# Don Giovanni - Peter Sellars



## Cypress (Dec 19, 2014)

I am new to opera and loaned out a DVD of Don Giovanni from my public library. I didn't read carefully the synopsis and production notes until I checked it out. The production was by Peter Sellars 1989. It is set in Harlem and a very bleak, inner city, ugly production. The casting of Don Giovanni and Leporello was very confusing. The performers are Eugene and Herbert Perry. They are brothers and almost twins. I had trouble sorting out which was which at times during the opera.

Nevertheless, I agree with other posters here who have said Don Giovanni is the best of the Mozart- daPonte collaborations. I have seen Le Nozze di Figaro and Cosi Fan Tutte. I loved Cosi Fan Tutte right away but was captivated by the story line of Don Giovanni. I avoided it as I did not care for the subject matter. But, now I will take it out again through library loan to watch a different production. Perhaps a more traditionally staged production. 

All three of these operas have helped me start to understand what opera is all about. The story and struggles of human relationships. I think I turned a corner with Don Giovanni.


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## nina foresti (Mar 11, 2014)

You just got bitten by the Eurotrash bug.


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

I wonder what the point was of casting lookalikes as the Don and Leperello. You may also like Calixto Bieito's Don, and Peter Brook's.


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## GioCar (Oct 30, 2013)

nina foresti said:


> You just got bitten by the Eurotrash bug.


But Peter Sellars is from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania...


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## The nose (Jan 14, 2014)

Cypress said:


> The performers are Eugene and Herbert Perry. They are brothers and almost twins.


They are twins and the idea of Sellars was to make understandable the exchange between the characters of Don Giovanni and Leporello, which is stupid because it takes away the fun of those scenes and he replace it with a lot of confusion. But i kind of like the zombie Commendatore statue


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## DonAlfonso (Oct 4, 2014)

The nose said:


> They are twins and the idea of Sellars was to make understandable the exchange between the characters of Don Giovanni and Leporello, which is stupid because it takes away the fun of those scenes and he replace it with a lot of confusion. But i kind of like the zombie Commendatore statue


Someone should cast twins for the roles of Rosina and Susanna in Le Nozze di Figaro then we'd have genuine confusion in the last act.
Or for Dorabella and Fiordiligi - delicious!


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## DavidA (Dec 14, 2012)

Mandryka said:


> I wonder what the point was of casting lookalikes as the Don and Leperello. You may also like Calixto Bieito's Don, and Peter Brook's.


I found Brook's production most disappointing when I saw it!


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## DavidA (Dec 14, 2012)

I must confess all these trash productions make me glad I don't spend a fortune actually going to the opera house to see the rubbish. The last Giovanni I saw was from ROH and it was rubbish. Thankfully I only paid the price of a cinema ticket in a live broadcast. The guy I talked to afterwards had one word for it - "Crap!"


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## Cypress (Dec 19, 2014)

I appreciate the replies. Can someone recommend a production that they enjoyed that might be available through Public Library Loan. Or, perhaps to buy?


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## Giordano (Aug 10, 2014)

The film version was enjoyable when I watched it, many years ago.

Don Giovanni (1979)
Director - Joseph Losey
Conductor - Lorin Maazel

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0079063/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Giovanni_(1979_film)


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