Coming Soon,
Kasper Holten's Don Giovanni
As the Royal Opera House's current season draws to a close, I was very pleased to hear yesterday that one of my personal highlights will be released on DVD (courtesy of Opus Arte) this autumn: I enjoyed Kasper Holten's new production of Don Giovanni so much when I saw it in February that I'm already gearing up to book for the 2015 revival!
Starring Mariusz Kwiecien as the titular anti-hero, this Giovanni boasts a particularly riveting cast, with Malin Byström (Anna), Véronique Gens (Elvira), Elizabeth Watts (Zerlina) all outstanding as the women and Italian bass Alex Esposito a complex, compelling Leporello.
The opera was broadcast on BBC Four in April, and transfers quite brilliantly from stage to screen - in fact I appreciated the magnificent, shape-shifting sets by Es Devlin (who designed the Royal Opera's breathtaking Les Troyens in 2012) and ingenious video-projections by Luke Halls far more on TV than I had done from my vantage-point in the lower slips!
Holten certainly doesn't play safe with this Giovanni - the downplaying of the supernatural, and in particular the controversial depiction of the three female characters was the subject of some heated discussion in reviews and on social media - but it genuinely made me feel that I was seeing an opera which I thought I knew very well for the first time. The production's devastating final image is still seared on my memory months later: I won't give away any spoilers, other than to say that I found it infinitely more terrifying than the usual hellfire.
Watch a trailer here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fT9wfcBKpJw
Other productions by Kasper Holten
Holten's first production as director the Royal Opera House (a role which he took over in 2011) stars Krassimira Stoyanova and Simon Keenlyside as Pushkin's star-crossed lovers and tells their story in flashback, using dancers to portray the characters' younger selves.
Available Format: DVD Video
Klaus Florian Vogt and Camilla Nylund are luminous leads in this 2010 production from the Finnish National Opera Korngold, Holten's direction was praised for its 'wonderfully creepy' (The Guardian) evocation of the 'Dead Town' of the title, whilst BBC Music observed that 'He allows the drama...to shine'.
Available Format: 2 DVD Videos
Other recordings starring Mariusz Kwiecien
Some long-term readers of mine may recall my enthusiasm for this recital of Slavonic rarities when it came out in 2012; Kwiecien is a glorious advocate for little-known operas by Dvorak, Moniuszko, Smetana and others, and is particularly arresting as Szymanowski's King Roger - a role which he'll sing in a new production by Holten at Covent Garden next May.
Available Formats: MP3, FLAC
Kwiecien took on another of opera's dissolute playboys at the Metropolitan Opera last year, appearing opposite Anna Netrebko's Tatyana in Deborah Warner's production of Eugene Onegin - International Record Review noted that he 'plays the cad well', whilst the New York Times praised his singing as 'volatile and exciting'.
Available Format: 2 DVD Videos
Katherine Cooper - Head of Editorial
