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12 out of 14 people found the following review useful: A multi-level reading of a complex opera, 27 August 2005 Author: Rosabel from Ottawa, Canada
A fascinating film that seems to be operating on several levels at once. It was hard for me sometimes to just listen to it as an opera, because I felt that there were so many messages being imparted through the sets, landscape and especially the extras who continually move about the scene as the main characters sing and act their stories. Others have observed that the common people are present everywhere, and yet just ignored by Don Giovanni; he even conducts his attempted seduction of Zerlina with half a village standing on the steps and watching. As an aristocrat, he doesn't even acknowledge the existence of these underlings, and can do what he wants without worrying about their opinion or their interference. Nor is this just the behavior of a bad man; Don Ottavio is much the same during one of his arias (I think it is 'Il mio tesoro') when he is walking about declaiming as peasants dot the lawn, taking their afternoon siesta. Perhaps the point is not so much to accuse anyone of being deliberately cruel, as to underline how absolutely divided the aristocracy is from the common people. Not only do the aristocrats ignore the commoners, the commoners seem to be pretty oblivious to the aristocrats, too. No matter what Don Giovanni gets up to, the work of the peasants just goes on - he may wander down to the kitchen once in a while to give a little speech and pinch a serving wench, but it makes very little difference to anyone if he's present or not. The whole of this society seems as artificial and fragile as Don Giovanni's lace sleeves; this is a world that is almost at the limit of its ability to hold together under the weight of its contradictions.Ruggero Raimondi is a terrific Don Giovanni - handsome, graceful and charming, but with a hardness in the line of his mouth and his eyes that creates a very disturbing feeling of danger. Zerlina, though attracted, seems to sense that there is something wrong about him, though she isn't quite sure where to attribute the feeling of fear he inspires in her. Teresa Berganza was my favorite of the 3 main ladies; Edda Moser seemed very grim after her opening scene, and Kiri Te Kanawa reminded me irresistibly of Madeleine Kahn in "Young Frankenstein", especially with that tall silver-powdered hairdo. The silent servant played by Eric Adjani was another one of the puzzles that I felt this movie kept posing me. He seems to be a younger version of Don Giovanni, and one who is present almost as Don Giovanni's spirit, when the actual man is not there. During moments of crisis, he almost always watches Don Giovanni, not the action that is taking place outside him, and only Don Giovanni seems to really look at him. In the finale, he is almost like Banquo's ghost, sitting in Don Giovanni's chair until the master confronts him, and when the Commendatore's statue appears, Don Giovanni almost seems to bid him goodbye as he passes. I think the servant is Don Giovanni's conscience, the age when Don Giovanni, as a young man, cast him off and turned to evil. Now he follows him like a ghost of himself, observing but unable to influence.
8 out of 10 people found the following review useful: My favorite, 11 October 2001 Author: Lanwench from New Yawk City
This is a wonderful film, the only non-stage performance I've ever seen of this incredible opera. I saw it a million years ago in college and have probably watched it a dozen times over the years. Raimondi is demonically compelling as the Don, wicked, handsome, sardonic, and Van Dam plays off him as Leporello just wonderfully, balancing humor and pathos. Riegel's Ottavio is just as he should be, a humorless square, and Te Kanawa soars as Elvira. My only casting complaint is with Moser as Anna; she sounds very shrill. I liked the hint that perhaps Anna was, despite appearances, actually quite attracted to the Don as well; her protestations to the lumpish Ottavio that she thought it was actually he who'd come to her bedroom didn't persuade (and frankly, I've always wondered why he was such a putz as to buy it). The settings are lush and lovely, including Palladio's Villa Rotonda. Of course some of the lip-syncing is off a bit, but that's to be expected. I also eagerly await a day when this film is available on DVD.
6 out of 7 people found the following review useful: Cinema marries opera, 11 May 2001 Author: valadas from Caldas da Rainha, Portugal
To make a movie based on an opera is a different thing from filming an opera on stage. Cinema and opera are 2 different forms of art each one with its specific techniques. Nevertheless one can be at the other's service and if the match is excellent the merits of them both will be enhanced. That's what happens with this excellent movie where we can enjoy Mozart's music and the singing talents of such extraordinary artists like Kiri Te Kanawa and others besides a lot of gorgeous and dynamic movie images, sceneries, shots and superb cut and editing. The plot everyone knows: the adventures and misadventures of D. Giovanni the king of philanderers of all times and a more or less disguised attack on aristocracy and its immoral behaviour. We are on the eve of the French Revolution and as everybody also knows Mozart was a freemason and a democrat.
4 out of 4 people found the following review useful: Enjoyable, 22 November 2007 Author: aaron-497 from United States
I enjoyed it very much. I'm fairly new to the whole wide world of opera but this was very entertaining. But what do I really comment on? Mozart's work, or the movie adaptation of it? Mozart of course is incredible. I love the opening scene, the closing scene and pretty much everything in between. My biggest problem, and I assume that this is true with opera in general is that once I passed the point that I had reached in familiarity from listening to a recording of it, the music was lost to me. I paid more attention to the words and what was going on in the plot than the music.As for the movie adaptation, aside from it being very strange to watch and listen to an opera written more than 200 years ago on my modern television, I found it enjoyable. Yes, the preceding comment is true that the expressions were exaggerated and more fit for a stage but I don't feel they were inappropriate either. As far as sets and costumes and quality, I have very little basis of comparison, as I have not seen it on stage, or any opera for that matter.In short, I found it to be very good, though I'm probably one of the very few sixteen year olds who would agree with that.
4 out of 4 people found the following review useful: Beautifully crafted film version, 28 January 2006 Author: Framescourer from London, UK
An inspired, if occasionally peculiar production, shot on location with a terrific cast. Raimondi's Don is an extraordinary conflagration of deceit and sexual magnetism, tourettish violence and charm; I watch the film assuming he's going to get away with everything (I once worked with a girl who had learnt the entire libretto in Italin from repeated viewings of this film alone at the age of 8, despite not speaking the language. She was reasonably addicted to the anti-hero).Losey undermines expectations though setting the opera in a (period) rural estate with the principals operating with urbane sensibility. Nothing is quite what it seems and the supernatural forces that begin to take hold are far from unexpected.Far from killing the operatic experience (as films are prone to do), Losey's film manages to set the drama free. Absorbing if not as menacing as its potential. 6/10
4 out of 4 people found the following review useful: The Greatest Don Giovanni Ever Made, 5 February 2005 Author: FloatingOpera7 from United States
*** This review may contain spoilers ***
Not only do we get a visual feast, but the singers are incredible, fleshing out the dramatic core of this opera and even delivering moments of genuine beauty and splendor. It stars Ruggero Raimondi as the seductive and sinister Don Giovanni, Edda Moser as Dona Anna, Kenneth Reigle as Don Ottavio, Jose Van Dam as Leporello, Kiri Te Kenawa as Dona Elvira, Teresa Berganza as Zerlina, Malcolm King as Masetto and John Macurdy as the Commandatore. In a minor/silent but seemingly important role as a servant in black is the youthful-looking Eric Adjani. The multiple dimensions of this film are too much to talk about but I will try to highlight some of them.First of all, Lorin Maazel as conductor is perfect. He brings out the dramatic content without sacrificing the melodic beauty Mozart wrote into the opera. The cinematography is gorgeous. It was shot in Venice (during the Overture we see the canals and opulent boats), Vicenza the countryside, crowned by Italian villas and palaces the Villa Rotunda is dismissed as a historic Italian landmark and becomes Don Giovanni's regal estate, and some indoors scenes were shot in the interior of the Olympic Theatre. Most of the movie is shot in fresh natural sunlight or moonlight. The powerful performances by the lead singers is extraordinary and each bring a colorful and individual portrayal. Ruggero Raimondi is a rare breed of "high" bass, capable of producing masculine chest voice but also a radiant, tenor-like top register. He is seductive but devilish in his portrayal. His eyes, especially, seem to give away his dark predatory soul. In Raimondi, we have one of the best Don Giovanni interpretations. He's lewd, he's lusty, he's murderous, he's a shameless libertine whose motto is "Viva La Liberta!" Long live liberty! The film has subtle symbolism and poetic imagery. For instance, during the Catalog Aria that Leporello sings to Elvira, he reads from a seemingly unending list in which the Don has written his conquests, a list that goes on and on, draping the stairs and rolling to the road toward the villa. During the Seduction duet "La Ci Darem La Mano" we briefly glimpse a huge Crucifix and we see a dog sleeping. These I took to represent the ethic and morals that Zerlina would compromise if she succumbed to the Don's passions- she would betray her Catholic faith by breaking her engagement with Masetto and being unfaithful unlike the faithful man's best friend the dog. Also, the Commandatore is evidently foreshadowing his vengeance on the Don as he is dying, when he is pointing at the Don.The complex Dona Ana' dilemma: she is possibly lusting after the Don and attempting to fight off her own desire for him and keep faithful to Ottavio. Whom is she mourning really when Don Giovanni is sent to Hell ? She is always claiming that she mourns her father's death but yet as soon as she hears that the Don has been sent to Hell, she postpones the wedding to Ottavio for another year. Very odd. Eric Adjani is the silent and mute strange servant in black. Who is this person ? Who's side is he on ? He is evidently one of the Don's many servants but during the Overture he is looking knowingly at Dona Ana as the fire furnace is being installed in the Don's home. Also, during the scary scene in which the Commandatore statue comes to dinner, this shady character shows no sign of being frightened and in fact one feels that he is in on it somehow, as if he is an avenging angel as well. He seems to have knowledge of something the audience doesn't know and his personage both opens and closes the opera literally as he closes the doors to the Don's villa.Edda Moser portrays a supremely dramatic Dona Anna. She is Wagnerian in her dynamic performance, a steely victim, a wronged woman who seeks revenge on a man we also feel she might possibly be attracted to, mainly because her fiancé, Kenneth Reigle's Ottavio, is so lackluster and dull. Now, I admire and love Kiri Te Kenawa in various other roles- she is the definitive heroine in Cappricio and perhaps even the most definitive Fiordiligi in Cosi Fan Tutte and a rather touching Countess in Figaro, but as Dona Elvira she lacks the fire and fury that is so vital to the role. Dona Elvira is the most Italianate heroine in the opera and she has arias and lines which focus on her feisty and fiery temperament. Kiri sings gorgeously but her emphasis is on the beauty and consequently comes off as too noble, too majestic and dignified. She should be outraged and obsessive, wanting more than anything to get back at Don Giovanni as well as to land him for herself. But Kiri does not show us any of this necessary dramatics.Teresa Berganza is an adorable Zerlina, cute and clever. Note how she is almost tempted to run off with the Don but wises up and decides to stay with her fiancé Masetto when she realizes Don Giovanni is a devil. Berganza is actually my first choice for the best Zerlina. Malcolm King, who is sexy as hell, is equally adorable as Masetto, especially when we see how jealous and easily provoked he is. Finally, Jose Van Dam as Leporello is quite good, especially because he's not just a loyal "idiot". He's in fact true to Mozart's concept of Leporello- a servant who is wiser than his master. Van Dam captures the noble spirit of Masetto, who is just a pawn to his master's schemes, but who on his own would definitely be on the side of the good guys.
5 out of 6 people found the following review useful: Exquisite, 12 November 1999 Author: Exile-5 from Canada
Sublime music and the filming on location in Vicenza -- Very well made adaptation of Mozart's masterwork. The settings create a visual feast to rival any operatic stage set. Although I did find Leporello a little dissapointing with its full comic potential not realised.
Breathtaking feast of music and cinema -- but no DVD, 21 June 2001 Author: johnswhitehead from United Kingdom
This is such an outstanding display of cinematic and operatic talent that it should be seen by anyone with any interest in either. It introduced me to opera when it came out so I am eternally grateful.I'm waiting for the DVD and check here regularly for news. I thought that it had finally arrived in Germany, judging from the display on the iMdb page. Alas, that seems to be a different animal altogether, so we're still waiting. I'll try to get them to fix the link.Who does one lobby to get a DVD released?
4 out of 29 people found the following review useful: Poorly done, 9 April 2004 Author: Sonlee
I think what really brings this down is the fact that it is an opera performed like an opera but filmed like a movie. Allow me to explain: movements and facial expressions are exaggerated, and it is painfully obvious with all the close-ups. Such exaggerated expressions may be all well and good when even the closest seats are a good 50 feet away, but when the face takes up the entire screen its just plain silly. In addition, although the filming locations were outstanding, some of the props were just plain pathetic (like the statue in the penultimate scene). It just seemed to lack sincerity and feeling. It's almost like they took people who could act/sing in an opera and then just transplanted them off stage and stuck a camera in front of them without any direction or allowance for the difference between film and stage. I have to admit, I was very disappointed by this, particularly after seeing the short segment of the Opera in the movie Amadeus.
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