Another Evening at Santa Fe

Back to August 27: Don Giovanni was, as usual, magnificent. Opera productions vary, so it was fascinating to see the Santa Fe Opera's staging. That is, how they staged it this year. It was much different from their last production of the same opera.

The final act of Don Giovanni involves the entrance of a statue--the man of stone--jokingly invited to dinner by Giovanni. I’ve seen this staged in several ways, most often with a large statue that appears from behind and comes forward. Or it might even be a large backdrop.

Opera staging is full of surprises. The stage at Santa Fe appeared to be blocked by other props, so that as the time approached, the possibility of such an entrance dimmed. Well, the statue (a man in a stoney-looking costume) entered from stage-front-left. Giovanni was by then eating dinner served by Leporello (who screamed and hid) at the opposite end of a long dining table. The statue at one point went offstage to immediately reenter from the opposite side (as a different man in an identical costume, I suppose) and then reappeared inside one of the props (likenesses of large cabinets) that were still there. Emerging from there, the statue sang the rest of his piece, and when it came time for the unrepentant don to go to Hell for his deeds, the cabinets all opened up and a bright light shone forth from each---particularly the center one, which was placed atop a trap door in the stage and grew to about three times its height. Into it lept Giovanni, last seen descending through the stage to the legendary place of eternal punishment, from which bright white light shone.

Last seen, that is, until the curtain calls, at which time Giovanni came onstage to thunderous applause for a job very well done. Of the two very different operas we’d just seen, Patty preferred La Traviata while I preferred, ever so slightly, Don Giovanni. It was a hard choice. Mediocracy is not part of the Santa Fe Opera experience. We're going to see La Traviata again this fall, in a University of Colorado production in Boulder.