Don Giovanni

I have been in a rehearsal for my upcoming production of Don Giovanni with American Opera Group. It's a company out in Oak Park, IL. The production has been going through some ups and downs from the beginning but despite that, I myself and the whole cast have been having a great time working on this great work.

It's my third Mozart opera that I'm doing a main role, and at first I wasn't sure if I can pull off the Don knowing his character. Well, simply put, I'm not quite the "Don Giovanni" material in real life. But I feel that I have shed a new life on the legendary Libertine. This particular view I have taken has been working quite nicely, also thanks to my director and his kind sharing of my ideas and also his. I am quite enjoying the role for my first outing as the Don. Musically I have no problem since it is not as challenging or taxing(or so I feel) as Figaro, Count, Guglielmo or Don Alfonso, which are all the Mozart roles I have challenged thus far. The main challenge of being Giovanni is his inner person. Sadly in the opera, one can never really see him succeed in what he is well-known for. As he says himself in the middle of the first act; "Mi par ch'oggi demonio si diverta d'oppporsi ai miei piacevoli progressi... Vanno mal tutti quanti", "Today must have been cursed by the devil just for me so that I will not succeed in ANY of my business... Everything is going wrong". He gets almost all of his conquests foiled by several different people throughout the show. Even if he gets somewhat successful, one never really get to observe his art at it's best. You do get to hear him re-tell his tale to his faithful servant. Which Don tells with greatest pleasure.

I always saw this character one-dimensional for some reason. What you see on stage with him is quite simple, and one pattern. Quite frankly that gets boring... He LOVES his women. He likes to pursue them, conquer them, and when he is done, he leaves for the next game. It is a hunt. He lives for it, for the fact that women are more important than the bread he eats, the air he breathes. Yet, everything goes wrong from the very beginning. I saw that there is a growing change in Giovanni's own perspective.

In different literary examples on Giovanni, or Juan, he is written as this raping murderer. The lowest of the lows in human behavior. I couldn't portray him like that. Simply being that I don't really know how to tap into my own resources of character development. I would be lying if I say that I can really put myself into that shoes.

I wanted to do something different in a context of the story. He is opening people's mind, well actually women's, to a different light. One that is not acceptable in a stuffy class system, not acceptable in what society would call "decency". He is, in his own mind, doing the right thing for the world. Liberating people. Now of course, by "loving" many women, he feels that he is sharing this huge love that he has, which is not the most common way of seeing how a relationship should be. But if you got it then why not use it. I see my Giovanni as more smooth seducer, no need to use force, if in need of force he will use it but with women he can charm them, lure them, or convince them by his class, power, charm, charisma, money, or of course his strongest suit, sex.

So I thought, if I portray him as not-so-conventional, I will have to go for the route of being the most gentleman known to the society. Polite, treat people with utmost respect, never had to seduce women by force, or even had to harm or kill anyone to achieve his goal. I felt that that would bring a totally new meaning to the very opening scene. Where he happens to end up killing the father of a woman he just try to conquer. The director thought this very interesting because it is different from the norm. He refuse to fight him because it is not respectful, yet the battle begins. He gets overpowered by this old man and ends up shooting him. Not in the nasty, "stabbing in a back" kind of way but it was either himself or the old man. He had to go to his final solution, kill or be killed. This affects him deeply. The story from then on spirals down each scene by scene. He is stunned with the fact that he had to "kill" someone to get out of a tight spot. Yeah, maybe twist some arms and sneak away with his cunning skill but never to imagine that he will have to pull out a gun and shoot someone down to his dying breath. As the show goes on the life style he leads finally begin to catch up with him. Things start to get out of hand, mostly in his mind. I think he doubts about it himself, is it wrong what I'm doing? No it can't be. I know I am right, this is what I am suppose to be doing. But his action begins to change. He is forced to be more aggressive. He is not afraid of doing so anymore, he killed someone already. Yes, it is not gentleman like to beat someone down but if it needs to be then why hesitate. His ego, his courage(or is it just his ego) drives him.

In the second act, he beats the living hell out of Masetto. He is like a mad-man. Something that shows the audience that he has changed since the beginning. He might be going crazy. At the end, it's not really the ghost of commendatore that brings him to his end. The "Hell" that opera refers to exist in this world. The "Hell" Giovanni sees, is his life without women. And that collapses him, literary. He can't be alone, yet he will never settle with just one person. The death, in our version, is caused by heart attack. A massive stroke. I think it's a fitting end to his life. Well, also the fact that the director didn't really wanted to do all the supernatural ordeal that happens in the show. The commendatore's statue and him talking, coming to dinner are mostly Giovanni and Leporello's figment of imagination. Do with it what you will. But they have experienced something out of the norm that day. They are both paranoid for the fact that they were pushed to the limits. It's fear that truly brings Giovanni down to his final breath.

I thought to share what I have in mind of this role, to the best of my literal ability.

Now, if that is all I have to worry about then this show is a piece of cake. Unfortunately we have been having some misfortune in other aspects of the production. Well, the main concern that we have right now is the set. We came upon this understanding that this wonderfully elaborate set that our director concocted has been the vain of our existence. The people who were supposed to build it has pretty much quit. So, our Masetto kindly offered to finish the task. Well, we realized tonight that it is much bigger fish to fry then I myself imagined. Fortunately we had some great help and some last minute ideas. Hopefully we can bring our director's vision to reality but we have much work to do about that. Other things, compare to the set business, that I thought was a mess now seems like a joke. In fact, despite what we have been going through, this show is coming along so greatly that I know it will be a great show. Thank God we have a wonderful cast, very talented and each one of us bring new and fresh ideas to the show. I'm glad to be a part of it.

So, we have a week until our opening(yikes!). Hopefully we will finish the set so there is something on stage... I know we will, just a bit stressful I guess. I can't imagine what's going on our director's mind, I know he must be frustrated. For those who will get to come, I hope you will enjoy this production of Don Giovanni. Maybe you will see something that's little different from the conventional portrayal of this opera. As for myself, I have got to get some rest so I can help out building this set, oh yeah, and rehearse too!


American Opera Group presents:
Don Giovanni
by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
At Oak Park Arts Center(same place as Hemingway Museum)
200 N. Oak Park Ave.
Oak Park, IL
May 13th and 20th at 5:00pm
May 18th at 7:30pm
for more information, cast bios etc., please visit:
www.americanoperagroup.org