DON GIOVANNI

BY W.A. MOZART & LORENZO DAPONTE

Mozart’s great opera has many scenes and diverse locations and moves rapidly through less than 48 hours. Debates abound over whether it should be performed seamlessly on a unit set or with changes to depict the specific scenes that DaPonte’s libretto demands.

I had designed Don Giovanni once before, utilizing a unit set mainly because of time and budget demands. This time, the director, Lou Galterio, and I decided on the latter approach, determined to maintain the flow and speed of the former. We were faced with the many challenges of the Santa Fe Opera stage, long and wide and with the backstage wall opening to reveal the spectacular desert landscape. I came up with an unusual approach utilizing an elevator located all the way upstage and intended for freight, not for stage effects. Scenic units arrived onstage in full view of the audience via the elevator, moved downstage, often to a turntable where they could rotate to reveal new facets. Then they either broke apart to exit through wings or moved back upstage to the elevator, only to be replaced by new units. I designed the Statue and the church (units that required height) so they could be stored compactly and raised by means of a pneumatic mechanism once they emerged from the low-ceiling of the wing space to the open stage. This all allowed for a much more fluid production than the limited stage had previously been able to offer.

The moving and changing elements of the set were framed by an arrangement of wings that I described as the Corridor to Oblivion, a succession of classical architecture and termines, half columns and half statues. The opening scene with the murder of the Commendatore, takes place in the early morning hours, so we opened the stage to the half-light of dusk in the desert behind the grilles that established the residence of Donna Anna and her father. The singer portraying Don Giovanni made effective use of the grillwork, clambering over it like a jungle gym, to emphasize the character’s exuberance and immaturity.

There were numerous transformations in full view of the audience. A unit depicting a fountain in Giovanni’s garden with erotic statuary revolved to reveal the first banquet scene with a raised platform for the onstage band and two smaller units for the other bands. Another revolving unit rotated to depict different facets: street scenes as well as Donna Elvira’s house, complete with upper storey window and street-level door.

The most spectacular effect was provided by the portal that formed the entrance to Don Giovanni’s house and dining room where he met the Stone Guest. Once the Statue condemns Don Giovanni to death, the portal is transformed into a Hell Mouth with blood red eyes. From the gaping mouth, a death cart drawn by harpies and Don Giovanni’s female victims rolls on. As the portal splits apart, the harpies drive Giovanni to Hell through a stage trap. The violent scene ends as rapidly as it began, leaving an empty stage for the final chorus of the surviving principal characters.