Opera: Don Giovanni
Sep. 10th, 2009 11:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
narcasseToday while channel surfing I stumbled upon the 2006 Karina Fibich production of Don Giovanni. It was a version produced with modern costumes and a really wonderful, stark backdrop. I don’t normally enjoy modernised productions of anything and while the costuming was in keeping with the modern slant it wasn’t anything spectacular, but when it came to the set it really was a thing of wonder. The set was stark white with sets of rotating white doors or entrance ways and for something so minimalist it actually created a magnificent visual due to its starkness.
The music was par for the course with Mozart and I certainly don’t have much to contribute there but story-wise it’s interesting. I hadn’t seen Don Giovanni before but it is one of those operas I’ve heard of so I sat down to half-watch it while I did something else. In some ways Don Giovanni could be considered an antidote to the redemption of Tannhäuser: where Tannhäuser is saved by repentance and, presumably, the prayers of his devout Catholic beloved, Don Giovanni rejects the possibility of redemption both by itself and through Donna Elvira’s love for him. Don Giovanni is a villain who glories in his self-indulgent actions regardless of the cost to others: Tannhäuser on the other hand doesn’t do much other than praise licentious love over the purer sort, though there’s a dose of blasphemy in there too.
What’s interesting about Don Giovanni is that when he’s offered redemption, first by earthly means then by supernatural ones he still throws it back in the respective parties’ faces. He’s unrepentant through and through, mocking both human mercy and divine justice right up until the point at which he’s physically dragged down into Hell. Of course the moral there is that the villain gets his comeuppance because as the operatic line goes "Such is the end of the evildoer: the death of a sinner always reflects his life". Don Giovanni certainly pays for his transgressions but he’s unrepentant to the last and once upon a time I might have thought that there was some nobility to that. He does after all cleave to his principles no matter how much those principles harm everybody else around him and even to the end, staring disaster in the face, he still refuses to repent. He’s true to his character till the last and yet, in this instance that actually is anything but laudable.
Why Don Giovanni’s actions, his adherence to his own belief system, aren’t laudable is something that I probably wouldn’t have understood years ago. He walks right into the arms of damnation refusing to compromise it seems and usually staying true to yourself is the lauded virtue. But not in this case. Because Don Giovanni’s principles aren’t even useful to himself, they’re pointless, petty desires that in the end prove his undoing. By rejecting redemption on any level he doesn’t hold true to any real inner principle of self but rather fails to grasp an action that would lead to his own betterment. In that sense Don Giovanni is a good example of the stubborn desire not to grown or develop, he doesn’t stand for anything other than arrested development, a purposeful desire not to improve. After all it’s one thing to uphold a principle but it’s another entirely to cling to an actively damaging belief system.
Of course the point would be that Don Giovanni himself either doesn’t realise that his behavioural pattern is damaging or if he does, is still determined to hold on to his actions due to pride. Either situation leads to the same equally damaging behaviour resulting in damnation nevertheless. And in the version I watched today there seemed to be an equally substantial tone of disbelief in Don Giovanni’s actions which might further explain his adherence to what he’s always known rather than taking the leap into the unknown and with it salvation.
Don Giovanni is an interesting piece with a fairly straightforward moral. I’m still not entirely sold on the idea of modern costumes because it takes some of the mystery and fantasy away from these sorts of productions but suffice to say I happened upon this product at around the right time for me to actually grasp some necessary distinctions. Character is destiny and this piece is a good illustration of why inflexibility of behaviour and belief isn’t anything like upholding beneficial principles in the face of adversity. If the behavioural set you uphold starts to become damaging it’s foolishness to cling to it when you have the chance to grow and adapt, and if you do refuse that growth then it’s your own fault when you set yourself on the path to damnation.
The music was par for the course with Mozart and I certainly don’t have much to contribute there but story-wise it’s interesting. I hadn’t seen Don Giovanni before but it is one of those operas I’ve heard of so I sat down to half-watch it while I did something else. In some ways Don Giovanni could be considered an antidote to the redemption of Tannhäuser: where Tannhäuser is saved by repentance and, presumably, the prayers of his devout Catholic beloved, Don Giovanni rejects the possibility of redemption both by itself and through Donna Elvira’s love for him. Don Giovanni is a villain who glories in his self-indulgent actions regardless of the cost to others: Tannhäuser on the other hand doesn’t do much other than praise licentious love over the purer sort, though there’s a dose of blasphemy in there too.
What’s interesting about Don Giovanni is that when he’s offered redemption, first by earthly means then by supernatural ones he still throws it back in the respective parties’ faces. He’s unrepentant through and through, mocking both human mercy and divine justice right up until the point at which he’s physically dragged down into Hell. Of course the moral there is that the villain gets his comeuppance because as the operatic line goes "Such is the end of the evildoer: the death of a sinner always reflects his life". Don Giovanni certainly pays for his transgressions but he’s unrepentant to the last and once upon a time I might have thought that there was some nobility to that. He does after all cleave to his principles no matter how much those principles harm everybody else around him and even to the end, staring disaster in the face, he still refuses to repent. He’s true to his character till the last and yet, in this instance that actually is anything but laudable.
Why Don Giovanni’s actions, his adherence to his own belief system, aren’t laudable is something that I probably wouldn’t have understood years ago. He walks right into the arms of damnation refusing to compromise it seems and usually staying true to yourself is the lauded virtue. But not in this case. Because Don Giovanni’s principles aren’t even useful to himself, they’re pointless, petty desires that in the end prove his undoing. By rejecting redemption on any level he doesn’t hold true to any real inner principle of self but rather fails to grasp an action that would lead to his own betterment. In that sense Don Giovanni is a good example of the stubborn desire not to grown or develop, he doesn’t stand for anything other than arrested development, a purposeful desire not to improve. After all it’s one thing to uphold a principle but it’s another entirely to cling to an actively damaging belief system.
Of course the point would be that Don Giovanni himself either doesn’t realise that his behavioural pattern is damaging or if he does, is still determined to hold on to his actions due to pride. Either situation leads to the same equally damaging behaviour resulting in damnation nevertheless. And in the version I watched today there seemed to be an equally substantial tone of disbelief in Don Giovanni’s actions which might further explain his adherence to what he’s always known rather than taking the leap into the unknown and with it salvation.
Don Giovanni is an interesting piece with a fairly straightforward moral. I’m still not entirely sold on the idea of modern costumes because it takes some of the mystery and fantasy away from these sorts of productions but suffice to say I happened upon this product at around the right time for me to actually grasp some necessary distinctions. Character is destiny and this piece is a good illustration of why inflexibility of behaviour and belief isn’t anything like upholding beneficial principles in the face of adversity. If the behavioural set you uphold starts to become damaging it’s foolishness to cling to it when you have the chance to grow and adapt, and if you do refuse that growth then it’s your own fault when you set yourself on the path to damnation.
