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Whether you've seen "Don Giovanni" half a dozen times or not at all, director Kristine McIntyre is betting that her staging for Utah Opera will have a familiar feel.
Though Mozart's 1787 masterpiece is one of the more frequently performed operas nowadays, the director believes that reframing it as a '50s film noir offers 21st-century Americans an easier way in. When we see the Don's servant, Leporello, standing under a streetlight and wearing a fedora as the curtain rises, we think, "I know who that guy is," she said.
McIntyre is staging "Giovanni" as noir for the third time, having originated the idea for a Lyric Opera of Kansas City production two years ago.
"Film noir is a natural setting," she said. "It has great tropes — the femme fatale, the victim, the antihero — and it's visually stunning." Film buffs might recognize some of the stage setups in Utah Opera's "Don Giovanni" as direct homages to certain cinema classics. But "even if you don't know the films, you know the tropes," McIntyre said.
The opera shares other elements of noir: shadowy settings, a hint of the supernatural and the sense that "the moral order has been upended," she said. "Also, it's just fun to take older pieces we think we know and explore them in ways that energize our thinking."
"Don Giovanni," the second of three celebrated collaborations between Mozart and librettist Lorenzo da Ponte, follows the notorious womanizer on the worst, and final, day of his life. The opera opens with Don Giovanni being chased from Donna Anna's home by her father, the Commendatore, whom Giovanni kills in the ensuing struggle. The Don is accustomed to having his way with anyone who crosses his path, thanks to his wealth and station; this is the first time we see him being thwarted, but it's not the last.
Donna Anna and her fiancé, Don Ottavio, swear to bring the Commendatore's killer to justice. Donna Elvira, one of his hundreds of ex-lovers, also has a score to settle with him. (It's not too surprising that Elvira considers herself married to Giovanni — he spent an unheard-of three days with her.) Finally, the antihero has a run-in with a couple of newlywed peasants, Zerlina and Masetto, before the opera reaches its supernatural resolution.
"In the end, it is a parable about consequences," Utah Opera artistic director Christopher McBeth said. Don Giovanni must reckon with his misdeeds for the first time in his life.
"No one writes an opera about someone's normal day," said soprano Melinda Whittington, who portrays Donna Anna in Utah Opera's production.
The failures and frustrations of Don Giovanni's last day help the audience sympathize with him, however begrudgingly, said Joshua Hopkins, who will sing the title role. "You know he's a rogue, you know he's a scoundrel, he's someone you don't respect, but you don't see him succeed."
Like the classic noir antihero, Don Giovanni is "not particularly reflective," McIntyre said.
"In some ways, his arias are the least complex," said Christopher Larkin, who will conduct the singers and members of the Utah Symphony from the harpsichord.
"It's 'wham, bam, thank you, ma'am,' " said Hopkins, adding that revealing his character through recitatives, rather than emotion-filled arias, presents its own challenges.
Donna Anna, in contrast, "has incredibly complex arias with multiple key changes," Larkin said.
Many directors leave open the question of how consensual Anna's show-opening encounter with Giovanni really was. McIntyre wants to make it clear that his presence in her bedroom was unwelcome.
"As a performer, it is so, so nice to be able to take [Anna] at her word," Whittington said.
Casting the two leading women in the contrasting noir types of victim (Anna) and femme fatale (Elvira) helps differentiate their characters, McIntyre said: "Elvira becomes powerful; she has more sexual energy and is more of an equal to Giovanni." Anna, meanwhile, grieves gracefully in the model of Jacqueline Kennedy, Whittington said. All the characters, including the chorus, will be dressed in black-and-white period or period-inspired couture, much of it purchased in local vintage shops by McIntyre and Utah Opera costume director Verona Green. "Mozart wants a certain elegance," McIntyre said. —
Wine, women and song
Utah Opera closes its season with Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Lorenzo da Ponte's "Don Giovanni." The opera is sung in Italian, with Supertitles.
When • Opens Saturday, May 13, 7:30 p.m.; evening performances continue May 15, 17 and 19, with a 2 p.m. matinee May 21
Where • Capitol Theatre, 50 W. 200 South, Salt Lake City
Tickets • $21-$92; utahopera.org
Running time • Approximately 3 hours, including intermission
In a nutshell • Don Giovanni starts his day with murder and attempted rape, then must contend with an angry ex-lover. How long can the legendary libertine evade justice?
Note • Patrons with sensitivities to scents or smoke should be aware that herbal cigarettes will be smoked onstage.
Learn more • Principal coach Carol Anderson will lecture an hour before curtain, and artistic director Christopher McBeth will lead a Q&A after each performance, all in the Capitol Room on the theater's west side. Background reading at utahopera.org/onlinelearning.
On the screen • "Don Giovanni" stage director will speak about her film-noir inspirations at a free screening of two of those films Tuesday at the Salt Lake City Main Library, 210 E. 400 South. "Double Indemnity" screens at 4:30 p.m. and "Out of the Past" at 7, with McIntyre's remarks at 6:45.
Raise a glass • Eight Salt Lake City and Park City mixologists have created "Don Giovanni"-themed craft cocktails; imbibers can share on social media for a chance to win tickets. Details at utahopera.org/libations.