When Kasper Holten’s production of Don Giovanni was first staged at the Royal Opera in 2014, I disliked it intensely, even more than I have disliked most of his other productions, or for that matter most productions of Don Giovanni. I missed the first revival, but when I saw it this time round my reactions were more complex, though I still think there is a lot wrong with it. In the meantime, I have watched the 2014 production on Blu-ray. Holten and Es Devlin the set designer give a commentary throughout, which at least helped me to understand what was intended, even if it didn’t convince me that most of the producer’s ideas are helpful or even realisable.
Holten’s key idea is that Giovanni, for all his ebullience, energy, charm and erotic power, is desperately miserable, so much so that by the time we arrive at the Supper scene he is mad, wholly divorced from any awareness of the existence of anyone else, so that the Stone Guest is a figment of his crazed mind, and the hell to which he seems to be dragged down by devils is his total loss of contact with reality. Hence during this scene, Leporello, far from stealing his master’s snacks, is sobbing uncontrollably — he would be, since according to Holten he is in love with Giovanni. This is an interesting interpretation, even if it is impossible to enact it onstage in such a way that we grasp it. After all, both Donna Elvira and Leporello hear the knocking of the Stone Guest and scream with fear.
There are moments in which the view of Giovanni as lonely and lacking are effective. For instance, the scene early in Act Two in which Masetto is beaten up and Zerlina comes looking for him and comforts him in the moving aria ‘Vedrai carino’ is a revelation in this production.
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