Met's new "Don Giovanni' in HD Live

In this age of complaints about "class warfare" and widening gaps between the "top one percent" and the rest of us, Don Giovanni takes on new meaning.

This was made clear at the opera's High Definition telecast to movie theaters through the forceful portrayals of the servant, Leporello, by Luca Pisaroni, and the peasant Masetto by Joshua Bloom. They were angry, as they had every right to be.

"Those at the top feel they can do anything without repercussion." Is that what I just heard on the Sunday morning talk shows, or were those the words of Mozart and Da Ponte's peasants? "You can never trust an aristocrat" is Masetto's line. "I know that great lords seldom have good intentions," says Masetto's intended bride Zerlina.

Throughout the opera, the libretto stresses the inequalities in society and the privileges that the wealthy enjoy. Da Ponte's words carry on where he left off in The Marriage of Figaro one year earlier: Just as Figaro chafed under the hubris of his employer, Count Almaviva, so does Leporello resent Don Giovanni's arrogance.

With smart use of the darker colors in their voices, Pisaroni and Bloom vigorously expressed the anger of the working class. As the Don, Marius Kwiecien's good looks and smooth voice made clear why he was able to bed so many women: He told them just what they wanted to hear, and did so in seductive tones, as in "La ci darem le mano" to Zerlina and his soft serenade to Elvira's servant.

Mr. Cellophane

But in this performance all three leading women were too placid, and so was the tenor: Ramon Vargas as Don Ottavio sang with melting legato and impressive breath control, but his persona was bland and his involvement with the other characters was non-existent. He might as well have been singing a vocal recital. This non-interpretation is a disservice to one of the most enduring theater works of Western civilization.

Mojca Erdmann, as Zerlina, was wan of voice and bereft of personality. Here is a character who should be a spitfire, willing to cheat on her fiancé with Don Giovanni. Then, when reconciling with Masetto, she has an aria asking him to beat her, pull her hair and put his fingers in her eyes because she enjoys rough sex. None of this passion came through in Erdmann's performance.

Considering the earthiness of that character, when the Academy of Vocal Arts presented this opera earlier this year, Zerlina's role was assigned to Chrystal E. Williams, a mezzo. Not only did Williams sing nicely; the deeper color of her voice rendered her character stronger. By contrast, Erdmann at the Met displayed a small and light voice.

Marina Rebeka, as Donna Anna, is a beautiful woman with a plangent sound. She sang her two arias with fluency, but she could have used more thrust and fire.

Barbara Frittoli, as the supposedly desperate Donna Elvira, was a major disappointment. Elvira sings the words "Don't trust that traitor" and "I'm furious with him," but Frittoli seemed just mildly annoyed.

Falling chandeliers

When this production premiered at the Met in October, most journalists criticized the traditional but unimaginative staging by Michael Grandage, the British director who runs London's influential Donmar Warehouse. Most of the scenes are played before a wall of houses with tiers of balconies stretching across the stage. On the telecast, this setting was mitigated by TV director Barbara Willis Sweete's use of close-ups, allowing the audience to focus on the players' faces and feelings.

Late in the first act, chandeliers drop down and the stage becomes a brightly lit party scene, which enlivened things. The conclusion of the opera—where Don Giovanni confronted the statue of the Commendatore whom he murdered and was dragged to hell while flames enveloped the stage— looked good, too.

Fabio Luisi replaced the injured James Levine as conductor of this production. He maintained steady, flowing tempi and good balance between singers and orchestra.