Opera takes its audiences to other worlds, and they are usually long ago or far away: the courts of medieval kings, imperial Japan, Hades.
America of the 1950s isn’t exactly hell (unless you were a woman who wanted a career or, perhaps, a member of a mminority), and it isn’t as remote as the surroundings we typically see in the opera house. It was just a half century ago, the age of leather jackets and Formica, and it was right down the street.
So it’s jarring to see an opera like “Don Giovanni,” originally set in the 17th-century Spanish countryside, updated to such a recent environment, as it is with the production now on stage from Opera Colorado. But it’s also a lot of fun.
This version of Mozart’s popular opera has the Don riding around in a little red sports car and driving a motorcycle. He wears jeans and a white T-shirt, carries a switchblade. If the original lead character slinked around, seducing women like a snake, this one struts and pounces on whatever female he wants, like a thug.
Christopher Magiera, who sings the lead role, makes the most of it. He lets his Don get a little rough, but keeps him real. If the setting is less exotic, more cinematic, the character has to be more relatable. Magiera knows when to tone it down, in the way a stage actor adjusts his character for the screen. There are times the guy almost seems vulnerable.
Director Kevin Newbury puts it all together this way: He makes his performers strike poses like movie stars, they look and sing as if they’re ready for their close-ups.
The production is less successful when it comes to the action, an important part of this story about a rascal who commits a murder and violates all the rules of love. The change of time period requires the same sort of advanced authenticity, or at least some of it, and it never gets there.
There’s a murder, but it’s not violent enough for such a familiar century. The sex is too innocent. The Don’s long-suffering butler, Leporello, is more of a sitcom sidekick than an actual servant. When the plot calls for Don Giovanni to truly abuse him at the end, the production lacks a frame for it.
The update will no doubt be the subject of debate during car rides home from the Ellie Caulkins Opera House. Some will like it; some will be puzzled.
But there’s no reason not to play around with “Don Giovanni.” The opera always ranks in the annual top 10 of works produced internationally. Audiences know the plot so well it doesn’t have to be explained. They can fill in the psychic gaps of time and social manner. It’s like one of those familiar jazz standards: Listeners are looking for nuance.
In this case, it’s a swell excuse to link the ages. A cad is a cad, and a killer must meet his own demise. That this Don dies more from his car overheating than the house fire we expect is just fine. If that stops you short, the voices of Melody Moore, as the doomed and dumb Donna Elvira, and Jonathan Boyd, as the sap of a fiancé Don Ottavio, will get you through the night.
So will the orchestra, conducted with unrelenting energy by Ari Pelto. This is a long session of opera, a marathon for those in the pit and in the seats. But Mozart’s music, well-played, always saves the day.
Ray Mark Rinaldi: 303-954-1540, rrinaldi@denverpost.com or twitter.com/rayrinaldi
Don Giovanni Opera Colorado presents Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s work, with a libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte, at 7:30 p.m. Friday; 2 p.m. Sunday. Ellie Caulkins Opera House, 14th and Curtis streets in the Denver Performing Arts Complex. $20-$165. 303-468-2030 or operacolorado.org.
