  I'm looking forward to Hoffman which I haven't seen in a Met production.  Summer opera is a treat even if it messes up my eating schedule.  The picture above is the Mariusz Kwiecien, Don Giovanni, who I had never seen before -- I couldn't ask for a better one, he rarely looked so serious.