Pittsburgh in the Round: A large crowd at the Benedum last night got an equally large bang for its buck in a highly entertaining performance of Mozart’s perennial Don Giovanni – this time dressed in Krystine McIntyre’s snappy “film noir” production that kept the old classic moving at a fast and fun clip. Some of the music was missing, but such cuts are common, and even in Mozart’s lifetime arias were added or dropped to suit the talents of the cast on hand, and the concluding “moral” ensemble has come and gone through the centuries since the opera’s 1787 premiere.
2 comments:
I saw this production last night at the Benedum center, and it was the first opera I had ever seen. I can’t speak to the reviewers comments on the music, because I don’t know anything about that, but I do disagree a bit with the praise of the set and color scheme. The goal was to achieve a 1950’s film noir look, but it just made everything bland. The look was achieved, but at the cost of the set and costumes captivating the audience. The use of light was really interesting with some awesome shadows being created by sidelight. There were also street light practicals that I liked, but the lighting was also devoid of color so as to match the costumes and set. The set treatment looked good and I agree that their use of the balconies was good considering that there were two main buildings with a door that didn’t change with the rest of the set, but they were able to achieve many different locations. The subtitles were also really helpful for understanding the show.
I have only seen one opera previously. The opera was in San Diego and it was Carmen. I enjoyed it a lot and appreciated the work but I am still not quite sure if I enjoy opera, at least as much as theater. I hope I can go see Don Giovanni at The Benedum sometime soon. Reading about it as a design and production student, the take on this classic opera is very interesting with the film noir "look". Deciding to have a production compromising of black and white and no color is definitely a big choice to make. That limits the set designer, costume designer, and lighting designer to create their designs within this world. That being said, I think it would be a really fun challenge. I know as a lighting designer, other than color, you have texture and intensity to work with. I am very curious to see what this opera is like design wise within this black and white world.
-Pablo Anton
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