Don Giovanni is “Byronic Hero” in Peabody Production Directed by Brunyate
Vordoni is Guest Conductor for Peabody’s Return to The Lyric, Nov. 16 and 18
PRESS CONTACT ONLY:
Margaret Bell
410-234-4525
m.bell@jhu.edu
Richard Selden
410-234-4526
rselden1@jhu.edu
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 13, 2012, Baltimore, MD: The Peabody Opera Theatre will present the Mozart-Da Ponte masterpiece Don Giovanni, its second production at the Patricia and Arthur Modell Performing Arts Center at The Lyric, on Friday, Nov. 16, at 7:30 pm; and Sunday, Nov. 18, at 3:00 pm.
The stage director for the production, sung in Italian with English supertitles, is Roger Brunyate, who headed Peabody's Opera Department for more than three decades. The Peabody Symphony Orchestra will be led by guest conductor Leonardo Vordoni, a former member of the Metropolitan Opera staff.
Don Giovanni is the Italian version of Don Juan, a centuries-old synonym for womanizer. The character first appeared in literature in El burlador de Sevilla y convidado de piedra (The Trickster of Seville and the Stone Guest), written by 17th-century Spanish poet, dramatist, and monk Tirso de Molina. The opera was first performed in Prague 225 years ago, in 1787. (It is believed that 18th-century “Don Juan,” Giacomo Casanova—whose name has become another synonym for womanizer—was in the audience.)
The libretto, by Lorenzo Da Ponte, who also collaborated with Mozart on The Marriage of Figaro and Così fan tutte, treats serious subjects—attempted rape, murder, and abandonment, for example—with a complex blend of broad humor, spectacle, and subtle emotion.
Act 1, Scene 1, includes a heartbreaking duet between Donna Anna and her father, the Commendatore, who has been fatally stabbed by Don Giovanni while defending his daughter’s honor. However, the next scene includes a comic tally of Don Giovanni’s conquests by his Sancho Panza-esque servant Leporello: 640 in Italy, 231 in Germany, 100 in France, 91 in Turkey, but, in Spain, so far, 1,003 (“già mille e tre”).
At the same time, the opera is a profoundly religious work, according to Brunyate, who calls Giovanni ”agnosticism personified.” Following the lead of Sir Peter Hall, former director of Britain’s National Theatre, Brunyate’s production places Giovanni as “an existentialist ahead of his time, a rebel figure, a Byronic hero,” moving the action to the early 19th century and using sets, designed by Luke Hegel-Cantarella, that create a “deliberately off-kilter framework.”
Eight students from the Peabody Conservatory, the degree-granting division of the Peabody Institute of The Johns Hopkins University, will appear in both performances. Don Giovanni will be played by Jeffrey Gates, a Graduate Performance Diploma candidate studying with William Sharp. The other cast members are: HuanHuan Ma, a Graduate Performance Diploma candidate studying with Phyllis Bryn-Julson, as Donna Anna; Alexandra Razskazoff, a junior studying with Stanley Cornett, as Donna Elvira; Janna Critz, a Master of Music candidate studying with Sharp, as Zerlina; Halim Shon, a Master of Music candidate studying with Cornett, as Don Ottavio; Jeffrey Martin, a Master of Music candidate studying with Steven Rainbolt, as Leporello; Seonghyeon Park, a Master of Music candidate studying with Rainbolt, as Masetto; and Alex Rosen, a junior studying with Sharp, as the Commendatore.
The Modell Performing Arts Center is located at 140 West Mount Royal Avenue. Tickets to Don Giovanni are $25 and $35. For tickets, visit lyricoperahouse.com.
# # #
About the Peabody Institute of The Johns Hopkins University
Located in the heart of Baltimore’s Mount Vernon Cultural District, the Peabody Institute was founded in 1857 as America’s first academy of music by philanthropist George Peabody. Today, Peabody boasts a preeminent faculty, a nurturing, collaborative learning environment, and the academic resources of one of the nation’s leading universities, Johns Hopkins. Through its degree-granting Conservatory and its community-based Preparatory music and dance school, Peabody trains musicians and dancers of every age and at every level, from small children to seasoned professionals, from dedicated amateurs to winners of international competitions. Each year, Peabody stages nearly 100 major concerts and performances, ranging from classical to contemporary to jazz, many of them free — a testament to the vision of George Peabody.
