A revolutionary Don Giovanni
Teodor Currentzis strips away years of tradition, says Anthony Pryer
MOZART
Don Giovanni
Dimitris Tiliakos, Vito Priante, Mika Kares, Myrtò Papatanasiu, Kenneth Tarver, Karina Gauvin, Guido Loconsolo, Christina Gansch; Musicaeterna Choir; Musicaeterna/teodor Currentzis
Sony 88985316032 150:10 mins (3 discs)
This version of Don Giovanni by the Greek conductor Teodor Currentzis, now based in Perm in Russia, strips away many of our distorting performance habits, and the result is refreshing, revelatory and unsettling. There is no trace of 19th-century vocal assertiveness, nor fear of embellishment.
Zerlina’s ornamentation in ‘Vendrai carino’ – sung by soprano Christina Gansch – is, for instance, spectacular. Currentzis’s dynamics are scaled right down – there is a lot of piano in Mozart’s scores.
On the other hand Teodor Currentzis does pander a little to our modern notions of musical excitement. Certain items are over-fast (a brisk ‘Batti Batti’ can hardly be an entreaty), the continuo accompaniments are ‘sexed up’: a nice little jig now prefaces the Zerlina/leporello duet ‘Restati quà’, and the orchestra is kept at modern strength of around 60 players – Mozart had about 30 for Don Giovanni in Prague in 1787.
The singers are very good. Dimitris Tiliakos is a dramatic Don – the sudden minor-key passage in ‘Fin ch’han dal vino’ gets very dark – Vito Priante (Leporello) can act with his voice, Mika Kares (the Commendatore) is stentorian and implacable, and Guido Loconsolo (Masetto) is vocally nimble and petulant as required. Myrtò Papatanasiu (Donna Anna) is movingly poised and fluent in her slightly archaic aria ‘Non mi dir’, and Kenneth Tarver has great gifts of lyricism. Elvira is not an easy role but Karina Gauvin has it fully under control and her roulades in the quartet ‘Non ti fidar’ are ravishing. Do not expect a familiar ‘warm bath’ experience here; it offers an invigorating shower of fresh new insights.
Currentzis conducts a revelatory and unsettling performance