When I read the first reviews on this year's Don Giovanni - after having been to the public final rehearsal ("Öffentliche Generalprobe") last Friday - I thought I had been to a different performance. The first review that more or less reflected my impression was the one in Die Presse.
I did not get all the subtleties of the staging because, having lost my contact lenses, I was sat on the second tier. This was possibly a good thing: I could not see all the drug use and the re-interpretation of the plot; however, I have to say that from my myopic perspective setting the entire piece in a forest was quite fitting even though the idea did not hold through to the end. I was surprised to find that Sinkovicz (the Presse's music critic) was the first one to note the exquisite performance of the woodwinds. Admittedly, De Billy's interpretation and tempi might have been on the light-hearted side, but I did not find it dull - as many critics did -, especially in the prelude which had some genuine Mozartian "drive" - something that tends to get lost in all too earnest interpretations. As to the singers, I did not expect Annette Dasch to get such reserved reviews - she may have had a bad day; on Friday she was great - whereas Zerlina (Ekaterina Siurina) must have been better at the Première than on Friday when I was a bit irritated by here lagging behind at several points and her proneness to blurring ornaments. As to the others, I concur with the (mostly positive) reviews.
One more word on the staging: While I get extremely angry when I feel that a director lacks the necessary respect for a masterpiece, putting himself on stage rather than the piece in question, I do not believe that this was the case here. It was a genuine and honest new approach to this opera - whether it worked out is another question; in my opinion, it did in the first part.
Nevertheless, this week-end's real highlight was the first edition of "Schubert Szenen" with an exquisite performance of Olivier Messiaen's Quatuor pour la fin du temps by Carolin Widmann, Nicolas Altstaedt, Jörg Widmann and Alexander Lonquic. They refrained from over-interpretation letting the music speak for itself as humble servants of this great master, making for a great conclusion to my Salzburg week-end.
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Keywords/tags: Salzburg Salzburg Festival Salzburger Festspiele 2008 Mozart Messiaen Don Giovanni Quatuor pour la fin du temps
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